hardships they would have to endure.

About 8 o'clock the boat stopped a little below Napoleon, Arkansas, to
wood. As it was very dark, our torches were lighted, and we saw a
light advancing so fast on the bank that I thought it must be borne on
horseback. "No, it's too low," said a woman standing near me. But it
went out as soon as it came to the landing, and our light was
immediately extinguished, the cable was drawn back, the men leaped
aboard, and the boat was wheeled so suddenly into the stream that
there was great danger of bursting the boiler. We heard many inquiries
as to what was the matter. But the fact ran quickly over the boat that
there were guerrillas after us. The running lantern we saw was carried
by an old white man, who overheard the talk of more than forty men,
who were secreted in a clump of trees and bushes near the landing.
They had planned to capture the first steamer that stopped to wood at
that place, to take all on the boat as prisoners, strip it of
everything on board, and let it float down the river. The old man told
the men not to let it be known, if we were captured, that he had
informed them of this, as it would cost him his life. Such a scene of
excitement I never witnessed; men, as well as women, turned pale, and
their voices trembled. Yet many of them flew to their card tables,
expecting every moment to be shot into, and trembling with fear so as
hardly to be able to hold their cards. The captain said if pouring tar
into the furnace would send us beyond a bayou near by before they
could overtake us, he thought we should escape. After passing that
point our colonel came to me and asked after my companion. I told him
as she was not well she had retired very early, and I thought she had
better not know any thing of this excitement until morning, If we
should escape; if not, it was time for her to become excited when we
were taken.