nd another from Bolivar. These columns met at
Grand Junction, twenty-five miles north of Holly Springs, and, after
lying there for two weeks, advanced to the occupation of the latter
point. The Rebels evacuated the place on our approach, and after a day
or two at Holly Springs we went forward toward the south. Abbeville
and Oxford were taken, and the Rebels established themselves at
Grenada, a hundred miles south of Memphis.

From Corinth I accompanied the division commanded by General Stanley.
I had known this officer in Missouri, in the first year of the war,
when he claimed to be very "conservative" in his views. During the
campaign with General Lyon he expressed himself opposed to a warfare
that should produce a change in the social status at the South. When I
met him at Corinth he was very "radical" in sentiment, and in favor of
a thorough destruction of the "peculiar institution." He declared that
he had liberated his own slaves, and was determined to set free all
the slaves of any other person that might come in his way. He rejoiced
that the war had not ended during the six months following the fall
of Fort Sumter, as we should then have allowed slavery to exist,
which would have rendered us liable to another rebellion whenever
the Southern leaders chose to make it. We could only be taught by
the logic of events, and it would take two or three years of war to
educate the country to a proper understanding of our position.

It required a war of greater magnitude than was generally expected at
the outset. In 1861 there were few people who would have consented to
interfere with "slavery in the States." The number of these persons
was greater in 1862, but it was not until 1864 that the anti-slavery
sentiment took firm hold of the public mind. In 1861 the voice of
Missouri would have favored the retention of the old system. In 1864
that State became almost as radical as Massachusetts. The change in
public sentiment elsewhere was nearly as great.

During the march from Corinth to Grand Junction, I had frequent
opportunity for conversing with the people along the route. There were
few able-bodied men at home. It was the invariable answer, when we
asked the whereabouts of any citizen, "He's away." Inquiry would
bring a reluctant confession that he had gone to the Rebel army.
Occasionally a woman would boast that she had sent her husband to
fight for his rights and the rights of his State. The violation of
State rights