At once he ran for the battle-line of the assailing force, facing its sharpest fire, while also fired at by his rebel comrades who divined the object of his move; and he reached the Union ranks unharmed. A PRISONER AMONG FRIENDS.--GOOD NEWS FOR HOME. Once more under the old flag, Manning told his strange story to the commander before whom he was taken; but it is not to be wondered at that it was discredited, in the absence of proof. He was deemed a rebel prisoner, and as such was sent to the military prison at Alton, Illinois. Sending forward his complaint to his regiment, he was, after a few weeks' delay, ordered released by direct command from the War Department. It was then--for he would not write to his dear ones while a prisoner at Alton--that he sent his first letter home. The simple message,-- "ST. LOUIS, MO. March 10, 1865. "MY DEAR LOVED ONES,-- "I still live, and you shall hear from me soon. "HENRY H. MANNING." written on a sheet of "Christian Commission" paper, with the appropriate printed motto, "Let it hasten to those who wait for tidings,"--came as a voice from the grave to those who had mourned him, and gave to them glad and grateful hearts; for now their dead was alive again, and their lost was found. AGAIN WITH HIS REGIMENT.--MERITED PROMOTION. Subjected, on his way to his regiment, to those vexatious arrests and detentions to which an enlisted man absent from his command without a "descriptive list" was liable, in war time, Manning at length rejoined his comrades of the Twenty-fourth, at Richmond, Va., where the regiment was doing provost duty, about the middle of April, 1865. The ten months intervening since he left his command, not a dozen miles from where he now rejoined it, had been teeming ones to the gallant and war-worn battalion in its varied campaigning, as well as to himself within the enemy's lines. He missed many a comrade who had fallen in the fight while he suffered in the hands of the foe. But they were hearty greetings that passed between those who at last thus met in safety and dear-bought peace. The following regimental order shows something of the estimate put on his services by his immediate commander:-- HEADQUARTERS 24th Mass. Vol. Inf. RICHMOND, VA., April 22, 1865. SPECIAL ORDER No. 34. Corporal H. H. Manning, Co. G, is hereby promoted to be sergeant in the same company, as a special commendation for the services rendered by him. Captured within the lines of the enemy while on secret service, and arraigned for trial as a spy, Sergeant Manning passed through a series of dangerous adventures, sufficient to shake the firmest resolution. Throughout his captivity he displayed a courage and constancy to duty which deserve a greater reward than his commanding officer has power to bestow.