At nine o’clock on the following morning, the gunboat dropped her anchor off Harrison’s Landing. Somers, who had slept for several hours, was more comfortable, though he was still in a deplorable condition. With the kindly assistance of his friends, he was landed at the pier, and conveyed in an ambulance to the headquarters of the division. Leaning on the arm of De Banyan, he entered the tent of the general.
“Captain Somers!” exclaimed the general. “I had given you up for lost. Why, you have grown ten years older in five days!”
“I have the honor to make my report, general,” said Somers with a faint smile.
“Your report? Good! After losing you, I did not dare to send another officer upon such a perilous errand. But, Captain Somers, you are all used up,” added the general, with a glance filled with sympathy—a look which Somers regarded as an adequate reward for all he had suffered; for to have that man feel an interest in him was better in his estimation than the plaudits of the multitude. “What is the matter with your arm?”
“I was shot at Petersburg,” replied Somers.
“Well, well, captain, you must go to the hospital: and Captain—what’s-his-name——”
“Captain de Banyan, at your service,” promptly responded Somers’s faithful friend.
“Captain de Banyan shall report for you, and tell me all about this scrape,” added the general. “Get into your carriage, Captain Somers, and go to the hospital. I will call and see you to-day or to-morrow.”
“Thank you, general.”
Captain de Banyan assisted him into the ambulance; and, when he had placed him in the care of the surgeon, he returned to headquarters to tell the marvelous story of their capture by the rebels, and their escape from Petersburg. It is quite likely that he did not add his experience in Tennessee; but when the general called on Somers at the hospital the next morning, the latter supplied all that had been withheld. The general had a higher regard for the captain’s patriotism than ever before, for he had voluntarily renounced the ranks of the rebellion, and placed himself on the side of his country. There was nothing against him; on the contrary, his conduct had been in the highest degree praiseworthy. But Captain de Banyan was sensitive on this point; and the general readily promised to conceal what the brave fellow regarded as a stain upon his character.