The brigade was destitute of tents, except six at head-quarters, and the men slept at night without shelter.
About 9 o'clock in the evening, I laid down on a pile of corn in the husk, in company with a lot of soldiers, and feigned to be asleep. I reflected upon my situation, and of the best means of making my escape. I was satisfied that it would be dangerous for me to wait till morning and start with the orderlies for General Johnston's head-quarters. No suspicion had as yet been excited. The soldiers were all asleep, and the whole camp was quiet. About midnight I got up, as if to relieve the necessities of nature, and went to a piece of woods about a hundred yards distant, and returned. My movements did not seem to have disturbed any one. The moon shone brightly, and the night was very light. The moon had not yet reached its meridian, but made a long shadow on the ground. I again laid down upon the corn-pile, where I lay until 2 o'clock, when I arose. The moon was then favorable and made but a short shadow, and every thing was quiet. I again visited the woods.
As I entered, I looked back and all was quiet. As the guards brought me in, I had noticed that there was but one picket-post in the direction that I wished to return, and that one was stationed in the road about half a mile from the rebel camp. I resolved to try an escape at all hazards.
I made a detour large enough to insure safety from the pickets, moving forward as rapidly as possible through the brush, without making any noise, until I gained the road that I had come out on, and then I sped along as fast as I could run.
I had on light shoes, and made very little noise as I went, and avoided stepping upon any thing that would make any disturbance.
When I reached the place in the road filled with rails and brush, near where I had been captured, I slackened my pace, and walked carefully across it. I had become tired from running so far; my close proximity to our own pickets considerably relieved my fears, and I moved along more leisurely than I had done.
When about two hundred yards from the bad place in the road, I was startled by the sound of horses crossing it. I looked back, and there came a squad of twelve or fourteen cavalry, as fast as their horses could run.
I dashed ahead at the top of my speed, when, within about one hundred yards of our pickets, "Bang! bang! bang!" went their pieces.
"For God's sake, don't shoot! It's me!" I shouted.
"Bang! bang!" went the carbines of my pursuers. The vedettes ran for the reserve. I fairly flew along, and the rebs after me, gaining rapidly. I kept straight after the vedettes till I had entered the field past the hedge fence; then I turned and followed it a few steps, and then plunged through it and crawled along on my hands and knees some distance in the weeds and grass by the side of it.