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Page 43
This was the deserting soldier I met on the cars as we left
Montgomery for Chattanooga. I put him in temporary possession of one
of my horses; we united our destinies, and prepared for the future
as well as we could.
We reached Chattanooga on June 1st, and I found it, to my chagrin, a
military camp, containing 7,500 cavalry, under strict military rule.
We were now in a trap, as our pass here ended, and we were near the
Federal lines. How to get out of the town was now the problem, and
one of the most difficult I had yet met in my study of Rebel
topography. We put up at the Crutchfield House, stabled our horses,
and sat about in the bar-room, saying nothing to attract attention,
but getting all the information possible. I was specially careful
not to be recognized. The cavalry company I had commanded on the
long retreat from Nashville, was in Chattanooga at this time. Had
any one of them seen me, my position would have been doubly
critical; as it was, I felt the need of circumspection. It was clear
to me that we could not leave Chattanooga in military garb, as we
had entered it, for, without a pass, no cavalryman could leave the
lines. This settled, a walk along the street, showed me a Jew
clothing-store, with suits new and old, military and agricultural.
My resolution was formed, and I went to the stable, taking with me a
newly fledged cavalry officer, who needed and was able to pay for an
elegant cavalry saddle. Being "hard up" for cash, I must sell: and
he flush of money and pride, must buy. Thus I was rid of one chief
evidence of the military profession. A small portion of the price
purchased a plain farmer-like saddle and bridle. An accommodating
dealer in clothes next made me look quite like a country farmer of
the middle class. My companion was equally successful in
transforming himself, and in the dusk of the evening we were passing
out to the country as farmers who had been in to see the sights.
We safely reached and passed the outer pickets, and then took to the
woods, and struck in toward the Tennessee river, hoping to find a
ferry where money, backed, if necessary, by the moral suasion of
pistols, would put us across. I was growing desperate, and
determined not to be foiled. We made some twelve miles, and then
rested in the woods till morning, when selecting the safest
hiding-place I could find, I left my companion with the horses and
started out on a reconnoissance.
Trudging along a road in the direction of the river, I met a
guileless man who gave me some information of the name and locality
of a ferryman, who had formerly acted in that capacity, though now
no one was allowed to cross. Carefully noting all the facts I could
draw out of this man, I strolled on and soon fell in with another,
and gained additional light, one item of which was that the old
"flat" lay near, and just below, the ferryman's house. Thus
enlightened, I walked on and found the house and my breakfast. Being
a traveler, I secured without suspicion sandwiches enough to supply
my companion with dinner and supper, which he enjoyed as he took
care of the horses in the woods. A circuitous route brought me to
them, and I was pleased to see the horses making a good meal from
the abundant grass. This was an important point, as our lives might
yet depend upon their speed and endurance.
I laid before my companion the rather dubious prospect, that the
orders were strict that no man should be ferried across the river;
the ferryman was faithful to the South; he had been conscientious in
his refusal to many applications; no sum would induce him to risk
his neck, &c. All this I had heard from his lips, backed with a
_quantum sufficit_ of oaths, which for once I was rather willing to
hear, having already learned that the man who accompanies his
statements with a gratuitous and profuse profanity, is not usually
brave to make them good when the trial comes. To his boastful words
that "no white-livered traitor to the Southern cause should ever
cross that ferry to give information to the Yankees," I fully
assented, and advised him, to be doubly on his guard, as the
Federals were not far off, not hinting that _I_ wanted to cross. Yet
my purpose was formed: we must cross the river that night, and this
man must take us over, as there was no other hope of escape. Having
laid the plan before my companion, as evening drew on I again
sought the cabin of the retired ferryman. My second appearance was
explained by the statement that I had got off the road, and
wandering in the woods, had come round to the same place. This was
literally true, though I must admit it did not give to him an
impression of the whole truth. A rigid casuist might question the
truthfulness of my statement to the Secession ferryman; but a man
fleeing for his life, and hunted by a relentless enemy, has not much
time to settle questions in casuistry.
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