d Vicksburg yesterday. It was my first
sight of the "Gibraltar of the South." Looking at it from a slight
elevation suggests the idea that the fragments left from world-building
had tumbled into a confused mass of hills, hollows, hillocks, banks,
ditches, and ravines, and that the houses had rained down afterwards. Over
all there was dust impossible to conceive. The bombardment has done little
injury. People have returned and resumed business. A gentleman asked H. if
he knew of a nice girl for sale. I asked if he did not think it impolitic
to buy slaves now.

"Oh, not young ones. Old ones might run off when the enemy's lines
approach ours, but with young ones there is no danger."

We had not been many hours in town before a position was offered to H.
which seemed providential. The chief of a certain department was in
ill-health and wanted a deputy. It secures him from conscription, requires
no oath, and pays a good salary. A mountain seemed lifted off my heart.

_Thursday, Sept. 18, 1862. (Thanksgiving Day.)_--We staid three days at
the Washington Hotel; then a friend of H.'s called and told him to come to
his house till he could find a home. Boarding-houses have all been broken
up, and the army has occupied the few houses that were for rent. To-day H.
secured a vacant room for two weeks in the only boarding-house.

_Oak Haven, Oct. 3_.--To get a house in V. proved impossible, so we agreed
to part for a time till H. could find one. A friend recommended this quiet
farm, six miles from ---- (a station on the Jackson Railroad). On last
Saturday H. came with me as far as Jackson and put me on the other train
for the station.

On my way hither a lady, whom I judged to be a Confederate "blockade
runner," told me of the tricks resorted to to get things out of New
Orleans, including this: A very large doll was emptied of its bran, filled
with quinine, and elaborately dressed. When the owner's trunk was opened,
she declared with tears that the doll was for a poor crippled girl, and it
was passed.

This farm of Mr. W.'s[33] is kept with about forty negroes. Mr. W.,
nearly sixty, is the only white man on it. He seems to have been wiser in
the beginning than most others, and curtailed his cotton to make room for
rye, rice, and corn. There is a large vegetable garden and orchard; he has
bought plenty of stock for beef and mutton, and laid in a large supply of
sugar. He must also have plenty of ammunition, for a man is kept hunt