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N leaving New Orleans I had no very definite plans for the immediate future, my hurried departure, as well as my lack of knowledge with regard to the exact details of the military situation, having prevented me from forming any. I was, therefore, rather at a loss exactly how to proceed, but did not doubt of my ability to find a field for the display of my talents ere a great while. I was now more intent than ever upon being employed on detective and scouting duty, for which my recent residence in New Orleans had been an excellent schooling; so excellent, indeed, that I considered myself as well out of my apprenticeship, and as quite competent to assume all the responsibilities of the most difficult or dangerous jobs that might be thrust upon me. I did not doubt that there would be plenty of work for me to do, for throughout the entire West military matters seemed to be in a very mixed condition, and the different armies, both Confederate and Federal, so broken up and scattered, that it must have taxed the energies of the commanding officers on both sides to have kept the run of each other's movements. The Federals, by their victories at Fort Donelson and Shiloh, and several other points, had succeeded in forcing both the first and second Confederate lines of defence, and in penetrating to the heart of the portion of the Confederacy west of 268