_18th May_ (Monday).--On getting up this morning everything appeared
very uncertain, and a thousand contradictory reports and rumours were
flying about.

At 8 o'clock I called on Captain Matthews, and told him my earnest
desire to get on towards Johnston's army at all risks. He kindly
introduced me to the conductor of a locomotive, who offered to take me
to within a few miles of Jackson, if he was not cut off by the enemy,
which seemed extremely probable.

At 9 A.M. I seated myself, in company with about twenty soldiers, on the
engine, and we started towards Jackson.

On reaching Crystal Springs, half-way to Jackson, we found General
Loring's division crossing the railroad and marching east. It had been
defeated, with the loss of most of its artillery, three days before, and
was now cut off from General Pemberton.

At 5 P.M. the conductor stopped the engine, and put us out at a spot
distant nine miles from Jackson; and as I could procure no shelter,
food, or conveyance there, I found myself in a terrible fix.

At this juncture a French boy rode up on horseback, and volunteered to
carry my saddlebags as far as Jackson, if I could walk and carry the
remainder.

Gladly accepting this unexpected offer, I started with him to walk up
the railroad, as he assured me the Yankees really had gone; and during
the journey, he gave me a description of their conduct during the short
time they had occupied the city.

On arriving within three miles of Jackson, I found the railroad
destroyed by the enemy, who, after pulling up the track, had made piles
of the sleepers, and then put the rails in layers on the top of these
heaps; they had then set fire to the sleepers, which had caused the
rails to bend when red hot; the wooden bridges had also been set on
fire, and were still smoking.

When within a mile and a half of Jackson I met four men, who stopped
and questioned me very suspiciously, but they at length allowed me to
proceed, saying that these "were curious times."

After another mile I reached a mild trench, which was dignified by the
name of the fortifications of Jackson. A small fight had taken place
there four days previous, when General Johnston had evacuated the city.

When I got inside this trench I came to the spot on which a large body
of the Yankees had recently been encamped; they had set fire to a great
quantity of stores and arms, which they had been unable to carry away
with them, and which were still bu