fortunes of the Confederacy, or one who was more bent upon retrieving past disasters, and of inflicting upon the Federals a blow from which they would not be able to recover, than myself. I considered it a rare piece of good fortune that I was able to take part in what all hoped and expected would be a decisive battle with my own company, as fine a body of men as were in the field, and there were special reasons for feelings of jubilation at the idea of being permitted to fight by the side of Captain De Caulp.
The Secret Out.
The secret might as well be told now as at any other time, I suppose; so the reader will please know that Captain De Caulp and I were under an engagement of marriage, having been in correspondence with each other since my departure from Pensacola. I had his letters in my breast pocket, and his photograph in the lining of my coat, while, I doubt not, that he had about him memorials of my unworthy self; and if he cared as much for me as I was led to believe he did by the fervency of his epistles, I was the especial object of his thoughts when, in obedience to the command to advance, we dashed at the enemy. He little suspected, however, that the woman to whom his heart and hand were pledged was by his side as he led his men into that bloody fray ; for, as I have before explained, he had an acquaintance with me both as" a woman and as a man, but did not know that the two were the same.
An Inspiring Situation.
The situation was a singularly inspiring one for me, as may readily be imagined; it was, in fact, such a situation as I doubt whether any woman had ever been placed in before; and yet it seemed the most natural thing in the world that I should be there, and that I should try to distinguish myself by deeds of valor, for the sake of winning the approving smile of the man who, of all others, I was anxious should give me his approbation.
It may be thought that, even if I felt no fear for myself, as a woman I should have had some tremors when beholding my lover advancing into the thick of a desperate fight, at the head of his men. The idea of fear, either on his or on my own account, however, never occurred to me at the time,
