I took a seat in the hole we had made in the end of the car, in reach of Andrews.  Andrews called the attention of the negro to some feature of the country near by, and asked him a question in regard to it.  As he looked in the direction indicated, Andrews slipped his hand into the mouth of the bag, and pulled out a small sack of wheat biscuits, which he passed to me and I concealed.  The darky turned and told Andrews all about the matter in regard to which the interrogation had been made.  Andrews became so much interested in what was being told him, that he sat up closer and closer to the darky, who in turn moved farther away from the sack.

Next we ran through a turpentine plantation, and as the darky was pointing out where the still, the master’s place, the “quarters,” etc., were, Andrews managed to fish out of that bag and pass to me three roasted chickens.  Then a great swamp called for description, and before we were through with it, I had about a peck of boiled sweet potatos.

Andrews emptied the bag as the darky was showing him a great peanut plantation, taking from it a small frying-pan, a canteen of molasses, and a half-gallon tin bucket, which had been used to make coffee in.  We divided up our wealth of eatables with the rest of the boys in the car, not forgetting to keep enough to give ourselves a magnificent meal.

As we ran along we searched carefully for the place where we had seen the line-of-battle, expecting that it would now be marked with signs of a terrible conflict, but we could see nothing.  We could not even fix the locality where the line stood.

As it became apparent that we were going directly toward Wilmington, as fast as our engines could pull us, the excitement rose.  We had many misgivings as to whether our folks still retained possession of Wilmington, and whether, if they did, the Rebels could not stop at a point outside of our lines, and transfer us to some other road.

For hours we had seen nobody in the country through which we were passing.  What few houses were visible were apparently deserted, and there were no Towns or stations anywhere.  We were very anxious to see some one, in hopes of getting a hint of what the state of affairs was in the direction we were going.  At length we saw a young man—­apparently a scout—­on horseback, but his clothes were equally divided between the blue and the butternut, as to give no clue to which side he belonged.

An hour later we saw two infantrymen, who were evidently out foraging.  They had sacks of something on their backs, and wore blue clothes.  This was a very hopeful sign of a near approach to our lines, but bitter experience in the past warned us against being too sanguine.

About 4 o’clock P. M., the trains stopped and whistled long and loud.  Looking out I could see—­perhaps half-a-mile away—­a line of rifle pits running at right angles with the track.  Guards, whose guns flashed as they turned, were pacing up and down, but they were too far away for me to distinguish their uniforms.