"Oh, I'm pretty well, I thank you. I'm a little tired now. I've got five or six little grandsons down in General Villipigue's army, and I heard that they were out of tobacco, and I thought I'd twist up some and take down to 'em."
"Boys," said I to the squad, "if you had rather the rebs would have that tobacco than to have it yourselves, let it alone."
At that the boys made a spring for the tobacco.
"Hut, tut, tut!" said the old man, looking wonderfully surprised; "I guess I was mistaken. I thought you were our soldiers; but I guess, from your actions, you are Yankees."
On leaving a service that has been fraught with as much danger as that of mine has been, it is not improper, perhaps, for me to leave on record the conclusions suggested by that experience.
Few, if any, of my contemporaries who started in the business as early as I did are now living. I know of none that are living who operated in the departments where I did, and who commenced when I did and continued as late as I did. Of eighteen (including myself) that commenced when I did, I am the only one that continued through the war. Fifteen of that number were killed in less than two years, and two were disgraced for bad conduct.
When I look back upon what I have experienced, it seems a wonder to me that my life has been spared. Others, whom I thought were my superiors in all the necessary qualifications, have sacrificed their lives in their line of duty.
It may be thought by some that a scout is of necessity of that hardened, reckless character that is insensible to the dangers that surround him; but that is a mistake. It is true that war is hardening to the finer sensibilities, but, nevertheless, if a man is unconscious of the danger of his undertaking, he is not apt to exercise the necessary precautionary measures to insure his safety, and, consequently, fails in his mission.
I can now look back and see how I might have done better. I commenced the business without having had experience, and, consequently, I had all to learn as I went along. At first I only ventured a short distance out, and thought I had done extremely well if I reached camp unharmed. I increased gradually the extent of my expeditions, until I succeeded in making trips of several hundred miles in length.
An adaptation of means to the end to be accomplished is of as much importance in scouting and spying, as in any other branch of business. The very business itself is an evasion of what you really are, or assuming to be what you are not; consequently, an evasion of the truth is often necessary to accomplish the purpose. To be successful as a spy, it is absolutely necessary to be able to act an assumed character.