Three Months in the Southern States, April-June 1863 Part 11

My companions were a fat Government contractor from Texas, the wounded Missourian Mr Douglas, and an ugly woman, wife to a soldier in Vicksburg.

We left Natchez at 12 noon, and were driven by a negro named Nelson; the carriage and the three horses belong to him, and he drives it for his own profit; but he is, nevertheless, a slave, and pays his owner $4-1/2 a-week to be allowed to work on his own account. He was quite as vain as and even more amusing than Tucker. He said he "didn't want to see no Yanks, nor to be no freer than he is;" and he thought the war had already lasted four or five years.

Every traveller we met on the road was eagerly asked the questions, "Are the Yanks in Brookhaven? Is the railroad open?" At first we received satisfactory replies; but at 6 P.M. we met an officer driving towards Natchez at a great pace; he gave us the alarming intelligence that _Jackson_ was going to be evacuated. Now, as Jackson is the capital city of this state, a great railroad junction, and on the highroad to every civilised place from this, our feelings may be imagined, but we did not believe it possible. On the other hand we were told that General Joseph Johnston had arrived and a.s.sumed the command in Mississippi. He appears to be an officer in whom every one places unbounded confidence.

We slept at a farmhouse. All the males were absent at the war, and it is impossible to exaggerate the unfortunate condition of the women left behind in these farmhouses; they have scarcely any clothes, and nothing but the coa.r.s.est bacon to eat, and are in miserable uncertainty as to the fate of their relations, whom they can hardly ever communicate with.

Their slaves, however, generally remain true to them.

Our hostess, though she was reduced to the greatest distress, was well-mannered, and exceedingly well educated; very far superior to a woman of her station in England.

_16th May_ (Sat.u.r.day).--We started a little before daylight, our team looking so very mean that we expressed doubts as to their lasting--to Mr Nelson's great indignation.

We breakfasted at another little farmhouse on some unusually tough bacon, and coffee made of sweet potatoes. The natives, under all their misery, were red-hot in favour of fighting for independence to the last, and I constantly hear the words, "This is the most unjust war ever waged upon a people by mortal man."

At 11 A.M. we met a great crowd of negroes, who had been run into the swamps to be out of the way of the Yankees, and they were now returning to Louisiana.

At 2 P.M. a wounded soldier gave us the deplorable information that the enemy really was on the railroad between Jackson and Brookhaven, and that Jackson itself was in his hands. This news staggered us all, and Nelson became alarmed for the safety of his wretched animals; but we all determined to go on at all hazards and see what turned up.

We halted for dinner at a farmhouse in which were seven virgins seated all of a row. They were all good-looking, but shy and bashful to a degree I never before witnessed. All the young women in this country seem to be either uncommonly free-spoken, or else extremely shy.

The further we went the more certain became the news of the fall of Jackson.

We pa.s.sed the night in the verandah of an old farmer. He told us that Grierson's Yankee raid had captured him about three weeks ago. He thought the Yankees were about 1500 strong; they took all good horses, leaving their worn-out ones behind. They destroyed railroad, Government property, and arms, and paroled all men, both old and young, but they committed no barbarities. In this manner they traversed all the State of Mississippi without meeting any resistance. They were fine looking men from the North-western States.

_17th May_ (Sunday).--We started again at 4.30 A.M., and met five wounded men who had been captured and paroled by Banks in Louisiana; they confirmed everything about the fall of Jackson, which made me consider myself particularly unfortunate, and destined apparently to be always intercepted by the Northern troops, which had happened to me at Alexandria, at Harrisonburg, and now again at Jackson.

At 8 A.M. we reached the little town of Brookhaven, which was full of travellers, princ.i.p.ally Confederate soldiers, anxious to rejoin their regiments.

Maxey's brigade left this place by road last night to join General Johnston, who is supposed to be concentrating his forces at a place called Canton, not far from Jackson.

I called on Captain Matthews, the officer who commanded at Brookhaven, and after introducing myself to him, he promised to a.s.sist me, by every means in his power, to join General Johnston.

I then went to a Methodist chapel; a good many soldiers were there, and great number of women.

At noon, just as I had begun to get in very low spirits about the prospects of getting on, a locomotive arrived from a station called Haslehurst, and brought us the astonis.h.i.+ng report that the Yankees had suddenly abandoned Jackson, after destroying all the Government, and a good deal of private, property.

This news caused our prospects to look brighter.

_18th May_ (Monday).--On getting up this morning everything appeared very uncertain, and a thousand contradictory reports and rumours were flying about.

At 8 o'clock I called on Captain Matthews, and told him my earnest desire to get on towards Johnston's army at all risks. He kindly introduced me to the conductor of a locomotive, who offered to take me to within a few miles of Jackson, if he was not cut off by the enemy, which seemed extremely probable.

At 9 A.M. I seated myself, in company with about twenty soldiers, on the engine, and we started towards Jackson.

On reaching Crystal Springs, half-way to Jackson, we found General Loring's division crossing the railroad and marching east. It had been defeated, with the loss of most of its artillery, three days before, and was now cut off from General Pemberton.

At 5 P.M. the conductor stopped the engine, and put us out at a spot distant nine miles from Jackson; and as I could procure no shelter, food, or conveyance there, I found myself in a terrible fix.

At this juncture a French boy rode up on horseback, and volunteered to carry my saddlebags as far as Jackson, if I could walk and carry the remainder.

Gladly accepting this unexpected offer, I started with him to walk up the railroad, as he a.s.sured me the Yankees really had gone; and during the journey, he gave me a description of their conduct during the short time they had occupied the city.

On arriving within three miles of Jackson, I found the railroad destroyed by the enemy, who, after pulling up the track, had made piles of the sleepers, and then put the rails in layers on the top of these heaps; they had then set fire to the sleepers, which had caused the rails to bend when red hot; the wooden bridges had also been set on fire, and were still smoking.

When within a mile and a half of Jackson I met four men, who stopped and questioned me very suspiciously, but they at length allowed me to proceed, saying that these "were curious times."

After another mile I reached a mild trench, which was dignified by the name of the fortifications of Jackson. A small fight had taken place there four days previous, when General Johnston had evacuated the city.

When I got inside this trench I came to the spot on which a large body of the Yankees had recently been encamped; they had set fire to a great quant.i.ty of stores and arms, which they had been unable to carry away with them, and which were still burning, and were partially destroyed. I observed also great numbers of pikes and pikeheads amongst the debris.

At the entrance to the town the French boy took me to the house of his relatives, and handed me my saddlebags. These French people told me they had been much ill-treated, notwithstanding their French nationality.

They showed me their broken furniture, and they a.s.sured me that they had been robbed of everything of any value.

I then shouldered my saddlebags, and walked through the smoking and desolate streets towards the Bowmont House Hotel.

I had not proceeded far before a man with long grey hair and an enormous revolver rode up to me, and offered to carry my saddlebags. He then asked me who I was; and after I told him, he thought a few moments, and then said, "Well, sir, you must excuse me, but if you are a British officer, I can't make out what on earth you are doing at Jackson just now." I could not but confess that this was rather a natural idea, and that my presence in this burning town must have seemed rather odd, more especially as I was obliged to acknowledge that I was there entirely of my own free will, and for my own amus.e.m.e.nt.

Mr Smythe, for so this individual was named, then told me, that if I was really the person I represented myself, I should be well treated by all; but that if I could not prove myself to be an English officer, an event would happen which it was not difficult to foresee, and the idea caused a disagreeable sensation about the throat.

Mr Smythe then gave me to understand that I must remain a prisoner for the present. He conducted me to a room in the Bowmont House Hotel, and I found myself speedily surrounded by a group of eager and excited citizens, who had been summoned by Smythe to _conduct my examination_.

At first they were inclined to be disagreeable. They examined my clothes, and argued as to whether they were of English manufacture.

Some, who had been in London, asked me questions about the streets of the metropolis, and about my regiment. One remarked that I was "_mighty young for a lootenant-colonel_."

When I suggested that they should treat me with proper respect until I was proved to be a spy, they replied that their city had been brutally pillaged by the Yankees, and that there were many suspicious characters about.

Everything now looked very threatening, and it became evident to me that nothing would relieve the minds of these men so much as a hanging match.

I looked in vain for some one to take my part, and I could not even get any person to examine my papers.

At this critical juncture a new character appeared on the scene in the shape of a big heavy man who said to me, "My name is Dr Russell; I'm an Irishman, and I hate the British Government and the English nation; but if you are really an officer in the Coldstream Guards there is nothing I won't do for you; you shall come to my house and I will protect you."

I immediately showed Dr Russell my pa.s.sport and letters of introduction to General Johnston and other Confederate officers; he p.r.o.nounced them genuine, promised to stand by me, and wanted to take me away with him at once.

But observing that the countenances of Smythe and his colleagues did not by any means express satisfaction at this arrangement, I announced my determination to stay where I was until I was released by the military authorities, with whom I demanded an immediate audience.

A very handsome cavalry officer called Captain Yerger, shortly afterwards arrived, who released me at once--asked me to his mother's house, and promised that I should join a brigade which was to march for General Johnston's camp on the following morning.

All the citizens seemed to be satisfied by the result of my interview with Captain Yerger, and most of them insisted on shaking hands and "liquoring up," in horrible whisky.

Smythe, however, was an exception to this rule. He evidently thought he had effected a grand capture, and was not at all satisfied at the turn of affairs. I believe to his dying day he will think I am a spy; but it was explained to me that his house had been burnt down by the Yankees two days before, which had made him unusually venomous.

They told me that Dr Russell had saved his property from pillage in the following manner:--He had seated himself in his verandah, with a loaded double-barrelled gun on his knees, and when the pillagers approached, he addressed them in the following manner: "No man can die more than once, and I shall never be more ready to die than I am now: there is nothing to prevent your going into this house, except that I shall kill the first two of you who move with this gun. Now then, gentlemen, walk in."

This speech is said to have saved Dr Russell from further annoyance, and his property from the ruin which overtook his neighbours.