ther lost a
nursing baby, too, which was not found until ten that night. White and
black were all mixed together, and were as confidential as though
related. All called to us and asked where we were going, and many we
knew laughed at us for riding on a cart; but as they had walked only
five miles, I imagined they would like even these poor accommodations
if they were in their reach.

The negroes deserve the greatest praise for their conduct. Hundreds
were walking with babies or bundles; ask them what they had saved, it
was invariably, "My mistress's clothes, or silver, or baby." Ask what
they had for themselves, it was, "Bless your heart, honey, I was glad
to get away with mistress's things; I didn't think 'bout mine."

It was a heart-rending scene. Women searching for their babies along
the road, where they had been lost; others sitting in the dust crying
and wringing their hands; for by this time we had not an idea but what
Baton Rouge was either in ashes, or being plundered, and we had saved
nothing. I had one dress, Miriam two, but Tiche had them, and we had
lost her before we left home.

Presently we came on a guerrilla camp. Men and horses were resting on
each side of the road, some sick, some moving about carrying water to
the women and children, and all looking like a monster barbecue, for as
far as the eye could see through the woods, was the same repetition of
men and horses. They would ask for the news, and one, drunk with
excitement or whiskey, informed us that it was our own fault if we had
saved nothing, the people must have been ---- fools not to have known
trouble would come before long, and that it was the fault of the men,
who were aware of it, that the women were thus forced to fly. In vain
we pleaded that there was no warning, no means of foreseeing this; he
cried, "_You_ are ruined; so am I; and my brothers, too! And by ----
there is nothing left but to die now, and I'll die!" "Good!" I said.
"But die fighting for us!" He waved his hand, black with powder, and
shouted, "That I will!" after us. That was the only swearing guerrilla
we met; the others seemed to have too much respect for us to talk loud.

Lucy had met us before this; early in the action, Lilly had sent her
back to get some baby-clothes, but a shell exploding within a few feet
of her, she took alarm, and ran up another road, for three miles, when
she cut across the plantations and regained the Greenwell route. It is
fortunate that, w