He had, I recollect, a fine portly figure, and a Roman countenance, expressing firmness and courage; his bright eye and his mouth, somewhat compressed, showed a strong character, united with a pleasant disposition. He had a soldierly bearing, a graceful deportment; dignified, and of the Old School in manners, his whole appearance was an index of his generous and noble heart.

JOSEPH FISKE was born in Lexington, Massachusetts, December 24, 1752. He died September 25, 1837. Having studied medicine and begun its practice, he was led by his patriotic spirit to accept the commission of surgeon's mate in Vose's Regiment, in 1777. He was made surgeon, April 17, 1779, and served in the army seven years. He was present at the surrender of Burgoyne in 1777, and of Cornwallis in 1781. He was frequently at my father's house, and was very agreeable. I drank in greedily his accounts, given to my grandfather, - who was with him in the company of Captain Parker, April 19, 1775,- of his own experiences as a surgeon in the War of the Revolution. It was a time when all shared in common privations. General Washington would sit down with his highest officers to a small piece of beef, with a few potatoes and some hard bread. The veteran told us of sitting with officers at a plank table in the camp, where a single dish of wood or pewter sufficed for a mess; a horn spoon, and a horn tumbler were passed round, and the knife was

carried in the pocket; sugar, tea, and coffee were unknown luxuries, and if perchance a ration of rum was given out this was in the dead of winter the question would be raised, "Shall we drink it, or shall we put it in our shoes to keep our feet from freezing?"

During the pursuit of Cornwallis the soldiers had not decent clothing; and an old cloak of one of the generals, they having not a blanket left, was nearly the whole winter shared with two other officers. Dr. Fiske would corroborate, in my hearing, accounts of the need of medicine and comforts for the wounded. Wine, spirits, and even the ordinary medicines could not be procured; and after searching miles upon miles nothing of the kind could be found but small portions of snakeroot. And as for bandages, the case was still worse, if possible; nothing could be done for their supply but to cut up a tent found on the field.

He related mirthful, no less than sad reminiscences of the war, and used to tell anecdotes of this kind of one Captain Houdin. This French officer lived to see the National Government established, and asked an office of General Knox, then Secretary of War. " Captain," said the Secretary, "you have abused the new government, and how can you ask office under it?" "Oh," said the Captain, 'I only did it because that was popular; I did n't mean anything by it." When Washington was told this anecdote he gave a hearty laugh, a very rare thing for him. The Captain succeeded at last, it seems, in getting an office.

Dr. Fiske was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He married, July 31, 1794, Elizabeth Stone, born November 13, 1770, who died March 6, 1849, aged 78. They had six children, of whom the oldest son, Joseph, born in Lexington, Massachusetts, February 9, 1797, succeeded his father in the Cincinnati Society in 1839. He was a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He died in his native place, May 4, 1860.

CAPTAIN BENJAMIN GOULD was born in Topsfield, Massachusetts, in 1751; He died in Newburyport in 1841, at the age of ninety. At this place I met and conversed with him in 1839. His military spirit and his decided patriotism were shown throughout the war. He was an ensign in Little's Regiment, and wounded April 19, 1775. He was in the Continental army, took part in the battles of Bennington, Stillwater, and Saratoga, and served under Lafayette in Rhode Island; was at West Point at the time of Arnold's treason, and was one of the first to detect that dark crime. What joy it must have given this veteran of fourscore and three years to meet the nation's guest on his visit to Newburyport in 1825. Here, too, it was that Daniel Foster, who served in Lafayette's corps of light infantry, met, on that occasion, sword in hand, his old commander. "I am proud to see you," said the old hero, "once more on American soil." Lafayette embraced him and replied, "I look upon you as one of my own family."