"Well, I can't go now, but I'll see about it."
I waited two days, and then tried him again.
"Colonel," said I, "what do you think about that cotton trip to Bolivar now? I'm getting very anxious for that horse."
"If I thought you would succeed, I'd go."
"I know I'll succeed."
"How close can we get without getting into the Yankee pickets?"
"We can get as far as Jonathan Herse's place, and there you can halt until I go in and return."
"Well, then, I'll take five companies and we'll go up there to-day, and we'll have every thing ready to start at 10 o'clock A. M."
At the appointed time we started, and moved along rapidly until we reached Herse's plantation. It was in the night when we reached there. The Colonel retained three companies, and sent two, under command of a Captain, with me, with instructions to stop at such a place as I should designate, and wait three hours for me to return, unless I returned sooner, and if I did not come back at the end of that time, to return without me.
We went on until we came within about four hundred yards of the pickets, where I had the Captain halt his men, and, leaving my mule, I went on. I found the advanced picket right where I expected to. He was on the alert, and challenged me as I came up. There I cautioned the officer in command of the pickets to be on the alert, for two companies of rebel cavalry were within rifle-shot of him. The pickets were all called up, and I was sent, under guard, to General Ross. I had him called up, and reported to him what I had learned, and told him that, in order to carry out my plans, I wanted an order on the Quartermaster for a number one horse. I also told him that I would leave my mule on Mr. Herse's plantation, and requested him to send a forage party out the next day and bring the mule in. He gave me the order, and I went immediately to C. C. Williams, Assistant Quartermaster, and woke him up, and told him I was in a great hurry and wanted the horse then.