Our captain coolly employed them in tearing down the fences, and carrying the wood away on board the steamer for firewood.
We did nothing but this all day long, the captain being afraid to go on, and unwilling to return. In the evening a new alarm seized him—viz., that the Federal cavalry had cut off the Confederate line of couriers.
During the night we remained in the same position as last night, head up stream, and ready to be off at a moment's notice.[24]
[24] One of the passengers on board this steamer was Captain Barney of the Confederate States Navy, who has since, I believe, succeeded Captain Maffit in the command of the Florida.
13th May (Wednesday).—There was a row on board last night; one of the officers having been too attentive to a lady, had to skedaddle suddenly into the woods, in order to escape the fury of her protector, and he has not thought it advisable to reappear. My trusty companion for several days, the poor young Missourian, was taken ill to-day, and told me he had a "right smart little fever on him." I doctored him with some of the physic which Mr Maloney had given me, and he got better in the evening.
We had pickets out in the woods last night. Two of my fellow-travellers on that duty fell in with a negro, and pretending they were Yankees, asked him to join them. He consented, and even volunteered to steal his master's horses; and he then received a tremendous thrashing, administered by the two soldiers with their ramrods.
At 9 p.m., to the surprise of all, the captain suddenly made up his mind to descend the river at all hazards, thinking, I suppose, that anything was better than the uncertainty of the last twenty-four hours.
The further we went, the more beautiful was the scenery.
At 4 p.m. we were assured by a citizen on the bank that the gunboats really had retreated; and at 5.30 our doubts were set at rest, to our great satisfaction, by descrying the Confederate flag flying from Fort Beauregard, high above the little town of Harrisonburg. After we had landed, I presented my letter of introduction from General Hebert to Colonel Logan, who commands the fort. He introduced me to a German officer, the engineer.