ated on
board my steamer, or at Munroe.

I had not time to visit the interior of the fort, but I saw the effect
of the shell upon the outside. Those which fell in the sand did not
burst. Only three men were wounded in the garrison. They told me the
deck of the Pittsburg was furnished with a parapet of cotton bales for
riflemen.

The river at Harrisonburg is about 160 yards broad, and very deep, with
a moderate current. The town, being between the vessels and the fort,
had, of course, suffered considerably during the bombardment.

When the works are complete they will be much more formidable.

To our great joy Colonel Logan decided that our vessel should proceed at
once to Trinity, which is fifteen miles nearer Natchez (on the
Mississippi) than Harrisonburg.

We arrived there at 8 P.M., and found that the gunboats had only just
left, after having destroyed all the molasses and rum they could find,
and carried away a few negroes.

Six of us pigged in one very small room, paying a dollar each for this
luxury to an old woman, who was most inhospitable, and told us "she
didn't want to see no soldiers, as the Yanks would come back and burn
her house for harbouring rebels." I am always taken for a Confederate
officer, partly from being in their company, and partly on account of my
clothes, which happen to be a grey shooting-suit, almost the same colour
as most of the soldiers' coats.

* * * * *

_14th May_ (Thursday).--The officers and soldiers, about thirty in
number, who came down the Wachita in my company, determined to proceed
to Natchez to-day, and a very hard day's work we had of it.

As the Louisianian bank of the Mississippi is completely overflowed at
this time of year, and the river itself is infested with the enemy's
gunboats, which have run past Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the passage can
only be made by a tedious journey in small boats through the swamps and
bayous.

Our party left Trinity at 6 A.M. in one big yawl and three skiffs. In
my skiff were eight persons, besides a negro oarsman named "Tucker." We
had to take it in turns to row with this worthy, and I soon discovered
to my cost the inconvenience of sitting in close proximity with a
perspiring darkie. This negro was a very powerful man, very vain, and
susceptible of flattery. I won his heart by asking him if he wasn't
worth 6000 dollars. We kept him up to the mark throughout the journey by
plying him with complime