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272 At Jackson I found General Lowering in command, and heard that General Van Dorn had surprised the Federals at Holly Springs, and had captured the entire force there, and an immense quantity of supplies of every description. This event took place on the 20th of April, 1863, and was one of the most brilliant affairs of the whole campaign. The Federals had made Holly Springs a base of supplies, and had collected there everything that was needed for the maintenance of the army in the operations against Vicksburg; but Van Dorn, by one bold and skilfully executed movement, succeeded in giving the impoverished Confederates provisions and munitions of war which they sorely needed, and in damaging the Federals more than a hard-fought battle would have done. From Grenada, I returned once more to Jackson, and found the place in considerable excitement over the prospective army movements; but as there did not seem to be much for me to do in the particular line of business I desired to take up, I now determined to put my old intention of returning to Virginia into execution; and as having once made up my mind to a certain line of action, I was not in the habit of long delaying over it, I was soon speeding eastward again on my way to Richmond.

I should have mentioned, that after leaving New Orleans, I resumed male attire at the earliest possible moment, and figured once more as Lieutenant Harry T. Buford. Perhaps if I had gone to General Johnston, or some other commanding officer of high rank, and frankly stated that I was a woman, giving at the same time a narrative of my exploits, and furnishing references as guarantees of the truthfulness of my story, I would have obtained the kind of employment I was looking for, with permission to use the garments of either sex, as I might deem expedient for the particular errand I had in hand. I sometimes thought that this was what I should have done; but I could not overcome my repugnance to making any one a confidant of my secret, even if by so doing I would have advanced my own interests. In the then condition of affairs, when the different commands were fully organized and disciplined, my position as an independent was even more anomalous than it was at the commencement of the war,