peeping out from her voluminous skirts, who, in response to a question
about the "old man," would say: "The men hev all gone to the 'rally';
you'll see 'em soon." We experienced little difficulty in procuring food
for man and horse. Usually upon our raids it was much easier to obtain
meat than bread. But in Indiana and Ohio we always found bread ready
baked at every house. In Ohio, on more than one occasion, in deserted
houses we found pies, hot from the oven, displayed upon tables
conveniently spread. The first time that I witnessed this sort of
hospitality was when I rode up to a house where a party of my men were
standing around a table garnished as I have described, eyeing the pies
hungrily, but showing no disposition to touch them. I asked, in
astonishment, why they were so abstinent. One of them replied that they
feared the pies might be poisoned. I was quite sure, on the contrary,
that they were intended as a propitiatory offering. I have always been
fond of pies,--these were of luscious apples,--so I made the spokesman
hand me one of the largest, and proceeded to eat it. The men watched me
vigilantly for two or three minutes, and then, as I seemed much better
after my repast, they took hold ravenously.

The severe marching made an exchange of horses a necessity, though as a
rule the horses we took were very inferior to the Kentucky and Tennessee
stock we had brought with us, and which had generally a large infusion
of thoroughbred blood. The horses we impressed were for the most part
heavy, sluggish beasts, barefooted and grass-fed, and gave out after a
day or two, sometimes in a few hours. A strong provost guard, under
Major Steele of the 3d Kentucky, had been organized to prevent the two
practices most prejudicial to discipline and efficiency--straggling and
pillage. There were very good reasons, independent of the provost guard,
why the men should not straggle far from the line of march; but the
well-filled stores and gaudy shop-windows of the Indiana and Ohio towns