88 Ten Years of my Life. 



cliarged three dollars a bottle and provided with flourishing 

 labels, was a miserable comp''xmd. 



The weather had become extremely fine, and we made many 

 parties on horseback and in carriages. The rebels kept quiet, 

 and none of our apprehensions were fulfilled. 



Now in fine weather the sojourn on the island was highly 

 agreeable. We w^ere nearly all day in the fresh air and walk- 

 ing in the woods, which were made lively by a great variety of 

 birds v.'ith brilliant plumage. There were some small scarlet 

 birds, which looked in the sun like a ball of fire ; others were 

 beautifully blue arid very tame. I noticed also several fine 

 varieties of woodpeckers, one with a billiant yellow tail tipped 

 with black, and another light grey with a crimson head. There 

 were also partridges on the island and wild pigeons, affording 

 good sport and an occasional addition to our bill of fare. The 

 jDeadow in front of our camp swarmed with a kind of plover, 

 called, from its cry, a killedie, v»-hich cost my husband a good 

 deal of shot — rather an object, as he had to pay for it at the 

 rate of a dollar a pound. 



We received now and then visits from the generals stationed 

 at Stevenson or Chattanooga. On Sunday, October 23, Major- 

 General Steedman dined with us, and invited us to come and 

 see him in Chattanooga. Our party, consisting of Mrs. Cor- 

 vin, Salm, Groeben, and myself, started on the Thursday fol- 

 lowing for this excursion. The accommodation in the train 

 was very imperfect. We sat in a transport waggon, the ladies 

 on bottomless chairs and the gentlemen on some boxes. The 

 road to Chattanooga is very romantic, leading through a fine 

 but rather wild-looking mountainous country, and over bridges 

 which make me still shudder in thinking of them. The rebels 

 had destroyed the good and solid ones, and they had provi- 

 sionally been replaced by others, built in the greatest haste by 

 the soldiers. 



There was especially one, known under the name of the 

 Match-bridge, which surpassed anything I ever saw or heard 

 of It crossed a deep and wide gorge, and was built of wood 

 — trellis work — several hundred feet high, in three stories. 

 When the train passed over it the whole flimsy iabric swayed 

 in the most alarming manner. 



There were to be seen here and there small houses in the 

 midst of a natch of cuUivated land. The fields were all fallow 



