plo cut off one-third of the allotted pittance of bread and of meat for Amy. The children seeing this did the same with their portions, and Amy was the only soul in that wagon who was not hungry during that week. She had no clothes, either, but the things that she had on. Her dress was of white cotton, clean and spotless during the first day only. We were wearing black for our dearest mother. Very soon we had to dress Amy up in one of our black dresses from the scant contents of the two trunks. She was the best and most useful of little maids, and happy to the end of her short life. She died of pneumonia a year from this time, mourned by all the family. She could never be made to admit that she was homesick or sorry for having cast her fortunes in with the "white ladies."
We spent a week in a wretched house near Enterprise, Mississippi. At the end of this time J. R. Eggleston, who had lately married Sarah Dabney, came up from Mobile with money to relieve present embarrassments and to take the family to Mobile.
Two of us were bareheaded as we travelled on the train and through the streets of Mobile. Three houses were thrown open to us,—Dr. Frank Ross's, Major William Ross's, and General Zachariah Deas's.
We rested for one week under the roof of Dr. Frank Ross and his dear wife, and then took possession, free of rent, of the house of General Zachariah Deas. The hospitable Mobile people said that they were happy to do anything in their power for soldiers or refugees. We lived for six months in the Deas house. But two months of wretched anxiety and suspense were ahead of us when we reached Mobile on that lovely day in May. We heard then for the first time that General Pemberton's command had fallen back into Vicksburg after the engagement at Baker's Creek. Edward was in this division, and we did not hear of his safety till two weeks after the surrender of Vicksburg. He rode to Mobile on horseback after his parole, and his appearance at the door was our first tidings of him. In the torn-up condition of the country it was often impossible to get letters through.
