From this point I will drop the cloak of an observer and narrate events
as they followed fast upon each other.
After leaving General Foster's tent I went to inquire after McClandish.
I found him with his wounds dressed, and though weak from loss of blood
and exhaustion, he had recovered enough to give me some pieces of
information I wanted.
My preparations were not extensive, but included the writing of some
letters to be left with General Foster and sent by him to various
friends in case I did not return.
Just as I was turning in for a few hours' sleep, Major Larrabee, who
shared my tent, came in. We talked awhile on the outlook of affairs,
then I told him that I had been ordered to the Capital with dispatches
and was to set out at daybreak.
Joe had a cup of coffee ready for me before daylight showed itself, and
as I finished it he brought around Bagdad, ready saddled. I had not
thought of it when giving my orders the night before, but as the horse
gave a glad whinny of welcome, I quickly decided to leave him to await
my return and take a less valuable horse. I knew that in a few hours I
would have to change to a fresh one and it would not be likely that once
left I would ever see him again.
I was soon on my way. I carried dispatches to General Pennington and
Colonel Barbour, and important papers which I was to deliver to the
Commander-in-Chief, wherever he might be.
The sun was just up when I reached the headquarters of General
Pennington and delivered the dispatches. I learned there that the troops
had been moved; that the Commander-in-Chief was near R----, so instead
of going on toward Washington I turned off and saved considerable time
by going across the country.
I found the general headquarters on a slope about three-quarters of a
mile south of R----. Without hard riding I reached there before nine
o'clock. As I dismounted an orderly took my horse and called another,
who conducted me past the trim sentries and across the tent-outlined
square to the tent of the Commander-in-Chief. He was ready to see me and
in less than half an hour I had delivered the papers and was on my way
to Washington, where Colonel Barbour was to meet me and deliver the
dispatches which he and General Pennington wished to send back to
General Foster, so saving me the trip out to get them.
I found the roads so filled with vehicles of all sorts, mingled with
cavalry and foot soldiers, as to be almost impassable in any direction,
and at places they were completely obstructed, but by taking side paths
I was able to keep my horse at a fair speed.
At four o'clock I was to meet Colonel Barbour at Willard's and in the
meantime I had enough to do.
As soon as I reached the city I made my way to a restaurant for a
nondescript meal, which might be called either a very late breakfast or
an early dinner. From there I went to Willard's, where I took a room and
a hot bath. Ever since I had decided to undertake the hazardous
enterprise on which I was bent, I had had an intense desire to be off
and avoid all delay, and it required more time than I cared to give to
remove the traces of my long, hard ride and furbish myself up into a fit
condition for calling, but the calls I was to make were the preliminary
steps in my hastily constructed plans and too important to be omitted.
The bright sun of the morning was almost obscured by hazy clouds as I
started out that warm September afternoon.
I sat in four different parlors that afternoon, and my fair Rebel
entertainers little dreamed that I, who had "looked them up for old
acquaintance sake while I had a few hours' leisure," sat with every
nerve strained, only waiting for an opportunity to put the seemingly
trivial questions which were to gain me the information so necessary to
the successful carrying out of my plans. All direct questions had to be
most carefully avoided and it was discouraging to lead up to the subject
and then have the conversation go over and around the point to which I
had been so carefully striving to bring it.
At the end of my second call I was ready to curse the luck which made
further effort necessary. During the third call I began to get the
desired enlightenment, and at the next house a few freely volunteered
remarks rounded my scrappy knowledge. That I did not change countenance,
I knew from the face of my entertainer, and she little guessed the joy
I felt when she casually told me what I had been striving so hard to
find out. My one desire then was to get away, and it required some
effort to keep up my part of the conversation. If I had followed the
predominant impulse of the moment I would have sped away and "stayed not
on the order of my going," instead of drawing my call out to the proper,
lingering length.
When I again reached Willard's, I inquired if Colonel Barbour had yet
arrived, and learning that he had, I went directly to his room. There
were three or four other officers there, all anxious to learn any news I
could tell and eager to question, but as I was not personally acquainted
with any of them, I cut all conversation as short as I could without
actual rudeness, and avoided being detained long. I ordered my horse,
and feeling the necessity of eating while I had an opportunity, I went
in to dinner.
After a hasty meal I left the hotel. The street was full of moving
troops. As I rode slowly along I had to draw up close to the pavement
several times to avoid the crush, and several times came to a full halt,
until the moving mass of troops, vehicles and pedestrians had surged
past. I finally reached the small restaurant on a side street, where, as
previously arranged, I met an orderly sent by General Foster. I gave him
the dispatches I carried, telling him to proceed at once with them to
that General's headquarters. As soon as he was out of the way I was free
to follow my own plans.
The streets were comparatively deserted in the direction I took on
leaving the restaurant, and I met with no detention. After leaving the
city fairly behind me, a sharp three-quarters of an hour's ride brought
me to a small, old house standing somewhat back from the road. A
decrepit negro took my horse and I went in at a side door opening onto
the drive.
It was dark when I left the house again, but even in daylight I do not
believe any stranger would have recognized in me, the well gotten up
young officer who had entered half an hour before. I had discarded all
my accouterments and my uniform, which, notwithstanding the rough usage
it had lately been through, still retained much of its new freshness and
glitter of brass and gilt. In its place I had on a pair of blue
trousers, a gray flannel shirt and a large, soft felt hat, all
considerably the worse for wear. I had also changed to a fresh horse.
The one I took was not much in the way of looks, but had considerable
speed in him, and was not too valuable to abandon to the enemy, as I was
well aware I might have to do at any moment.
Leaving the place by a gate near the stables, which led into a grove, I
threaded my way through it, then turning west I rode across a meadow and
through another grove, where I came to a road which I followed until I
reached the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. I intended to avoid observation
as far as I could. I carried passes which would prevent any serious
trouble if my detainers were our own troops. But a meeting with any of
them might require me to lose considerable time. There was, besides, the
possibility that I might chance on a party of Rebels lurking around and
I was particularly anxious to avoid such.
Fortunately I met but few persons. Some passed without accosting me.
Three times when approaching sounds indicated more than a single
individual, I drew off into shelter and squads of four or five men rode
rapidly past. Who or what they were I was too far off to distinguish.
As soon as I was on the tow-path I put my horse to a gallop and passed
rapidly over a number of miles. Several times I was obliged to make my
way up and down the steep banks to avoid being stopped. At one
particularly forbidding spot, where the rocks overhung the path, some
guard at an exalted altitude sang out a question about my destination,
which I did not stop to answer. He repeated his inquiry and emphasized
it by sending a bullet after me. Luckily it went wide of the mark.