4th May (Monday).—General Scurry's servant "John" had been most attentive since he had been told off to me. I made him a present of my evening clothes, which gratified him immensely; and I shook hands with him at parting, which seems to be quite the custom. The Southern gentlemen are certainly able to treat their slaves with extraordinary familiarity and kindness. John told me that the General would let him buy his freedom whenever he chose. He is a barber by trade, and was earning much money when he insisted on rejoining his master and going to the wars.
I left Houston by train for Navasoto at 10 a.m. A Captain Andrews accompanied me thus far: he was going with a troop of cavalry to impress one-fourth of the negroes on the plantations for the Government works at Galveston, the planters having been backward in coming forward with their darkies.
Arrived at Navasoto (70 miles) at 4 p.m., where I took a stage for Shrieveport (250 miles). I started at 4.30 p.m., after having had a little dispute with a man for a corner seat, and beating him.
It was the same sort of vehicle as the San Antonio one—eight people inside. During the night there was a thunderstorm.
5th May (Tuesday).—We breakfasted at Huntsville at 5.30 a.m. The Federal officers captured in the Harriet Lane are confined in the penitentiary there, and are not treated as prisoners of war. This seems to be the system now with regard to officers since the enlistment of negroes by the Northerners.
My fellow-travellers were mostly elderly planters or legislators, and there was one judge from Louisiana. One of them produced a pair of boots which had cost him $100; another showed me a common wideawake hat which had cost him $40. In Houston, I myself saw an English regulation infantry sword exposed for sale for $225 (£45).
As the military element did not predominate, my companions united in speaking with horror of the depredations committed in this part of the country by their own troops on a line of march.
We passed through a well-wooded country—pines and post oaks—the road bad: crossed the river Trinity at 12 noon, and dined at the house of a disreputable looking individual called a Campbellite minister, at 4.30 p.m. The food consisted almost invariably of bacon, corn bread, and buttermilk: a meal costing a dollar.
Arrived at Crockett at 9.30 p.m., where we halted for a few hours. A filthy bed was given to the Louisianian Judge and myself. The Judge, following my example, took to it boots and all, remarking, as he did so, to the attendant negro, that "they were a d——d sight cleaner than the bed."