pany with my boy Bob, repaired to Jackson, Mississippi. At Jackson I hired Bob out, as I wanted to get rid of him for a while, having in my mind certain plans, in the execution of which it would have been an incumbrance for him to have been with me. Bob being disposed of in a satisfactory manner, I hastened, without further delay, to New Orleans, and took up my quarters at the Brooks House.
By abandoning the army, however, and going to New Orleans at this particular juncture, I was, to use a homely phrase, jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire. Rigid as was army discipline, and strict as were the precautions taken to prevent treachery and the surveillance of spies, I had managed to sustain myself in the army as an independent without difficulty, and was on the best possible terms with everybody. In New Orleans, on the other hand, I found the spirit of suspicion rampant. Confidence in the ability of the city to defend itself against the impending Federal attack was expressed on all sides, but the fact that an attempt was undoubtedly to be made, before a great while, for its reduction, and the uncertainty with regard to the exact nature of the blow, or the exact direction from which it would fall, caused an uneasiness that could not be disguised. The Federals were known to be mustering an enormous fleet at the mouth of the river, and a large army on the Sound, and my surmises of months before, based upon what I had heard in Washington, were, apparently, about to be realized.
New Orleans Apprehensive of an Attack.
While the city was in this condition of suspense, each man looked more or less askance at his neighbor, and the fear of Federal spies was a feeling that preponderated over all others in the hearts of many. People who, in war time, don't do any fighting, are, according to my experience, as x bellicose in their language as they are cowardly in the face of real danger, making up in suspiciousness and vindictiveness what they lack in valor. It was not to be wondered at, therefore, that I speedily got myself into serious trouble, to escape the consequences of which I was compelled to resort to some desperate shifts.
I did not at all appreciate the situation when I went to New Orleans. When I entered Washington it was as a spy, and I consequently had all my wits about me; but in New Orleans
