his patience and fortitude were sorely tried.
On more than one occasion he had to lie
for hours crouching in the mud of some foul
swamp, listening to the talk of the vedettes
close at hand, and waiting his opportunity
to avoid the vigilant pickets. On reaching
the river his first care was to enclose his
despatches and percussion-caps in a wrapper
of oil-silk, which he fastened securely to
his head. Then selecting from the masses
of drift wood which laid in wrecks along
the bank a log of only sufficient floating
power to bear the weight of his hands
resting on it, he awaited the fall of night,
and then quietly launching himself into
the stream, he floated with the current
until he came into the neighbourhood of
the upper squadron of the enemy's
gun-boats. Here all motive power, as far
as he was concerned, ceased; all he dared
to do was to support himself lightly so as
to keep the head above water, now and then
moving, with the utmost precaution, a foot
to steer himself past the cables and warps
of the flotilla. On more than one occasion,
as he floated by the iron-clads, his
log was fended off by boat-hooks; and the
only circumstance that saved him from
detection was the shadow which was cast
by the vessel on the waters. Thus drifting
through these river pickets, he at last
landed under the guns of the water batteries
of Vicksburg.

I have narrated a solitary instance of the
artifices resorted to by scouts for communicating
with a beleaguered town; but the
ingenuity of the stratagem and the courage
required to carry it out were all equally
startling. When disguises had to be
adopted, these men worked their way into
the enemy's lines, lounging about among the
troops, dressed perhaps as farmers, offering
to sell their produce to the Federal
commissary, and when by their continued
presence and well-acted country dryness they
had allayed suspicion, they would watch
their opportunity, and at the first favourable
chance dash through the outer line of
the pickets, and running the gauntlet of
the shots, reach the Confederate posts.
Were any of these desperate men taken in
the service, the invariable fate was to be
hung upon the nearest tree.

After some time our scouts were unable
to open communications with Vicksburg,
and consequently General Johnston
received no trustworthy news of the condition
of the city and its garrison. We had,
indeed, heard that fierce assaults had been
made by the investing army, and that the
Federals had reached to within a few yards
of the works, but only to fall under the
withering fire that greeted them. At more
than one portion of the defences the
Northern soldiers actually penetrated the
lines, but were driven from their foot-hold
by the rifle-stock and bayonet. Over
and over again did Grant send his massive
columns to the attack, but only to see them
disappear under the fringe of fire of all
arms. At length, unable to make an
impression on the stubborn, though
weakened, garrison, he called off his men,
leaving his piled-up dead lying within a
few yards of the unconquered works.

On or about the 5th of July, 1863,
General Johnston, though still crippled
for want of necessary matériel, and with
his impromptu army of some eighteen
thousand men yet in a comparatively
disorganised condition, determined to move
from Jackson to the Big Black River, his
pontoon train, which had hitherto delayed
us, having been at last got together. The
huge flat-bottomed boats, with their
accompanying planks, had been mounted on
trucks of the rudest construction, and the
roads being in places complete gullies, the
train was constantly coming to a standstill,
and delaying the advance of the
column. First, a wheel would come off, or
an axletree would break, or the truck, sinking
deep into the red sand, would become
almost immovable. Our track lay through
a country devoid of water, for there were
no streams or rivulets to speak of between
Pearl River and the Big Black. It was a
wilderness of drought. The plantations
we passed depended for their water
supplies on their tanks, which were filled
during the rainy season, and had to last
through the hot months of summer. The
despair of the poor women when our men,
breaking from their ranks, rushed to the
wells to fill their canteens, was painful to
behold, and they came praying to the
general officers to place a guard over their
reservoirs, to insure them and their families
some little drink until the wet season
came round again. With the exception of
the water obtained from these tanks, I saw
none on the entire march, excepting in some
few stagnant stock-ponds, which were
rapidly reduced by the horses of the column.
a thick, pea-soup-looking fluid, disturbed
only by the gas bubbles that rose and burst
on the surface.

I was assured by our staff-surgeon,
whilst we took advantage of a clump of
trees for a short mid-day rest, that his