(Sept.19, 1864, to April 1, 1865)
From the beginning of his work in the Christian Commission, Field Agent Miller did his best to persuade the delegates to leave with him full records of their work. He even prepared a large notebook, on the cover of which he wrote the request:
“Delegates will please note all incidents of their work in this book. Also full reports before leaving.”
In a few instances the request was observed, but evidently most of the men were to weary when they felt free to seek their rough beds to do anything but go to sleep. The book devoted to them would have been sadly neglected but for Mr. Miller’s own observation and reports. He was as weary as the delegates when night came – probably more weary, for during his service in the army he was as unceasingly active as in his later life. Yet he would remain at his table hours after others were sleeping, writing his story. On November 16, 1869, he said:
“Nearly midnight, and around me thickly packed in layers on the floor the rest of the ‘family’ are sleeping, while I have been drudging all night through piles of letters, stereotyped business sheets, trying to get square with life and my work. As the finale I wrote a long letter to mon cher ami Crammond Kennedy, away in Scotland. I was to have gone with him over the water, had not the meshes of duty to my country and humanity so entangled me that I could not escape from the army.”
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