e Yankees much as they would the arrival of a pestilence. However,
it was not many days before a better understanding was arrived at, and
Yankee blue and Confederate gray got mixed up, and acquaintances were
made that ripened into mutual respect and in some cases love.

CHAPTER XXI.

I Go on a Scouting Expedition--My Horse Dies of Poison--
I Turn Horse-Thief--I Capture a Church, Congregation, and
Ministers, but I Spare the Communion Wine.

Let's see, the last chapter left me with a million dollars, more or
less, of confederate money in my possession, and yet I had not enough
to buy a square meal. I think there was no one thing that caused, the
people of the confederate states, outside of their army, to realize the
hopelessness of their cause, along in '64, as much as the relative
value of confederate money and greenbacks. Of course the confederate
soldiers, poor fellows, realized the difference some, when they could
get hold of greenbacks, but the people of the south who did not have
rations furnished them, and who had to skirmish around and buy something
to live upon, early learned that a greenback was worth "two in the
bush," as it were. No community in the south was more loyal to the
confederacy than the people of Montgomery, Alabama. They tried to use
confederate currency as long as there was any hope, and they tried hard
to despise the greenbacks; but when it got so that a market basket
full of their own currency was looked upon with suspicion by their own
dealers in eatables, and a greenback was sought after by the dealer, and
its possessor was greeted with a smile while the overloaded possessor
of confederate currency was frowned upon, more in sorrow than in anger,
however, a wild desire took possession of the people to get hold of the
hated greenbacks; and a soldier or army follower who had a good supply
of greenbacks was met more than half way in reconciliation; and little
jobs were put up to get the money that made many ashamed, but they had
to have greenbacks. Many would have given their lives if confederate
money could have been as good as the money of the invaders, but it was
not and never could be, and it was not an hour after the enemy was in
Montgomery before people who had been loyal to the south up to that
hour and believed in its currency, went back on it completely, and
they cherished the greenback and hugged it to their bosoms like an old
friend. They had rather had gold, but