soon as anxious as ever to do a soldier's full duty. If the Federals were to be effectively resisted, and the defeat of Donelson retrieved, there was but one course for the friends of the Confederacy, whether soldiers or citizens, to pursue, and strenuous exertion was the duty which the exigencies of the situation enforced upon every one. I felt that this was not the time for me to shirk the responsibilities I had voluntarily assumed, for if ever my services were needed, they were needed now. After a very brief repose at the St. Cloud, therefore, I was ready to brave the hardships and dangers of the battle-field again.
Sending my negro boy to Grand Junction in charge of a friend, I went to the headquarters of General Albert Sydney Johnston, and upon asking for employment, was put in the detective corps. There was plenty of work for everybody to do, for the fall of Fort Donelson had rendered it necessary that the whole Southern army should fall back for the purpose of taking up a new line, and I had no reason to complain of a lack of activity, although the activity of a retreat was not exactly what I most admired. I was not very long in getting my fighting blood up again; but, unfortunately, my combative propensities, this time, had a somewhat serious result, which compelled me to abandon the line of duty I had chosen, and to disappear from the sight of my new associates.
Wounded.
While participating in a skirmish with the enemy, who were harassing us whenever an opportunity offered, I was wounded in the foot. This lamed me, and compelled me to have the hurt dressed by the surgeon, at which I was not a little alarmed, for I knew that I was now in imminent danger of having my sex discovered. The wound was not a very severe one, and I probably magnified its importance; but the circumstances were such that it could scarcely have a fair chance to heal speedily if I remained in the field, and dreading the prospect of being for a long period under the care of the surgeon, who would be much more likely to suspect me than any one else, I resolved that the only course for me to pursue was to abandon the army before I got into trouble.
I therefore availed myself of the earliest possible opportunity to take French leave, and quietly slipped away to Grand Junction, where I remained for three days, and then, in com-
