Camp-Fire and Cotton-Field | Page 3

River.--Landing in the
Yazoo.--Description of the Ground.--A Night in Bivouac.--Plan of
Attack.--Moving toward the Hills.--Assaulting the Bluff.--Our
Repulse.--New Plans.--Withdrawal from the Yazoo.

CHAPTER XXV.
BEFORE VICKSBURG.
Capture of Arkansas Post.--The Army returns to Milliken's
Bend.--General Sherman and the Journalists.--Arrest of the
Author.--His Trial before a Military Court.--Letter from President
Lincoln.--Capture of Three Journalists.

CHAPTER XXVI.
KANSAS IN WAR-TIME.
A Visit to Kansas.--Recollections of Border Feuds.--Peculiarities of
Kansas Soldiers.--Foraging as a Fine Art.--Kansas and
Missouri.--Settling Old Scores.--Depopulating the Border

Counties.--Two Examples of Grand Strategy.--Capture of the
"Little-More-Grape" Battery.--A Woman in Sorrow.--Frontier
Justice.--Trial before a "Lynch" Court.--General Blunt's
Order.--Execution of Horse-Thieves.--Auction Sale of Confiscated
Property.--Banished to Dixie.

CHAPTER XXVII.
GETTYSBURG.
A Hasty Departure.--At Harrisburg.--En route for the Army of the
Potomac.--The Battle-Field at Gettysburg.--Appearance of the
Cemetery.--Importance of the Position.--The Configuration of
Ground.--Traces of Battle.--Round Hill.--General Meade's
Head-Quarters.--Appearance of the Dead.--Through the Forests along
the Line.--Retreat and Pursuit of Lee.

CHAPTER XXVIII.
IN THE NORTHWEST.
From Chicago to Minnesota.--Curiosities of Low-Water
Navigation.--St. Paul and its Sufferings in Earlier Days.--The Indian
War.--A Brief History of our Troubles in that Region.--General Pope's
Expeditions to Chastise the Red Man.--Honesty in the Indian
Department.--The End of the Warfare.--The Pacific Railway.--A Bold
Undertaking.--Penetrating British Territory.--The Hudson Bay
Company.--Peculiarities of a Trapper's Life.

CHAPTER XXIX.
INAUGURATION OF A GREAT ENTERPRISE.

Plans for Arming the Negroes along the Mississippi.--Opposition to the
Movement.--Plantations Deserted by their Owners.--Gathering
Abandoned Cotton.--Rules and Regulations.--Speculation.--Widows
and Orphans in Demand.--Arrival of Adjutant-General
Thomas.--Designs of the Government.

CHAPTER XXX.
COTTON-PLANTING IN 1863.
Leasing the Plantations.--Interference of the
Rebels.--Raids.--Treatment of Prisoners.--The Attack upon Milliken's
Bend.--A Novel Breast-Work.--Murder of our Officers.--Profits of
Cotton-Planting.--Dishonesty of Lessees.--Negroes Planting on their
own Account.

CHAPTER XXXI.
AMONG THE OFFICIALS.
Reasons for Trying an Experiment.--Activity among
Lessees.--Opinions of the Residents.--Rebel Hopes in 1863.--Removal
of Negroes to West Louisiana.--Visiting Natchez.--The City and its
Business.--"The Rejected Addresses".

CHAPTER XXXII.
A JOURNEY OUTSIDE THE LINES.
Passing the Pickets.--Cold Weather in the South.--Effect of Climate
upon the Constitution.--Surrounded and Captured.--Prevarication and
Explanation.--Among the Natives.--The Game for the

Confederacy.--Courtesy of the Planters.--Condition of the
Plantations.--The Return.

CHAPTER XXXIII.
ON THE PLANTATION.
Military Protection.--Promises.--Another Widow.--Securing a
Plantation.--Its Locality and Appearance.--Gardening in
Louisiana.--How Cotton is Picked.--"The Tell-Tale."--A Southerner's
Opinion of the Negro Character.--Causes and Consequences.

CHAPTER XXXIV.
RULES AND REGULATIONS UNDER THE OLD AND NEW
SYSTEMS.
The Plantation Record.--Its Uses.--Interesting Memoranda.--Dogs, Jail,
and Stocks.--Instructions to the Overseer.--His Duties and
Responsibilities.--The Order of General Banks.--Management of
Plantations in the Department of the Gulf.--The two Documents.
Contrasted.--One of the Effects of "an Abolition War".

CHAPTER XXXV.
OUR FREE-LABOR ENTERPRISE IN PROGRESS.
The Negroes at Work.--Difficulties in the Way.--A Public Meeting.--A
Speech.--A Negro's Idea of Freedom.--A Difficult Question to
Determine.--Influence of Northern and Southern Men Contrasted.--An
Increase of Numbers.--"Ginning" Cotton.--In the Lint-Room.--Mills
and Machinery of a Plantation.--A Profitable Enterprise.

CHAPTER XXXVI.
WAR AND AGRICULTURE.
Official Favors.--Division of Labor.--Moral Suasion.--Corn-gathering
in the South.--An Alarm.--A Frightened Irishman.--The Rebels
Approaching.--An Attack on Waterproof.--Falstaff Redivivus.--His
Feats of Arms.--Departure for New Orleans.

CHAPTER XXXVII.
IN THE COTTON MARKET.
New Orleans and its Peculiarities.--Its Loss by the Rebellion.--Cotton
Factors in New Orleans.--Old Things passed away.--The Northern
Barbarians a Race of Shopkeepers.--Pulsations of the Cotton
Market.--A Quarrel with a Lady.--Contending for a
Principle.--Inharmony of the "Regulations."--An Account of Sales.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.
SOME FEATURES OF PLANTATION LIFE.
Mysteries of Mule-trading.--"What's in a Name?"--Process of Stocking
a Plantation.--An Enterprising White Man.--Stratagem of a
Yankee.--Distributing Goods to the Negroes.--The Tastes of the
African.--Ethiopian Eloquence.--A Colored Overseer.--Guerrillas
Approaching.--Whisky vs. Guerrillas.--A Hint to Military Men.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

VISITED BY GUERRILLAS.
News of the Raid.--Returning to the Plantation.--Examples of Negro
Cunning.--A Sudden Departure and a Fortunate Escape.--A Second
Visit.--"Going Through," in Guerrilla Parlance.--How it is
Accomplished.--Courtesy to Guests.--A Holiday Costume.--Lessees
Abandoning their Plantations.--Official Promises.

CHAPTER XL.
PECULIARITIES OF PLANTATION LABOR.
Resuming Operation.--Difficulties in the Way.--A New Method of
Healing the Sick.--A Thief Discovered by his Ignorance of
Arithmetic.--How Cotton is Planted.--The Uses of Cotton-Seed.--A
Novel Sleeping-Room.--Constructing a Tunnel.--Vigilance of a Negro
Sentinel.

CHAPTER XLI.
THE NEGROES AT A MILITARY POST.
The Soldiers at Waterproof.--The Black Man in Blue.--Mutiny and
Desertion.--Their Cause and Cure.--Tendering a Resignation.--No
Desire for a Barber.--Seeking Protection.--Falsehood and
Truth.--Proneness to Exaggeration.--Amusing Estimates.

CHAPTER XLII.
THE END OF THE EXPERIMENT.
The Nature of our "Protection."--Trade Following the Flag.--A

Fortunate Journey.--Our Last Visit.--Inhumanity of the
Guerrillas.--Driving Negroes into Captivity.--Killing an Overseer.--Our
Final Departure.--Plantations Elsewhere.

CHAPTER XLIII.
THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS PECULIARITIES.
Length of the Great River, and the Area it Drains.--How Itasca Lake
obtained its Name.--The Bends of the Mississippi.--Curious Effect
upon Titles to Real Estate.--A Story of Napoleon.--A Steamboat
Thirty-five Years under Water.--The Current and its
Variations.--Navigating Cotton and Corn Fields.--Reminiscences of the
Islands.

CHAPTER XLIV.
STEAMBOATING ON THE MISSISSIPPI IN PEACE AND WAR.
Attempts to Obstruct the Great River.--Chains, Booms, and
Batteries.--A Novelty in Piloting.--Travel in the Days Before the