304 
The American Geologist. May. i9oi- 
the governor, as commander of the state mihtia, to take charge 
of the state property at the University during the war ; and this, 
as well as a subsequent appointment by the confederate au- 
thorities as an agent of the "Nitre Bureau," prevented my be- 
ing called into active servace; except on the occasion of the 
siege of \'icksburg, when, toward the end of that memorable 
epoch, I was ordered to erect "calcium lights" on the bluffs 
above the city, for the illumination of the Federal gunboats 
when attempting to run the gauntlet of the batteries. The dif- 
ficulties of construction and procuring of the necessary mater- 
ials delayed the completion of the arrangements, so that on the 
occasion of the final passage of the fleet no adequate light could 
be given. From a hospital at Jackson, where I was a patient 
at the time of its first capture, I soon afterwards made my way 
to my post at Oxford, where I remained on duty during the 
rest of the war. This duty was oftentimes a very arduous one, 
Oxford being then within the "belt of desolation" between the 
two armies, which swept back and forth over it. The survey 
collections had several very narrow escapes from destruction 
when the buildings were hastily occupied for hospital pur- 
poses ; they were several times transferred on hospital cots 
from one building to another, but finally escaped without any 
material injury. Not so the collections at the capitol at Jack- 
son, where the shelves and cases seem to have been swept with 
the butts of muskets, and the floor was strewn with broken spe- 
cimens and shattered glass jars. About one-third of the collec- 
tions stored there was entirely ruined, and of the remainder 
nearly all the labels were lost. 
On mv return from Europe in November, i860, I found my 
report in print, and shortly afterwards it was shipped to St. 
Louis for binding. The political events which soon afterward 
convulsed the country, prevented the return of the bound edi- 
tion to Mississippi. It remained warehoused in the binder's 
hands during the entire war between the states, and it was not 
until 1865 that measures were taken for its recovery. The war 
and the "twelve months thereafter" having expired, the survey 
was revived ipso facto on the basis of the act of i860; and I 
found the state printer of that time, Mr. E. Barksdale, deter- 
mined to carry out to the letter his agreement in respect to the 
publication of the report ; thus likewise reviving my obligation 
