of those better off.  The crops around me looked fine, and I had at the moment an idea that about the time they were ready to be gathered the “Yankee” troops would be in the neighborhood and harvest them for the benefit of those engaged in the suppression of the rebellion instead of its support.  I felt, however, the greatest respect for the candor of my host and for his zeal in a cause he thoroughly believed in, though our views were as wide apart as it is possible to conceive.

The 23d of June, 1862, on the road from La Grange to Memphis was very warm, even for that latitude and season.  With my staff and small escort I started at an early hour, and before noon we arrived within twenty miles of Memphis.  At this point I saw a very comfortable-looking white-haired gentleman seated at the front of his house, a little distance from the road.  I let my staff and escort ride ahead while I halted and, for an excuse, asked for a glass of water.  I was invited at once to dismount and come in.  I found my host very genial and communicative, and staid longer than I had intended, until the lady of the house announced dinner and asked me to join them.  The host, however, was not pressing, so that I declined the invitation and, mounting my horse, rode on.

About a mile west from where I had been stopping a road comes up from the southeast, joining that from La Grange to Memphis.  A mile west of this junction I found my staff and escort halted and enjoying the shade of forest trees on the lawn of a house located several hundred feet back from the road, their horses hitched to the fence along the line of the road.  I, too, stopped and we remained there until the cool of the afternoon, and then rode into Memphis.

The gentleman with whom I had stopped twenty miles from Memphis was a Mr. De Loche, a man loyal to the Union.  He had not pressed me to tarry longer with him because in the early part of my visit a neighbor, a Dr. Smith, had called and, on being presented to me, backed off the porch as if something had hit him.  Mr. De Loche knew that the rebel General Jackson was in that neighborhood with a detachment of cavalry.  His neighbor was as earnest in the southern cause as was Mr. De Loche in that of the Union.  The exact location of Jackson was entirely unknown to Mr. De Loche; but he was sure that his neighbor would know it and would give information of my presence, and this made my stay unpleasant to him after the call of Dr. Smith.

I have stated that a detachment of troops was engaged in guarding workmen who were repairing the railroad east of Memphis.  On the day I entered Memphis, Jackson captured a small herd of beef cattle which had been sent east for the troops so engaged.  The drovers were not enlisted men and he released them.  A day or two after one of these drovers came to my headquarters and, relating the circumstances of his capture, said Jackson was very much disappointed that he had not captured me; that he was six or seven