ce of about fifteen miles without seeing a soul
or finding anything eatable. But few houses appeared to be inhabited,
and these were avoided.

Just before daybreak we came across an old stable, where we found some
corn in the mangers--that is, the small kernels left on the ends of the
cobs by horses when they eat. Of this we made a fairly good meal.

A little farther on we came to a corn crib which had in it about 150
bushels of corn, and here we had a feast, building a fire and parching
the corn.

While we were eating we saw a cow coming toward the corn crib, and we
welcomed her heartily, giving her some corn shucks to feed upon while we
milked her and regaled ourselves.

We now proceeded with little or no trouble, making far better time than
we had expected to make, and we felt almost as if at home when we came
to a finger-board bearing the inscription: "2-1/2 miles to Arkadelphia."

I had been in this place with our army on our way to Camden the spring
before, and it now seemed as if we must soon meet some blue uniforms.

We passed on around the town to the Caddo river, which empties into the
Washita four miles above Arkadelphia.

When we reached the river there were no signs of a ferry, and we walked
up and down the river bank for about two miles each way before we found
any chance to cross. There seemed to be no ferry, and the chance of
crossing was based solely upon the fact that we finally discovered a
house on the farther bank, and a skiff tied to a tree near by.

We built our hopes on that skiff, but there was no way to get it at
present, and we decided to drop down the river to a secluded place in
the bottom and await developments.

Finding the desired place, we went into camp, building a fire, parching
some corn, warming up well and getting a good sleep.

In the morning we again went over the ground, but found no better chance
to cross, concluding that the owner of the skiff must be the ferryman.

We could not build a raft, as there were no logs lying about which were
suitable for the purpose. The river was too deep to wade, and the water
was so cold that we were afraid to risk an effort to swim over,
especially on account of Miller's aversion to the element, and the
necessity of towing him over on a log if we tried this method of
crossing; so, after sizing up the situation in all its aspects, we
decided to keep quiet until about sundown and then go boldly down to the
water's edge at the road and