ow many of you want to go with me?"

The response was instantaneous and unanimous.

"We'll all stick by you, Captain, 'till the cows come home,'" they
cried.

"Very well," he answered. "We must march to James River to-night and
cross it. We must make our way into the mountains and through Lynchburg,
if possible, into North Carolina. We'll try, anyhow."

All night long they marched. They secured some coarse food-stuffs at a
mill which they passed on their way up into the mountains. There for a
week they struggled to make their way southward, fighting now and then,
not with Federal troops, for there were none there, but with marauders.
These were the offscourings of both armies, and of the negro population
of that region. They made themselves the pests of Virginia at that time.
Their little bands consisted of deserters from both armies, dissolute
negroes, and all other kinds of "lewd fellows of the baser sort." They
raided plantations. They stole horses. They terrorized women. They were
a thorn in the flesh of General Grant's officers, who were placed in
strategic positions to prevent the possible occurrence of a guerrilla
warfare, and who therefore could not scatter their forces for the
policing of a land left desolate and absolutely lawless.

In many parts of the country which were left without troops to guard
them, at a time when no civil government existed, these marauders played
havoc in an extraordinary way. But the resoluteness of General Grant's
administration soon suppressed them. Whenever he caught them he hanged
or shot them without mercy, and with small consideration for
formalities. In the unprotected districts he authorized the
ex-Confederates, upon their promise to lend aid against the inauguration
of guerrilla warfare, to suppress them on their own account, and they
did so relentlessly.

During the sojourn in the mountains, in his effort to push his way
through to Johnston, Guilford Duncan came upon a plantation where only
women were living in the mansion house. A company of these marauders had
taken possession of the plantation, occupying its negro cabins and
terrorizing the population of the place. When Duncan rode up with his
seven armed men he instantly took command and assumed the _role_ of
protector. First of all he posted his men as sentries for the protection
of the plantation homestead. Next he sent out scouts, including a number
of trusty negroes who belonged upon the plantation, to find ou