Whereupon the devil picked up a big cannon and punched a hole through it, which let the water out. Just then a twenty-two inch shell came into the inclosure, and exploded with a tremendous crash, completely enveloping us with the smoke. As it cleared away, two persons were seen coming through the regions of space directly toward the inclosure. The quick eye of his Satanic Majesty was the first to catch sight of them.
"Who are these?" he inquired. "A'n't one of them General Grant?"
"Yes," I replied; "that man in citizen's clothes is General Grant, and the man in uniform is General McPherson."
"I believe that is Grant," he said, after a more careful look.
"Yes, that's Grant."
"Then I must light out of this!" and away he went, as fast as possible.
I told my dream to General Grant. "I know," said he, "that I could run the rebels about, but I did not know that I could run the devil out of hell." He has asked me several times since if I had had any more dreams.
In the month of November, General McPherson made a demonstration with 14,000 men toward Canton, Miss., to draw the attention of the rebs while General Sherman, with his command, was moving from Memphis eastward to Chattanooga.
At Brownsville we came upon a small force of rebs, who undertook to check our advance, but we drove them from their position. The next day, at Bogue Chitto Creek, they made another stand, but were again driven from their position. General John A. Logan then sent me out to the front of our right to watch the movements of the enemy, and see which way they went. I was accompanied by a scout, by the name of James E. Bader. About a mile out, we left our horses under cover of the woods, and then, by ourselves, we ascended a rise of ground that enabled us to see the course the enemy had taken. While we were thus engaged in watching, we saw a man leave the rebel forces and ride toward a house that stood near by. As he neared us, we saw that he had on the uniform of a rebel Colonel. He unsaddled the horse at the house and then led it away to the stable, and then returned himself to the house. We then went to our horses, mounted, and rode to the house, dismounted and went in. We found but one man in the house, who said, "Good morning! You gave the Johnnies a good fleecing this morning!"
"Yes," said I, "we fleeced the Johnnies. But where is your uniform?"