ut we kept
up a fraternal correspondence with each other as long as he lived.

I will now return to the little squad of furloughed Sixty-onesters that
was left a while ago on the freight cars at Little Rock. The train
pulled out early in the day for Devall's Bluff, where we arrived about
noon. We at once made our way to the boat-landing,--and I simply am
unable to describe our disappointment when we found no steamboats
there. After making careful inquiry, we were unable to get any reliable
information in regard to the time of the arrival of any from below,--it
might be the next hour, or maybe not for several days. There was
nothing to do but just bivouac there by the river bank, and wait. And
there we waited for two long days of our precious thirty, and were
getting fairly desperate, when one afternoon the scream of a whistle
was heard, and soon the leading boat of a small fleet poked its nose
around the bend about half a mile below,--and we sprang to our feet,
waved our caps and yelled! We ascertained that the boats would start on
the return trip to the mouth of White river as soon as they unloaded
their army freight. This was accomplished by the next morning, we
boarded the first one ready to start, a small stern-wheeler, and some
time on the second day thereafter arrived at the mouth of White river.
There we landed, on the right bank of the Mississippi, and later
boarded a big side-wheeler destined for Cairo, which stopped to take us
on. When it rounded in for that purpose, the members of our little
squad were quite nervous, and there was a rush on the principle of
every fellow for himself. I was hobbling along with my traps, as best I
could, when in going down the river bank, which was high and steep, in
some way I stumbled and fell, and rolled clear to the bottom, and just
lay there helpless. There was one of our party of the name of John
Powell, of Co. G, a young fellow about twenty-two or -three years old.
He was not tall, only about five feet and eight or nine inches, but was
remarkably broad across the shoulders and chest, and had the reputation
of being the strongest man in the regiment. He happened to see the
accident that had befallen me, and ran to me, picked me up in his arms,
with my stuff, the same as if I had been a baby, and "toted" me on the
boat. He hunted up a cozy corner on the leeward side, set me down
carefully, and then said, "Now, you d--d little cuss, I guess you won't
fall down here." And all