the star-lit sky, they see the gleam of innumerable bayonets. "Who goes there?" one of the pickets in faltering accents cried, "his hair standing on end and his voice sticking in his throat." No answer but the solemn tread! Firing their guns in a perfect paroxysm of terror, the pickets precipitately fled toward town, shouting at the top of their voices: "The enemy are coming: the Secesh are upon us!” Rushing to the Court House, the bell peals out its wild alarm. The town is roused; men rush frantically from their houses, half-dressed, followed by women, with disheveled hair and scanty attire, moaning as if the day of judgment had come, and begging their husbands and sons not to go to war. That innumerable band, the "Home Guard," assembled tumultuously in front of the Court House, and the line having been hurriedly formed, amid the tears, and against the entreaties of the women, take up their line of march to the bridge, resolved to do or die. They near the fated spot; and as they do so, their pace decreases, and at last comes to a dead halt-fear and anxiety depicted on every countenance. What brave spirit dare lead the attack? They listened. No sound was heard save the sighing of the wind among the trees, and the dashing of the waters of the Monongahela against the abutments of the bridge. Some masked battery or ambuscade, they are sure, will open upon them. Who dare reconnoiter? At last, an old man, of Falstaffian proportions, with fair round belly, with good capon lined, like him of Shakspeare, dares the venture. A lantern is procured. He nears the bridge. He hears nothing save the heavy breathing of what appears to him, like one in agony. Gathering fresh courage, he proceeds across the bridge, followed by the "Guard," and finds, instead of the dreaded enemy thirsting for blood, an innocent cow, in the last agonies of death. She had been mortally wounded by the chance shots of the valiant pickets, before their precipitate retreat. Her horns, dimly seen in the obscure light, they had taken for the bayonets of the foe, and her heavy tread for that of the approaching soldiery. The "Guard" were crest-fallen, and each swore to the other a solemn oath never to divulge the But, alas! for human influence of apple-. related to us these secrets of that fearful night. frailty. When under the whisky, one of the parties facts. They retired to their we trust, better men. homes wiser and, THE NIGHT ATTACK. When General Rosecrans moved from Clarksburg, on the 31st of August, he left two companies of Virginia Infantry, Company E, Fourth Artillery, U. S. Army, and an ununiformed cavalry company. The Commandant of the Post, Colonel was a courteous gentleman, but an inexperienced soldier. The night after the General left, we were sent for to the United States Hotel, where we found E. M. Norton, Esq., United States Marshal for the Western District of Virginia, and several citizens known and recognized as loyal men. Their budget was opened to us. A special messenger had just arrived with the news, that, learning there was but a small force to protect the immense stores in the Quartermaster and Commissary Departments, the Secessionists had suddenly assembled at Worthington, resolved to burn Shinston, eight miles distant, and were marching on Clarksburg, to destroy it, and take possession of the stores. The following was received from men who it was said were reliable: COLONEL "Shinston, Sunday, September 1, 1861. We arrived here at half-past nine o'clock, and we learn that the Secessionists have taken possession of |