Page:McClure's Magazine v9 n3 to v10 no2.djvu/537

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The march which we now made was toward Jackson, and it proved to be no easy affair. More than one night I bivouacked on the ground in the rain, after being all day in my saddle. The most comfortable night I had, in fact, was in a church of which the officers had taken possession. Having no pillow, I went up to the pulpit and borrowed the Bible for the night. Dr. H. S. Hewitt, who was medical director on Grant's staff, slept near me, and he always charged me afterwards with stealing that Bible.

In spite of the roughness of our life, it was all of intense interest to me, particularly the condition of the people over whose country we were marching. A fact which impressed me was the total absence of men capable of bearing arms. Only old men and children remained. The young men were all in the army or had perished in it. The South was drained of its youth. An army of half a million with a white population of only five millions to draw upon must soon finish the stock of raw material for soldiers. Another fact of moment was that we found men who had at the first sympathized with the re-