ankees would
possess the land.

Some of them sent their negroes to the interior of Louisiana for
safety. Others removed to Texas, carrying all their human property
with them. On some plantations the cotton had been so well cared for
that it came to maturity in fine condition. On others it had been very
slightly cultivated, and was almost choked out of existence by weeds
and grass. Nearly every plantation could boast of more or less cotton
in the field--the quantity varying from twenty bales to five hundred.
On some plantations cotton had been neglected, and a large crop of
corn grown in its place. Everywhere the Rebel law had been obeyed
by the production of more corn than usual. There was enough for the
sustenance of our armies for many months.

Natchez was the center of this newly-opened region. Before the war it
was the home of wealthy slave-owners, who believed the formation of a
Southern Confederacy would be the formation of a terrestrial paradise.
On both banks of the Mississippi, above and below Natchez, were the
finest cotton plantations of the great valley. One family owned nine
plantations, from which eight thousand bales of cotton were annually
sent to market. Another family owned seven plantations, and others
were the owners of from three to six, respectively.

The plantations were in the care of overseers and agents, and rarely
visited by their owners. The profits were large, and money was poured
out in profusion. The books of one of the Natchez banks showed a daily
business, in the picking season, of two or three million dollars,
generally on the accounts of planters and their factors.

Prior to the Rebellion, cotton was usually shipped to New Orleans, and
sold in that market. There were some of the planters who sent their
cotton to Liverpool or Havre, without passing it through the hands of
New Orleans factors. A large balance of the proceeds of such shipments
remained to the credit of the shippers when the war broke out, and
saved them from financial ruin. The business of Natchez amounted,
according to the season, from a hundred thousand to three hundred
thousand bales. This included a great quantity that was sent to New
Orleans from plantations above and below the city, without touching at
all upon the levee at Natchez.

Natchez consists of Natchez-on-the-Hill and Natchez-under-the-Hill.
A bluff, nearly two hundred feet high, faces the Mississippi, where
there is an eastward bend of the stream. To