A Bible which has a History

In the Portland Daily Press, Of October 1st, we find a letter to the Editor, from "A.A.R.," dated Gettysburg, Sept. 24, 1863, from which we cut the following:

Among matters of interest at the Warehouse Hospital, let me mention something which is after all the real occasion for the writing of this letter. I have a bible, taken from the knapsack of a dead rebel which has a history. On the first cover of the bible (which fastens with a clasp) is the name of Miss ALMIRA ALICE WILSON, Presque Isle, August 18, '52 or '62 - I cannot clearly see which. On the first leaf I is the name of Moses C. Ames or Amore."

It is Moses C. Annas. [Ed.]

Upon the opposite page is the name of "Wm. M. Nichols, Company F, 21st regiment, Georgia, V.I., May 27, 1863." - Upon the last leaf and cover is written "William Martin Nichols' Book; picked up on the battle-field near Chancellorsville, May 1st, 1863." To which I have added, "Taken from the knapsack of a dead rebel at Warehouse hospital, Gettysburg, July 1863." My theory is this: Miss Wilson gave the bible to Moses Ames; Ames like a loyal son of Maine enlisted and fought at Chancellorsville. Either killed, wounded, or a prisoner, his knapsack was rifled by a Georgian named Nichols. Nichols in turn was wounded and captured at Gettysburg, where he dies and the bible falls into the hands of a nurse from Maine, who is anxious to restore it to the original owner. Will someone acquainted in Presque Isle tell Miss Wilson or some of her friends, what I have written ,and say a letter addressed to Mrs. J.P.R., Box 130,Harrisburg, Pa., will be promptly answered and the bible will at once be forwarded as a precious relic.

Miss Wilson is the now the wife of a brother of Moses C. Annas. Moses is a Private in the 17th U.S. Infantry. On the morning that he left home, May 27, 1862, Mrs. Annas, formerly Miss Wilson, presented him with the bible. At the Battle of Chancellorsville, Moses lost his knapsack containing this bible, and also his mother's and a sister's miniature. He was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, and from a letter received by his sister on Friday last from him we learn that he is now in hospital in Harrisburg, Pa., nearly recovered of his wounds. What a volume of thought do these incidents in the career of a brave soldier awaken!

A bible, a mother's and sister's miniature sacredly preserved, and "together kept," all the vicissitudes of a soldier's life, and lost only upon the sanguinary battle field, tells the tale of filial piety, and of devotion to God better than words can do. Our country is safe whilst such men fight her battles. The incident is worth a poetic record. Will not some of our friends, gifted with he genius of song, make the record?