In the morning, early, I went over to General Grant's head-quarters, and told him that General McPherson had sent me there to see if I could get some ammunition for my rifle from his Chief-of-Staff. He told me that his Chief-of-Staff had gone to St. Louis, and had taken his rifle with him.
"Do you know of any body that has got any of that kind of cartridges?" I inquired.
"I think," said, the General, "that Admiral Porter has got ammunition of that kind, and I will give you a request to carry to him, and you may go and see him about it."
He wrote a note for me to hand to Admiral Porter, and commenced to write me a pass, but was interrupted by some business, so he handed me the note, and told me to step over to the Provost-marshal and ask him to write me a pass.
I did so; but, being a stranger to him, he did not know that I was a soldier, and the pass that I received read as follows:
"Head-quarters Dep't of the Tennessee.
"Rear of Vicksburg, Miss., June —, 1863.
"Lorain Ruggles, a citizen of the South, has leave to visit Admiral Porter's flag-ship and return with a gun.
"—— ——
"Provost-marshal."
I took my rifle and went to Chickasaw Landing, on the Yazoo river, where I succeeded in getting on board the steamer Diligent, a dispatch-boat, as she went down to the gun-boats with dispatches. The flag-ship, at that time, lay in the Mississippi River, a short distance above Vicksburg.
I found the Admiral, and handed him the note from General Grant, which he read; and then, giving me a searching look from head to foot, he said: