iles distant. Arriving
there, a nice country house and very secluded, I concealed my horse in
the woods as best I could and went to the house, where I was welcomed
and cared for by two young ladies and their aged father, Mr. Hurt, who
was blind. I was now much exhausted, and determined to take a rest, with
the chances of being captured. The occasion of the alarm was a body of
Federal cavalry which had been sent on a raid to meet Hunter's army,
advancing on Lynchburg.

After two days in this quiet abode I set out to make my way past the
rear of Hunter's army and eventually to reach home. On the way to
Liberty I was informed that a train of Hunter's wagons and many negroes,
under a cavalry escort, were then passing northward through the town. To
satisfy myself (being again mounted on my father's gray) I rode to the
top of a hill overlooking the place. Then a strikingly pretty young lady
of about sixteen, bareheaded (although it was not then the fashion), and
almost out of breath, who had seen me coming into danger, ran to meet me
and called, "For God's sake, fly; the town is full of Yankees!" Many
years after the war a lady friend of Norfolk, Virginia, who was
refugeeing in Liberty at the time, told me that she had witnessed the
incident, and said that the girl who had run out to warn me had
afterward married a Federal officer. I then went around the town and
crossed the road a mile west of it, learning that the wagon-train, etc.,
had all passed.

From this place on, throughout the territory over which this patriotic
army had operated, were the desolated homes of helpless people, stripped
of every valuable they possessed, and outraged at the wanton destruction
of their property, scarcely knowing how to repair the damage or to take
up again their broken fortunes. Night had now fallen, but a bright moon
rather added to the risks of continuing my journey. An old negro man,
however, kindly agreed to pilot me through fields and woods, avoiding
the highways, "as far as Colonel Nichol's" (his master's). When near his
destination he went ahead to reconnoiter, and soon returned from the
house, accompanied by one of the ladies, who told me that their house
and premises had been overrun by Yankees all day, and that some of them
were still prowling about, and, in her fright, pointed to each bush as
an armed foe.

Camp-fires still burning enabled me to steer clear of the road, but it
was midnight when I reached my aunt's, and, goin