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344 Well, matters did not turn out as it was expected they would. Bragg's victory at Chickamauga was a fruitless one, except so far as it delayed the Federal advance from Chattanooga, and the army of Rosecrans was neither starved nor beaten into subjection. On the contrary, Rosecrans was superseded, and Grant was put in his place, to follow up the victories he had won at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Vicksburg; and the army was so greatly re-enforced that it was enabled to press forward and menace Atlanta, and finally to capture it. The results of that capture are well known. The capture of Atlanta, however, was a long way off when I started for Richmond for the purpose of making a definite offer of my services to the Confederate authorities there, and was apparently as little likely to occur as was that of Richmond. Bad as the condition of things, in many particulars, was, I was in a more hopeful frame of mind than I had been for a long time, and I was anxious to labor, as I felt that I was able to labor, in behalf of the cause.

Had I then known as much as I knew not a great while after, I would not have put myself to the trouble of going to Richmond for the purpose of asking for work, but would at once have executed the project which I had frequently contemplated, and which I had more than once been on the point of carrying into effect, and would have gone directly north, and have put myself in communication with, the friends, sympathizers, and agents of the Confederacy there. This was the true field for me to operate in, although I had no idea, at this time, what opportunities a residence at the North would give me for aiding the cause in a most efficient manner. It was chance rather than design that finally took me within the jurisdiction of the Federal government, and enabled me to do more to baffle its efforts to crush the Confederacy by my operations in the rear of its armies in one year, than I had been able to do in three while endeavoring to fight them face to face. With only the most indefinite plans for the future, and little suspecting what exciting and perilous adventures fate yet had in store for me, I proceeded, on my arrival in Richmond, to call