"'Soldiers--I look around upon your familiar faces with a strange interest! To-morrow morning we will all go forth to battle--for need I tell you that your unworthy minister will march with you, invoking God's aid in the fight?--we will march forth to battle! Need I exhort you to fight the good fight, to fight for your homesteads, and for your wives and children? 'My friends, I might urge you to fight, by the galling memories of British wrong! Walton--I might tell you of your father butchered in the silence of midnight on the plains of Trenton; I might picture his grey hairs dabbled in blood; I might ring his death-shriek in your ears. Shelmire--I might tell you of a mother butchered, and a sister outraged--the lonely farm-house, the night assault, the roof in flames, the shouts of the troopers, as they despatch their victim, the cries for mercy, the pleadings of innocence for pity. I might paint this all again, in the terrible colors of the vivid reality, if I thought your courage needed such wild excitement. 'But I know you are strong in the might of the Lord. You will forth to battle on the morrow with light hearts and determined spirits, though the solemn duty--the duty of avenging the dead--may rest heavy on your souls. 'And in the hour of battle, when all around is darkness, lit by the lurid cannon glare and the piercing musket flash--when the wounded strew the ground, and the dead litter your path--then remember, soldiers, that God is with you. The eternal God fights for you--He rides on the battle cloud, He sweeps onward with the march of the hurricane charge--God, the Awful and the Infinite, fights for you, and you will triumph.' "Roused by this manly and pathetic appeal, a low murmur ran from man to man, as a heartfelt response; and the chieftains who were near the speaker, felt proud and happy in the command of such true hearts and tried blades. But darkness was enveloping all, and he hastened to conclude. "'They that take the sword shall perish by the sword.' 'You have taken the sword, but not in the spirit of wrong and ravage. You have taken the sword for your homes, for your wives, for your little ones. You have taken the sword for truth, for justice and right, and to you the promise is, Be of good cheer, for your foes have taken the sword in defiance of all that man holds dear, in blasphemy of God--they shall _perish by the sword_. 'And now, brethren and soldiers, I bid you all farewell. Many of us may fall in the fight of to-morrow--God rest the souls of the fallen; many of us may live to tell the story of the fight of to-morrow; and, in the memory of all, will ever rest and linger the quiet scene of this autumnal night.