82 Ten Years of my Life, 



south to Stevenson and Bridgeport, but the road was full oi 

 danger, 'Guerillas were scourmg the country, and the most 

 appaling reports about their cruelty were circulated. The war 

 had assumed a quite unusual ferocity ; the Southern people 

 were exasperated, and prisoners who fell into the hands of the 

 guerillas were mutilated and murdered in the most atrocious 

 manner. We were however, resolved to nm the risk, and after 

 having procured a pass, which was rather difiicult, we went to 

 the depot next afternoon, when a military .train was to leave. 

 We were fortunate enough to meet a captain who had been 

 presented to me in the hotel, and wis on his way to Chat- 

 tanooga. With his assistance we found a good place, and con- 

 gratulating ourselves on our good luck, we made ourselves 

 quite comfortable, when we were turned out by the guard, who 

 cried, ' Women must get out,' and would not listen to reason. 

 Standing amongst a crowd of soldiers and lamenting women, 

 who had been turned out like ourselves, we had little hope of 

 finding a place, when I fortunately discovered some ofhcers 

 who knew me, and smuggled us into the last of the cars, where 

 we were seated on a narrow wooden bench, the only women in 

 the train. It was the most fatiguing and disagreeable journey 

 I ever made, for we had to remain full twenty-four hours in that 

 situation. The weather was very disagreeable, and we felt faint 

 with hunger, having nothing with us but a little cake. In the 

 evening the captain, who was on his way to Chattanoogaj 

 brought us some coffee, which was accepted very thankfully. 

 Our journey was rather exciting, for the conversation turned 

 only on the outrages the rebels had committed quite recently 

 in localities which we passed, and we had to pass frequently 

 through dense woods or near overhanging rocks, where guerillas 

 might be concealed, meditating our destruction. The train 

 stopped frequently without cause, and what we saw from the 

 windows was not calculated to calm our apprehensions. Every- 

 where up the road-side were half destroyed cars or locomotives 

 lying on their backs, or burnt-down houses. We became, how- 

 ever, soon used to this state of aiTairs, and I managed to sleep. 

 I was aroused by Mrs Corvin with the distressing news that my 

 Jimmy had jumped off the train. That v;as a calamity worse 

 than the rebels. Our carriage was the last, and irom its plat- 

 form I saw along the road and at a great distance a dark point 

 moving ; it was poor Jmimy, striving in vam to come up with 



