traveling very wearisome. I had traveled some hours, and thought I was
doing well; when, about one o'clock in the night, I came up out of a
long swamp, and, reaching the top of a hill, I stopped for a moment's
rest, raising myself to an erect position from that of walking, inclined
by reason of weariness and the weight of the saddle-bags thrown across
my shoulders. The weather was bad, a heavy mist had come up, and was so
dark that I could hardly see my way. As I started on, a soldier yelled
at me from the mist: "Halt! advance and give the countersign." I stopped
immediately, almost scared out of my wits. "Come right up here," said
the soldier, "or I'll blow you into eternity." I saw at once he was a
rebel soldier. I knew not what to do. This place where I was halted was
Nelson's farm, and the house was held as headquarters for a company of
rebel soldiers, known as bushwhackers. While they belonged to the rebel
army, they were, in a measure, independent of its regulations and
discipline, kept back in the woods, ready for any depredation upon the
property of unionists--any outrage upon their persons. The soldier who
had halted me took me up to the house, and all began to question me. I
told them that I had been sent on an errand, and that I had lost my way.
The next morning I was taken about a mile away down in the swamp, over
hills and through winding paths, till at last we came to the regular
rebel camp. I was in great fear and thought my end had come. Here they
began to question me again--the captain taking the lead; but I still
stuck to my story that I had been sent on an errand, and had lost my
way. I knew that this was my only chance. They tried to make me say that
I had come from the Yankees, as they were in camp near Holly Springs.
They thought the Yankees had sent me out as a spy; but I said the same
as at first--that I had lost my way. A soldier standing by said: "Oh! we
will make you talk better than that;" and stepping back to his horse, he
took a sea-grass halter, and said: "I'll hang you." There was a law or
regulation of the rebel government directing or authorizing the hanging