the trimming chiefly gold braid and buttons, to give a military air. The
gray and gold uniforms of the officers, glittering between, made up a
carnival of color. Every moment we saw strange meetings and partings of
people from all over the South. Conditions of time, space, locality, and
estate were all loosened; everybody seemed floating he knew not whither,
but determined to be jolly, and keep up an excitement. At supper we had
tough steak, heavy, dirty-looking bread, Confederate coffee. The coffee
was made of either parched rye or corn-meal, or of sweet potatoes cut in
small cubes and roasted. This was the favorite. When flavored with
"coffee essence," sweetened with sorghum, and tinctured with chalky
milk, it made a curious beverage which, after tasting, I preferred not
to drink. Every one else was drinking it, and an acquaintance said, "Oh,
you'll get bravely over that. I used to be a Jewess about pork, but now
we just kill a hog and eat it, and kill another and do the same. It's
all we have."

Friday morning we took the down train for the station near my friend's
house. At every station we had to go through the examination of passes,
as if in a foreign country.

The conscript camp was at Brookhaven, and every man had been ordered to
report there or to be treated as a deserter. At every station I shivered
mentally, expecting H. to be dragged off. Brookhaven was also the
station for dinner. I choked mine down, feeling the sword hanging over
me by a single hair. At sunset we reached our station. The landlady was
pouring tea when we took our seats, and I expected a treat, but when I
tasted it was sassafras tea, the very odor of which sickens me. There
was a general surprise when I asked to exchange it for a glass of water;
every one was drinking it as if it were nectar. This morning we drove
out here.