of the past two months.
This attack prostrated me at once. I was placed in an ambulance, being
unable to ride my horse. The shaking and jolting of that ambulance ride
were something fearful. I can now sympathize with the wounded who were
compelled to ride in those horrible vehicles. They were covered wagons,
with seats on each side, and made with heavy, stiff springs, so as to
stand the rough roads, which were frequently cut through the fields.
This night General Kimball had me brought to his head-quarters, a brick
farm-house, for shelter. It was a kindness I greatly appreciated. The
next night our chaplain succeeded in getting me into a farm-house some
little distance from the regiment. He secured this accommodation on the
strength of Freemasonry. The owner's name I have preserved in my diary
as Mr. D. L. F. Lake. He was one of Mosby's "cavalry," as they called
themselves. We in our army called them "guerillas." They were the terror
of our army stragglers. They were "good Union men" when our army was
passing, but just as soon as the army had passed they were in their
saddles, picking up every straggler and any who may have had to fall
behind from sickness. In that way they got quite a few prisoners. This
man did not hesitate to tell us the mode of their operations. He said
his farm had been literally stripped of hay, grain, and cattle by our
cavalry under General Stoneman. All he had left was one chicken. This
his wife cooked for the chaplain and me. He brought out Richmond papers
during the evening and freely discussed the issues of the war with the
chaplain. I was too ill to pay much attention to what was said, only to
gather that his idea of us Northern people was that we were a miserable
horde of invading barbarians, destined to be very speedily beaten and
driven out. He admitted, however, that in financial transactions he
preferred "greenbacks" to the Confederate scrip, which I thought rather
negatived his boasted faith in the success of the Confederacy. His wife,
who had, not many years gone, been young and pretty, occasionally chimed
in with expressions of great hate and bitterness. Perhaps the latter was
not to be wondered at from their stand-point, and they had just now
ample grounds for their bitter feelings in the fact that they had just
been relieved of all their portable property by the Union forces. He had
receipts for what Stoneman had taken, which would be good for their
market value on his taking the oat