be confirmed, and he eagerly waited for the announcement that Washington
had been captured by Johnston's victorious army.

Instead, came the dismal tidings from his only sister that her husband,
Captain Hunter, had been killed in the battle over which he had been
rejoicing. Then for some mysterious reason the Southern army did not
follow the Federals, who had left the field in such utter rout and panic.
It soon appeared that the contending forces were occupying much the same
positions as before. News of the second great uprising of the North
followed closely, and presaged anything but a speedy termination of the
conflict. Major Burgoyne was not a Hotspur, and he grew thoughtful and
depressed in spirit, although he sedulously concealed the fact from his
associates. The shadow of coming events began to fall upon him, and his
daughter gradually divined his lack of hopefulness. The days were already
sad and full of anxiety, for her husband was absent. He had scouted the
idea of the Yankees standing up before the impetuous onset of the Southern
soldiers, and his words had apparently proved true, yet even those
Northern cowards had killed one closely allied to her before they fled.
Remembering, therefore, her husband's headlong courage, what assurance of
his safety could she have although victory followed victory?

Major Burgoyne urged his widowed sister to leave her plantation in the
charge of an overseer and make her home with him. "You are too near the
probable theatre of military operations to be safe," he wrote, "and my
mind cannot rest till you are with us in this city which we are rapidly
making impregnable." The result was that she eventually became a member of
his family. Her stern, sad face added to the young wife's depression, for
the stricken woman had been rendered intensely bitter by her loss. Mary
was too gentle in nature to hate readily, yet wrathful gleams would be
emitted at times even from her blue eyes, as her aunt inveighed in her