Spread out before me is a copy of the muster-out roll of Co. H, 2d New York heavy artillery, organized at Carthage, N. Y., Oct. 14, 1861, mustered into United States service at Staten Island, Oct. 18, 1861, and disbanded at Hart’s Island, New York harbor, Oct. 10, 1865. When a regiment was mustered out of service each company was required to hand in a muster-out roll bearing the names of every man who had served in the organization and the particulars of his service were written opposite the name. The names were grouped under various headings of: “Present at Muster-out,” “Previously Discharged,” “Transferred,” “Deserted,” “Killed in Action,” “Died of Wounds,” “Died of Disease,” etc., etc. Almost anybody would be interested in looking over an old muster-out roll, but to the man who was a part of the organization, who knew its history from beginning to end and can read between the lines, so to speak, the story told is doubly interesting and in many respects a sad one. Such a reader is carried back to the war and is enabled to vividly recall its thrilling scenes. He knows who were the best soldiers, who stood in the front rank, who led in the assaults. Likewise he knows who were the skulkers and cowards, for it was an impossibility for a soldier to hide his weaknesses from his comrades. In scanning the remarks opposite of the names one is brought face to face with the past as in no other way. For instance: “Lieut. William H. Roff, wounded in a charge at Cold Harbor, June 6, 1864, leg amputated, died.” “Lieut. John Clapsaddle, disabled by wounds at Petersburg and discharged.” Another reminder of the desperate fighting at Cold Harbor is the name of an old schoolmate, “Henry C. Potter,” “wounded June 6,” “died Aug. 2, 1864.” Under the group of “killed in action,” I read “Roscoe Williamson, killed at Cold Harbor, June 6,” and I recall a bright, rosy cheeked young fellow that was a great favorite. “George H. Ormiston, taken prisoner at Reams Station, Aug. 25, 1864; died en route north April 9, 1865.” And one shudders as he thinks of the thousands that were literally starved to death in Andersonville and other southern prison pens. “Second Lieut. O. T. Bliss promoted to first lieutenant and transferred to Co. F,” recalls one of the bravest of the brave who enlisted as a bugler, exchanged his trumpet for a gun at Bull Run, was captured and later passed through all the various grades of rank from corporal to brevet major. “Sergt. Franklin B. Farr, mortally wounded at Round Fort, Va., April 7, 1865,” only two days before the surrender of Lee, and one thinks how sad to fall in the last battle of the war with victory and home in sight.