[77] A parting festival was held at the pastor's house, and many presents were brought in,— every religious denomination in town being represented in the gifts. A prayer-meeting took place in the Methodist church, the services being conducted by Mr. Fuller in connection with Rev. Mr. Hempstead, minister of that church. An army officer, who was present, spoke of the dangers to which he was about to return; and the two clergymen offered prayers for him. It was noted afterwards as remarkable, that this officer finally came back to his home uninjured, while both the ministers became chaplains, and gave up their lives, within a few days of each other, at Fredericksburg. Chaplain Fuller left Boston, with his regiment, August 17, 1861. Scarcely were they settled in camp, near Baltimore, when he entered with his wonted zeal upon his new labors. He writes as follows:—
Our encampment is hardly settled enough yet for definite arrangements to have been fully carried out. After this week, however, the arrangements are as follows: Sunday school at nine A. M.; attendance to be wholly voluntary. Preaching every Sabbath at five o'clock, P. M., the old hour at Camp Cameron, and the best hour of the day for the purpose. Prayer and conference meeting (when practicable) every day at about six and seven P. M.; attendance of course voluntary. These services will be fully attended. Even now, every night there are quiet circles for prayer and praise. Besides these services, there are Bibles and religious volumes to be distributed to the men, and books for singing God's praise. We find the ‘Army Melodies’ useful among us, and were not the writer one of the editors of the volume, he would say much of the necessity and usefulness of supplying religious and patriotic music and words to every regiment and every naval vessel, in place of the ribald songs so sadly common in the army and on shipboard. No more refining or religious instrumentality than music can be used.The position of an army chaplain is no easy one: the majority of clergymen fail in it. In a little world of the most accurate order, where every man's duties and position are absolutely prescribed, the chaplain alone has no definite
