that was virtually in his possession, as he only needed a little more daylight to complete his victory. The next morning all the Rebels who were not prisoners had vanished like the air, and our men could quietly enjoy the view of the territory of four States to be had from this great eminence. Our prisoners here will number at least 2,000, and the capture of arms was more than proportionate. The works on the mountain are not very artistic, nor are they extensive, but they were sufficient for any purpose the Rebels seem to have had in holding the position. "The climbing of Lookout, if it were only by a pleasure party, would necessarily be attended by amusing and stirring incidents; and though Osterhaus's men believed they were engaged in a hazardous and apparently foolhardy movement, they joked and laughed at one another all the way up. Every fall was the signal for a shout of 'grab a root,' in allusion to a camp story about a certain colonel who issued that novel command to his regiment just as he lost his footing while making a rather inglorious retreat down a hill, on an occasion not now to be mentioned. One man, a Sergeant-Major in one of the Missouri regiments, did 'grab a root' to swing himself round a sharp and protecting ledge of rocks in the way of his ascent. The root, however, proved rotten, or was not deeply imbedded in the ground, and broke just at the critical moment. The sergeant executed an involuntary somersault or two, and alighted on his feet unhurt. His regiment witnessed the acrobatic feat extraordinary, and set up such a shout of applause and laughter as, I have no doubt, made the butternuts quake in their boots.