he refugees from New Orleans--these are
now being huddled neck and crop out of that city for refusing to take
the oath of allegiance to the United States. Great numbers of women and
children are arriving at Mobile every day; they are in a destitute
condition, and they add to the universal feeling of exasperation. The
propriety of raising the black flag, and giving no quarter, was again
freely discussed at General Slaughter's, and was evidently the popular
idea. I heard many anecdotes of the late "Stonewall Jackson," who was
General Slaughter's comrade in the Artillery of the old army. It appears
that previous to the war he was almost a monomaniac about his health.
When he left the U.S. service he was under the impression that one of
his legs was getting shorter than the other; and afterwards his idea was
that he only perspired on one side, and that it was necessary to keep
the arm and leg of the other side in constant motion in order to
preserve the circulation; but it seems that immediately the war broke
out he never made any further allusion to his health. General Slaughter
declared that on the night after the terrific repulse of Burnside's army
at Fredericksburg, Stonewall Jackson had made the following
suggestion:--"I am of opinion that we ought to attack the enemy at once;
and in order to avoid the confusion and mistakes so common in a
night-attack, I recommend that we should all strip ourselves perfectly
naked."[35] Blockade-running goes on very regularly at Mobile; the
steamers nearly always succeed, but the schooners are generally
captured. To-morrow I shall start for the Tennessean army, commanded by
General Braxton Bragg.

[33] A description of either its sea or land defences is necessarily
omitted.

[34] Its members were British subjects exempted from the conscription,
but they had volunteered to fight in defence of the city.

[35] I always forgot to ask General Lee whether this story was a true
one.

* * * * *

_26th May_ (Tuesday).--When I took Colonel Ewell's pass to the
provost-marshal's office this morning to be countersigned, that official
hesitated about stamping it, but luckily a man in his office came to my
rescue, and volunteered to say that, although he didn't know me himself,
he had heard me spoken of by others as "a very respectable gentleman." I
was only just in time to catch the twelve o'clock steamer for the
Montgomery railroad. I overheard two negroes on b