ree weeks, where more supplies than we had taken awaited us.
St. Louis and Chicago had caught the fever of relief, had arranged
societies, and had asked permission to join our aid. Up to this time the
Mississippi had given no indication of trouble, but now its great June
rise commenced.

The Government boats, by another appropriation, were sent to the
Mississippi, and we prepared to supplement them. Discharging our Ohio
River boat we went to St. Louis by rail and chartered the "Mattie Bell."
The Red Cross Societies of St. Louis and Chicago, under their respective
presidents and officers in charge of them and their funds, joined us,
and together we prepared to feed and rescue the perishing stock--as
well as people adown the Mississippi. The animals had never been saved
in an overflow; and besides the cruelty of letting them starve by
thousands, the loss to the people was irreparable, as the following year
must inevitably be replete with idleness and poverty till more stock
could be obtained to work with.

We found as commissary at St. Louis, General Beckwith, the historic
commissary-general of the old civil war, who had personally
superintended the loading of my wagons in Washington, year after year,
for the battle-fields of Virginia. He came on board the "Mattie Bell"
and personally superintended the lading--clothing, corn, oats, salt, and
hay--besides putting upon the Government boats large quantities of
supplies which we could not take on at first, and giving us his
blessing, watched us steam out on our joint mission; they putting off
rations of meat and meal--we supplementing with clothing for the people
and feed for the stock. We purchased all we could at cities as we
passed, picked our course among the broken levees and roaring crevasses,
all the way to New Orleans. The hungry were fed, the naked clothed, and
the stock saved. The negro had his mule, and the planter his horses and
cattle to carry on his work when the flood should disappear. We had
lighter boats, still lighter purses, but lightest of all were the
grateful hearts that a kind Providence and a generous people had given
to us the privilege of serving.

We discharged the "Mattie Bell" at St. Louis, bidding adieu to the
officers of the Red Cross Society, who had rendered most acceptable
service to the cause. They had brought their own funds and material--had
personally administered them from the decks of the "Mattie Bell," made
their own reports, and mo