know the houses
were all vacant. The buildings were small frame or log structures,
composed of cypress and pine lumber or logs, roofed with shingles, and
highly combustible, and they made an exceedingly hot fire. I do not
know the cause of the burning of the town. The soldiers were tired,
mad, and out of sorts generally, and they may have fired it on their
own motion, but it is more likely that it was done by order of the
military authorities. The empty houses afforded excellent cover whereby
the Confederates could slip up to the river bank and annoy our
gunboats, even to the extent of capturing one, as they had done quite
recently. So as a military measure the burning of the town was fully
justified.

We left Clarendon on the evening of the 29th, on the steamer "Lillie
Martin," arrived at Devall's Bluff some time during the night, debarked
from the boat next morning, and went into camp near the river, where we
enjoyed for a time an agreeable rest.

Before taking final leave of the Clarendon expedition I will, in the
interest of the truth of history, indulge in a little criticism of the
gallant and distinguished officer who was the Confederate commander in
this affair. All who are conversant with the military career of General
J. O. Shelby will readily concede that he was a brave, skillful, and
energetic cavalry commander. He kept us in hot water almost continually
in the Trans-Mississippi department, and made us a world of trouble.
But I feel constrained to remark that, in reporting his military
operations, he was, sometimes, a most monumental----well, I'll scratch
out the "short and ugly" word I have written, and substitute "artist,"
and let it go at that. I have just been reading his reports of this
Clarendon episode, as they appear on pages 1050-1053, Serial Number 61,
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, and as he describes it,
it is difficult to recognize it as being the same affair we took part
in, in June, 1864. In the first place, he says that the loss of the
Federals can "safely be put down at 250 killed and wounded," and that
30 will cover his own. On the other hand, our commander, Gen. Carr,
says the Confederate loss, killed, wounded and captured, was "about"
74, and gives ours as 1 killed and 16 wounded. (Ib., p. 1047.) And from
what I personally saw, I have no doubt that Gen. Carr's statements are
correct. Shelby further asserts that "three times" he drove us "back to
the river," and that later