professional abilities were called into activity on the Board of Engineers which projected our extended line of lake-defences and sea-coast fortifications. These works, most of which were planned by himself, are the enduring monuments to his memory. In the war with Mexico, General Scott summoned his early companion-in-arms to aid him in the siege of Vera Cruz, where, for his 'gallant and meritorious conduct,' General Totten was breveted a brigadiergeneral. For the past twenty-six years, he has been at the head of the Engineer Department, administering, with untiring devotion, spotless integrity, and signal ability, the varied duties, the financial responsibilities, and the professional labors of that arm of service, so essential to our national defence.

"In addition to General Totten's multiplied military avocations, he was an active member of the Light-House Board, from its organization in 1852; a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, from its establishment by Congress in 1846; a corporator of the National Academy of Sciences, created in 1863; one of the Harbor Commissioners for the cities of New York and Boston; and a member of many scientific associations.

"Distinguished for urbanity of manner, genial social qualities, and that great moral excellence which adorns the Christian soldier and gentleman, he has left behind an exalted reputation worthy the emulation of his brother officers, and which his surviving children may well regard as a priceless legacy.

"As a tribute to his memory, the officers of the Corps of Engineers and Military Academy will wear the prescribed badge of mourning for thirty days, and the day after the reception of this order at the Military Academy, halfhour guns will be fired there from sunrise to sunset, and the national flag be displayed at half-mast.

"By order of the Secretary of War:

"E. D. TOWNSEND,

"Assistant Adjutant-General.”

We are sorry to record the death of Commodore William D. Porter, of the Navy. He was worn out by hard service, and thus, on the 1st of May, he gave up his life for his country, as truly as if he had fallen in battle on that day.

The following stirring and patriotic poem has been copied in many newspapers; but it is worthy of a permanent place in our literature. To give it a more secure resting-place than it has yet found, we present it to our readers:

Ere your heritage be wasted!" said the quick alarming drum.

"Let me of my heart take counsel:

War is not of Life the sum:

Who shall stay and reap the harvest

When the autumn days shall come?"

But the drum

Echoed, "Come!

Death shall reap the braver harvest!" said the solemn-sounding drum.

You must do the sum to prove it!" said the Yankee answering drum.

"What if, 'mid the cannons' thunder,

Whistling shot, and bursting bomb,

When my brothers fall around me,

Should my heart grow cold and numb?"
But the drum

Answer'd, "Come!

Better there in death united than in life a recreant! Come!"

Thus they answer'd,-hoping, fearing,-
Some in faith, and doubting some,-

Till a trumpet voice, proclaiming,

Said, "My chosen people, come!"
Then the drum,

Lo! was dumb,

For the great heart of the nation, throbbing, answer'd, "Lord, we come!"

We are pained to announce the death of Captain Joseph P. Ash, 5th United States Regular Cavalry, who was killed in the great battle near Spottsylvania, Virginia, on the 8th of May.

This young officer was born and educated in Philadelphia, and, at the commencement of the present war, was appointed a lieutenant in the Regular Army. An enthusiast in the cause of his country, fearless of all danger, and a splendid horseman, he soon showed himself a thorough, active, and capable cavalry leader. His military record is brilliant. In many battles he has led his men into the thickest of the fray, and at Warrenton, Virginia, in September, 1862, in one of his dashing charges, routed the enemy, but fell, covered with wounds. It is only a few weeks since that the heart of the country was thrilled by his daring exploit, defeating Stuart's rebel cavalry and destroying his camp, ammunition, and wagons. A counterpart of the brave and lamented Reynolds, Captain Ash adds another to the list of noble Pennsylvania heroes and martyrs to this unholy rebellion.

FOREIGN AND INTERNATIONAL.

So intently are our eyes and hopes fixed upon the focal centres on the grand theatre of war at home, that we hardly have patience to turn them abroad to see how Europe is behaving.

The Danish question is, of course, of the first importance. The war continues, even while the Peace Conference opens its session. It was to have met in London in the middle of April. Meantime, the Prussians attack Duppeln with vigor, and with an evident determination to succeed. Repulsed in two attempts to storm the works, they undertake the siege, opening two parallels, and running boyaux up to the works. The Danes hold out for a while, and make war reprisals with their men-of-war upon Prussian vessels at the mouth of the Elbe; but at length, hard pressed by the Prussians' advance, they evacuate Dup

peln with the main body, after a vigorous Prussian attack, and retreat to the adjoining island of Alsen, thus virtually abandoning the continent. With Duppeln they lost eighty-three guns and three thousand prisoners. What next? The Peace Conference may yet do something: if not, look out for a general war, into which England-once the bellicose, but now the pacific-will be forced, whether she will or not. By the last accounts, the Danes have also evacuated Frederica and gone to Funen Island.

Apropos of England, the London "Times" discourses of the Monroe doctrine, and finds comfort in the fact that "the Federal Senate has refused to support this doctrine." But our chief purpose in bringing the "Times" upon the carpet is to quote a few words from the same article with reference to our present struggle:

"Such is the tenacity with which the people of the Northern States have clung to their idea of Union and empire, and such is the elasticity of the public mind at the first turn of fortune, that another month may perhaps leave the peace party with even more slender chances of ascendency than they seem to possess at present. A victory does more to encourage the Federals than half a dozen defeats to dishearten them; and if General Grant's operations against Richmond should be attended with even a partial success, this exhausting war may acquire a new impetus, and run its course as ruinously as before."

All true, except the last few words. If General Grant's operations succeed, there will be no new impetus of war; but we shall have PEACE, just as surely as we live. History teaches it; many of the rebels acknowledge it; the "Times" knows it. When we pray for Grant's success, it is equivalent to praying for a speedy peace.

And of Mexico, what? On the 10th of April, Maximilian was proclaimed emperor, at Miramar. The Mexican flag was displayed, and twenty-one guns fired as a grand imperial salute. On the 13th, he was to go to Rome for the Papal blessing; but he was again a little sick, and had to put off the anticipatory consecration for a few days. He resigns his claims to the Austrian throne for himself and his posterity, unconditionally, and is off to rule a people with whom he has nothing in the world to do. It is a dream, in the nineteenth century, the age of democratic liberty. The awaking must soon come.

In the "chronique" of the "Revue des Deux Mondes" for the 1st of February, we find a decided dissent to the Emperor's actions with regard to Mexico. It has special reference to the able pamphlets of Thiers on the general subject. "Most surely," says the editor, “had M. Thiers been in the Chamber in 1861 and 1862, he could have enlightened at once the country and the government upon the inevitable consequences of the Mexican expedition; he could have shown, from the beginning, that we had no right to expect the concurrence of England and Spain; that if we wished to push the enterprise so far as to realize a change of government, we should remain alone; that, remaining alone, we should be obliged to make an effort ruinous to our finances, in order to obtain military results which could not assure permanent political results." And again: The whole world agrees that France seeks nothing now in Mexico but an honorable pretext to get out of it. If, in exchange for the precarious throne which we have

procured for him, the Archduke Maximilian will be good enough to furnish us this pretext, the two parties will be quits: the archduke can ask nothing more of us, and we shall only owe him our good wishes for his success."

To this "precarious throne," with such opinions of thoughtful men, Maximilian goes, like a moth to his candle. Austria permits him to recruit there six thousand men for his imperial army, and three hundred for his navy: and here we stay the record, until he comes to his throne.

CORRESPONDENCE.

A VOICE FROM STATE TENNESSEE.

EDITORUNITED STATES SERVICE MAGAZINE:"

DEAR SIR:-Having learned from a friend of mine that you will be glad to receive a statement with reference to the condition and the wants of East Tennessee, I beg leave to remit to you a few statements on that subject.

The rebellion found me pleasantly situated on a farm near Knoxville, and more or less engaged in missionary labors. After the outbreak of the rebellion I endeavored for more than a year to remain in East Tennessee, hoping from day to day that the troops of the United States would come to our relief. At last I had to flee. At that time, I published my "Testimony" with regard to the fearful wrong which the South has committed in rebelling against the Government of the United States, and with reference to the loyalty and the sufferings of East Tennessee. Since that time more than two years have passed away. During a portion of this time large armies of the Confederates have been quartered in East Tennessee; and the cruelties of which I witnessed the beginning have been carried to an extent which almost surpasses belief. In saying that during this whole period of time Union citizens have been arrested without warrant for alleged military offences, imprisoned at the pleasure of petty military tyrants in violation of all law, forced to take oaths against their consciences and in derogation of their allegiance to the United States; that they have been taxed with illegal costs to support corrupt officials; that their property has been seized for public and individual uses; that their fields have been laid waste; that, in some instances, houses have been burned over the heads of families as a punishment of their loyalty; and that, in many others, men have been butchered by a lawless soldiery, or officially murdered by a military court, is but a touching summary, such as the leading men of East Tennessee have given in their address to the President of the United States. Touching as it is, it cannot set before your readers the heart-rending woe which fills a vast portion of the truest and most devoted Union men, women, and children of that mountain-region. Let your readers remember that twenty-five thousand of the men able to work are in the army of the United States; that during more than two years the blockade of the ports of the South, so disastrous to the Confederacy, has embraced also these devoted friends of the Union, whose lot was cast in the very midst of the rebellion; that since the occupation of the country by the United States troops, the railroad to Nashville has not always been in running order; that the troops coming through Cumberland Gap could not bring supplies a distance of one hundred and eighty miles; that they found the people of East Tennessee with a reduced crop, produced in a great part by women and children; that these people, overflowing with gratitude, gave up their scanty stocks without seeming to count the cost or consider the probability of payment; that, since the advent and the defeat of Longstreet, the Union and the Confederate armies have in turn traversed the country and exhausted its remaining resources:

and I ask whether we have reason to be astonished that at the present moment the cry of the starving is going up from the mountains and valleys of East Tennessee, and from refugee East Tennesseeans who have fled to Murfreesborough and to other places, or that, in some cases, that cry is hushed because starvation has done its work? Robbed of their horses, of their seed-corn, of their cattle and hogs, their fences destroyed, their farms the camping or the battle ground of the contending armies, what else could be the result? To bring about a different state of things, the people of East Tennessee ask for the completion of the railroad from Stanford to Knoxville. The Government has fed hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of the suffering East Tennesseeans; but it can do so no longer, because the only means of transportation-by the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad-hardly suffices to meet the wants of the army. One hundred and thirty miles of railroad, which can be constructed in the space of six months, will bring East Tennessee in easy communication with Louisville and Cincinnati. When I was the other day in Washington, and incidentally met a member of Congress with whom in past times I had been slightly acquainted, I spoke to him of the fact that this road would develop immensely the mineral resources of that region of country, from Stanford to far beyond Knoxville. "The Constitution," was the reply, "gives me no right to construct this road to develop the mineral resources of East Tennessee." I then dwelt on the fact that this road would relieve thousands of suffering men, women, and children. Again I was told that the Constitution does not give Congress the right to construct a railroad for such purposes. I then put its construction on the ground of military necessity, the army having been reduced to extraordinary straits for the want of that communication; and I was told, in reply, that he did not see why on that ground he should not vote for the construction of that road. Let it be done, then, on that ground, if it cannot be on any other. At the same time, I cannot forget that in this case, as in so many others, the necessities of the times God overrules for good. Every arm which is employed in constructing this road, in order to facilitate our military movements, is employed also in planting towns and villages in the mineral regions of East Tennessee, and in applying the immense water-power of that mountaindistrict to manufacturing purposes, and in preparing the way for the time when the native industry of the people, in conjunction with the opening of this communication with the North, shall soon restore to them a comparative state of comfort.

The generous efforts on the part of the North to relieve the people of East Tennessee furnish but another proof of the necessity of increasing the means of communication with that region of country. The report of the gentlemen who were sent from Philadelphia to be the bearers of help to the sufferers in East Tennessee testifies to that fact; and since that report has been written, the various relief associations which have been formed in the North have had to contend with this difficulty. In saying this, I would, however, not be understood to intimate that those efforts should cease. Far from it! A large portion of East Tennessee is held by the ene this very moment. same measure, as our army proceeds, and other portions of East Tennessee are occupied by if, a great number of families will be placed within our lines in an utterly helpless condition. Many of these, to escape starvation, will desire to be transferred to portions of our country where the difficulties of communication do not exist, and where help can reach them.

In the

In conclusion, permit me to beg pardon of you and of your readers in submitting to you and to them so imperfect a document on so interesting and im