Then she dined with him on some fried salt pork and some hopelessly indigestible fried paste which we called bread.
Then he mounted her on her mare again and summoned Ham Seay and me.
“Escort this young lady back to Captain Irving,” he said. “Tell him to send her to the Federal lines under flag of truce, with the message that she was inadvertently captured in a picket charge, and that as General Stuart does not make war on women or children, he begs to return her to her home and friends.”
We did all this.
The next day, Stuart with a strong force advanced to Mason’s and Munson’s hills.
From there we could clearly see a certain house in Washington. It had many windows, and each had a dark Holland shade.
When we stood guard we were ordered to observe minutely and report accurately the slidings up and down of those Holland shades.
We never knew what three shades up, two half up, and five down might signify. But we had to report it, nevertheless, and Stuart seemed from that time to have an almost preternatural advance perception of the enemy’s movements.
That young woman certainly had a superb shock of hair.