ty of dried herbs and medicinal roots.
Here our meals were served, and the girls brought us books and read
aloud to pass away the long days. I was confined to the bed, and my
companion never ventured below stairs except on one dark night, when at
my earnest entreaty he set out for Kelly's Ford, but soon returned
unable to make his way in the darkness. One day we heard the door open
at the foot of the stairs, a tread of heavy boots on the steps, and a
clank, clank that sounded very much like a saber. Out of the floor rose
a gray slouch-hat with the yellow cord and tassel of a cavalryman, and
in another moment there stood on the landing one of the most astonished
troopers that ever was seen. "Coot" Brandon was one of "Jeb" Stuart's
rangers, and came every day for corn for his horse. Heretofore the corn
had been brought down for him, and he was as ignorant of our presence
as we were of his existence. On this day no pretext could keep him from
coming up to help himself. His mother worked on his sympathies, and he
departed promising her that he would leave us undisturbed. But the very
next morning he turned up again, this time accompanied by another ranger
of sterner mold. A parole was exacted from my able-bodied companion, and
we were left for another twenty-four hours, when I was considered in
condition to be moved. Mrs. Brandon gave us each a new blue overcoat
from a plentiful store of Uncle Sam's clothing she had on hand, and I
opened my heart and gave her my last twenty-dollar greenback--and wished
I had it back again every day for the next ten months.

I was mounted on a horse, and with Lieutenant Hadley on foot we were
marched under guard all day until we arrived at a field hospital
established in the rear of Longstreet's corps, my companion being sent
on to some prison for officers. Thence I was forwarded with a train-load
of wounded to Lynchburg, on which General Hunter was then marching, and
we had good reason to hope for a speedy deliverance. On more than one
day we heard his guns to the north, where there was no force but a few
citizens with bird-guns to oppose the entrance of his command. The
slaves were employed on a line of breastworks which there was no
adequate force to hold. It was our opinion that one well-disciplined
regiment could have captured and held the town. It was several days
before a portion of General Breckinridge's command arrived for the
defense of Lynchburg.

I had clung to my clean bed in t