nearer I got to it, and General Hebert told me that it was very doubtful
whether I could cross at all at this point. The Yankee gunboats, which
had forced their way past Vicksburg and Port Hudson, were roaming about
the Mississippi and Red River, and some of them were reported at the
entrance of the Wachita itself, a small fort at Harrisonburg being the
only impediment to their appearance in front of Munroe.

On another side, the enemy's forces were close to Delhi, only forty
miles distant.

There were forty or fifty Yankee deserters here from the army besieging
Vicksburg. These Yankee deserters, on being asked their reasons for
deserting, generally reply,--"Our Government has broken faith with us.
We enlisted to fight for the Union, and not to liberate the G----d
d----d niggers." Vicksburg is distant from this place about eighty
miles.

The news of General Lee's victory at Chancellorsville had just arrived
here. Every one received it very coolly, and seemed to take it quite as
a matter of course; but the wound of Stonewall Jackson was universally
deplored.

* * * * *

_11th May_ (Monday).--General Hebert is a good-looking creole.[22] He
was a West-Pointer, and served in the old army, but afterwards became a
wealthy sugar-planter. He used to hold Magruder's position as
commander-in-chief in Texas, but he has now been shelved at Munroe,
where he expects to be taken prisoner any day; and, from the present
gloomy aspect of affairs about here, it seems extremely probable that he
will not be disappointed in his expectations. He is extremely down upon
England for not recognising the South.[23]

He gave me a passage down the river in a steamer, which was to try to
take provisions to Harrisonburg; but, at the same time, he informed me
that she might very probably be captured by a Yankee gunboat.

At 1 P.M. I embarked for Harrisonburg, which is distant from Munroe by
water 150 miles, and by land 75 miles. It is fortified, and offers what
was considered a weak obstruction to the passage of the gunboats up the
river to Munroe.

The steamer was one of the curious American river boats, which rise to a
tremendous height out of the water, like great wooden castles. She was
steered from a box at the very top of all, and this particular one was
propelled by one wheel at her stern.

The river is quite beautiful; it is from 200 to 300 yards broad, very
deep and tortuous, and the large trees grow