n outpost duty there--51st Alabama Cavalry. This Colonel Webb
was a lawyer by profession, and seemed a capital fellow; and he insisted
on riding with us to the videttes in spite of the rain, and he also
desired his regiment to turn out for us by the time we returned. The
extreme outposts were about two miles beyond Colonel Webb's post, and
about sixteen miles from Shelbyville. The neutral ground extended for
about three miles. We rode along it as far as it was safe to do so, and
just came within sight of the Yankee videttes. The Confederate videttes
were at an interval of from 300 to 400 yards of each other. Colonel
Webb's regiment was in charge of two miles of the front; and, in a
similar manner, the chain of videttes was extended by other corps right
and left for more than eighty miles. Scouts are continually sent forward
by both sides to collect information. Rival scouts and pickets
invariably fire on one another whenever they meet; and Colonel Webb
good-naturedly offered, if I was particularly anxious to see their
customs and habits, to send forward a few men and have a little fight. I
thanked him much for his kind offer, but begged he wouldn't trouble
himself so far on my account. He showed me the house where Vallandigham
had been "dumped down" between the outposts when they refused to receive
him by flag of truce.

The woods on both sides of the road showed many signs of the conflicts
which are of daily occurrence. Most of the houses by the roadside had
been destroyed; but one plucky old lady had steadfastly refused to turn
out, although her house was constantly an object of contention, and
showed many marks of bullets and shell. Ninety-seven men were employed
every day in Colonel Webb's regiment to patrol the front. The remainder
of the 51st Alabama were mounted and drawn up to receive Colonel
Grenfell on our return from the outposts. They were uniformly armed with
long rifles and revolvers, but without sabres, and they were a fine body
of young men. Their horses were in much better condition than might have
been expected, considering the scanty food and hard duty they had had to
put up with for the last five months, without shelter of any kind,
except the trees. Colonel Grenfell told me they were a very fair
specimen of the immense number of cavalry with Bragg's army. I got back
to Shelbyville at 4.30 P.M., just in time to be present at an
interesting ceremony peculiar to America. This was a baptism at the
Episc