Page:The woman in battle .djvu/256

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228
A PAINFUL JOURNEY.


although I was anything but able to endure the excitement and discomfort of several hours' ride by rail.

Having reached Grenada, I took a good rest by remaining there for two days, and was greatly benefited thereby, for rest and an opportunity to cool off from the excitement I was in, were what I particularly needed if I expected to make satisfactory progress with the healing of my wound. I was visited by a great many of the ladies of the place, who presented me with bouquets, delicacies of various kinds, and bandages for my wound, and who otherwise overwhelmed me with attentions, for which I hope I was duly grateful. Not only the natural restlessness of my disposition, which my wound aggravated to such an extent that it was an impossibility for me to keep quiet, but a desire to get as far away from the army of Tennessee as possible, before the fact that Lieutenant Harry T. Buford was a woman became generally known, induced me to move on with all the speed I could make, and I consequently started for New Orleans before I was really fit to travel. The result was, that when I reached Jackson, I found myself too ill to proceed farther, and was compelled, much against my will, to make another stop.

The hospitalities I received at Jackson, I will always remember with the warmest feelings of gratitude. I was really very sick, and my wounded shoulder and arm were terribly inflamed, and I scarcely know what I should have done had not a widow lady and her daughter taken a fancy to me, and waited on me until I was able to be on the road again. These ladies treated me like a young lord, arid I shall ever think of them as having placed me under a debt that I can never repay.

At Jackson, I made the acquaintance of General Price's quartermaster, who was stationed there. This gentleman I afterwards met in Wyoming Territory, but he did not recognize me, as, indeed, it was scarcely possible that he should.

On the Move Again.

So soon as I thought myself able to endure the fatigues of travel, I insisted upon being on the move in spite of the remonstrances of my friends, and made another start for New Orleans. I had, however, miscalculated my strength, and was compelled to make another halt at Osyka, near the Louisiana line. At this place resided one of the best friends I ever had