32 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



anticipation, and it was just so all the way to Thibodeaux. 

 Such a luxurious growth I never saw. After marching 

 twelve miles we encamped at Cottonville [Paincourtville] 

 pretty well fagged out. There were plenty of chickens, 

 pigs and sheep running round loose, of which fact we were 

 not slow to avail ourselves. The last vision I had as I 

 closed my eyes was that of a porker squealing at the top 

 of its lungs and charging blindly among the camp-fires, 

 over the couches of the slumbering soldiers, pursued by a 

 rabble of shouting youths discharging sticks, bayonets 

 and other deadly missiles. 



"April 1. We were off at 7 A.M., still among clover fields 

 and fig trees. On our march we passed some beautiful 

 plantations, one of them especially so. It was perfectly 

 embowered in trees, had a smooth-cut lawn, on which 

 were a couple of deer feeding. There was a fountain play- 

 ing and some swans swimming in a pond before the house. 

 On the veranda a couple of ladies were working and some 

 pretty little children were playing round. By George! it 

 was the prettiest sight I have seen in Louisiana. It fairly 

 stilled the clamor of the men, seeing these little children, 

 and I heard more than one tough fellow ejaculate, ' God 

 bless them!' At another little white cottage we passed, 

 a lady whose husband had fallen in the Union ranks sent 

 her slaves down the road with pails of cool water for us. 

 It was a simple act, but we could not help blessing her for 

 it, as we resumed our dusty way. Oh, the heat and the 

 dust! Not a breath of air stirring. We marched fourteen 

 miles [twelve miles to Labadieville] and encamped on a 

 sugar plantation, where we just had sugar and molasses 

 to our hearts' content. The nights were extremely cold, 



