MY JOURNEY DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI.

CHAPTER IV.

February 2, 1863, I was ordered, by Governor Tod, to go down the Mississippi River and look after the Ohio soldiers and attend to other duties that were strictly of a confidential nature. I immediately started on the somewhat dangerous tour. I stopped at Cairo, at the junction of the O. & M. Railroad, and found some sick and wounded Ohio soldiers; they were well cared for. The next place I stopped at was a camp of Union soldiers, (mostly colored), at the mouth of the White River, Arkansas. I found no Ohio soldiers here. There was considerable sickness in the camp, especially among the colored people. I reported to the Governor that the hospital and medical arrangements were very defective here and that something needed to be done immediately. The camp was speedily moved. Here I met an extraordinary colored preacher. He was a middle aged man, very dark and strongly built.

I had some books which had been intrusted to me by the Freedman's Aid Society and I desired to secure some suitable person to take charge of the books I wished to leave for the benefit of the colored people. I inquired for a suitable person and I was directed to this preacher; I found him without difficulty; I inquired of him if he could read and he replied, "Yes, by de help of de Lord." I assured him that I was glad to meet him; giving him the package of books I said to him, "you will find some primers and spelling books, and you can teach your people, old and young, their letters and how to spell and read." He utterly astonished me by saying, "Laws, massa, I doesn't know one letter from de udder." I said to him, "how is this; you told me a moment ago that you could read and write; now you say that you don't know your letters." He replied, "That is so massa; I doesn't know de letters but I knows de words." I tested his ability to read by selecting a chapter in the Testament; he read it very well. He then gave me a history of his learning to read by sight. He said he had a pious mistress who had him commit to

memory hymns and chapters in the Bible. He said he could commit very readily. As his mistress would read the hymn or chapter he would notice the page-see something by which he could find the place after she would retire; he would find the place, as he called it, and notice the shape and form of the words one after the other; in this way he assured me he learned to know all the words in the Testament. This way

of reading was new to me at that time; but this method, or something much like it, is now in general use in our schools.

From the camp at the mouth of the White River I took passage on a steamer to Memphis, Tenn. Here I found a number of Ohio soldiers --several in the hospitals-sick and wounded, but well taken care of.

There is a very beautiful park at Memphis; in that park is a monument erected to the memory of Gen. Jackson. I noticed that it was defaced. The inscription was cut out by some Confederate soldiers, as I was told. The objectionable in

scription was a Union sentiment.

This was more than they could endure so they

cut the inscription out. From what we know of Gen. Jackson, had he been living during the rebellion, he would doubtless have identified himself with the Union side.

The next stopping place was Helena, Ark. We found no Ohio soldiers here. The place was held by a small garrison of Union troops.

We next stopped at Vicksburg, Miss. Here we found a large number of Ohio soldiers, sick and wounded, who had been sent from other points to the hospitals at this place. The sick and wounded had good attention here but lacked suitable hospital stores. This city has many marks that will perpetuate a remembrance of the war. The caves that were made during Gen. Grant's bombardment of the city will long remind the passerby of the war. These excavations, many

of them, were large enough to contain whole families with all needed furniture. Some had bed rooms and cooking apartments. The ground is of such a nature that there is no danger of it caving in. These apartments under ground saved many lives. One great drawback to this mode of living was the want of light. The people had

no coal oil and but a scanty supply of lard and tallow, so many were compelled to live in total darkness for days during the bombardment. Many families in the city were evidently in a destitute condition when Gen. Pemberton surrendered, and were glad to get army rations from the despised Yankees. I found no place within the bounds of the Confederacy where the feelings of the people seemed so bitter against the North as here. I have not been able to learn why this bitterness was cherished to such a degree here.

From Vicksburg I went by boat to a point down the Mississippi river called, during the war, "Jeff Davis Bend"—a kind of peninsula formed by a bend in the river. The peninsula contained several large cotton plantations, among which were Jeff Davis', Joe Davis' and the Banks plantations. Joe Davis, a brother of Jefferson Davis, had a magnificent brick house and a well cultivated plantation. Jefferson Davis had a large one-story frame house with a veranda on three sides; his house was well furnished, as I can testify, for I enloyed the hospitalities of his house for several days; I ate at his table and slept in