l army in western Louisiana, rapidly
crumbled to pieces, and while the rank and file were seeking their
homes, the officers were continually coming in to our headquarters, to
make their peace formally with Uncle Sam. Having occasion to remove
our headquarters from Brashear City, to a place called Thibodaux,
probably not more than fifty miles distant by rail, we were obliged,
by reason of the overflow, to take a steamer and make a circuit of
some four hundred and fifty miles, going up the swift flowing and
extremely crooked, Atchafalaya, much of the way through a very
desolate country, then down the Red River and the Mississippi to
Algiers, and thence, by rail, to our place of destination. On our
journey we had the company of several rebel officers, some of high
rank, who availed themselves of the General's courtesy to reach the
Cresent City. In a few weeks the General was mustered out, and soon
afterwards, I returned to my company, which, with the battalion, had
in the meanwhile, been ordered to Donaldsonville. Among the duties
here assigned to me, was service as Provost Marshal of the Parish, an
office which combined as varied a responsibility as can well be
imagined. In certain civil cases I had, as judge, jury and executioner
of my own decisions, plenty of employment. With an occasional call to
join in matrimonial bonds sundry pairs of hearts that beat as one, I
had much more frequent cause to settle disputes between planters and
employees, where neither party was disposed to meet the other halfway.
Vexatious and varied as my employments were, and anxious as I might
be to do justice, I was liable to be overhauled by headquarters from
misrepresentations made by angry and disappointed suitors. One event
in my administration of the office, caused quite a sensation for the
day. In the presence of a crowd of whites and blacks, I heard a case
in which a colored woman, who had till recently been a slave, was
plaintiff and principal witness, and a white man who was defendant,
and gave judgment in favor of the former. This may seem to you a very
simple matter, but it was evidently no ordinary occurrence in that
place, and I presume this was the first occasion in the experience of
many of the spectators, in which the sworn testimony of a negro was
received as against that of a white person. I seem now to see the
glaring eyes of one indignant southron as he scowled upon the
proceedings with the intensest malignity. It was not di