"Shall I drive him thar?"
"Yes, drive him where you please."
"I reckon he won't do dat box no good standin' there," and suiting the action to the word, he jerked the box from under him, leaving him suspended by the neck; adding, "Now, I specs he'll drive hisself. I'se more important business to 'tend to."
The overseer being in a fair way to have his "furlough approved," we returned to camp by the same way that we went out. The next morning, early, the wife came in with a complaint to the Provost-marshal that a party of Federal soldiers had been to her house the night before, and had taken her sick husband out of bed and had hung him, and begged for protection from further outrage.
The Provost-marshal said to her, "I don't believe a word of it; for no soldiers have been permitted to go out through our lines during the night. Perhaps you had a husband and perhaps not. I advise you to go back about your business and not be in here blaming Federal soldiers with that which they have never done."
During the day a forage party, on its return to camp, visited the plantation and brought away sixty contrabands, and among them was the one that we had liberated from his chains. The overseer was dead, but had been taken down and carried into the house. On his arrival in camp, the negro reported that the Yankees had made him hang his master. Outside of the lines it was generally believed that the Yankees had done it, but the soldiers generally believed that the negroes on the plantation had done it. It was never suspected that I had had a hand in it. "My personal safety as a scout demanded that he should be disposed of," is all the excuse that I have to offer. I continued to scout the road for several days after, but met with no further interruption.
Early in the month of July, the first train of cars that was to run through from Memphis to Grand Junction started out, and, when only a short distance from Memphis, was captured, and the railroad badly destroyed.
Owing to the difficulty of protecting the road from the raids of the enemy, the opening of it was abandoned for a time, and the roads from Columbus, Ky., to Grand Junction and Corinth were relied upon for the transportation of supplies. When the opening of the road was abandoned, the forces at Lagrange, under command of General Hurlbut, moved to Memphis, which left the small brigade at Grand Junction without any troops for support nearer than Bolivar, a distance of twenty miles. The exposed position of so small a force undoubtedly emboldened the enemy in their plans for capturing the post. As I have explained in the preceding chapter, the abundance of cotton and forage was an object to hold the place as long as the safety of the force would admit.
After General Hurlbut's forces left Lagrange, our pickets were frequently fired upon, and small squads of cavalry were seen, indicating a boldness on the part of the enemy indicative of a strong force not far off.
It was under that state of affairs that General Leggett requested me to go out as a spy, and learn the position and force of the enemy.