CHAPTER XXIII.
UNDER ARREST AGAIN.
Commencement of a new Campaign. Return to Richmond, and Arrest on Suspicion of being a Woman. Imprisonment in Castle Thunder. Kindness to me of Major G. W. Alexander and his Wife. I refuse to resume the Garments of my Sex. I am released, and placed on Duty in the Secret Service Corps. General Winder, the Chief of the Secret Service Bureau. A remarkable Character. General Winder sends me with blank Despatches to General Van Dorn to try me. A Member of the North Carolina Home Guards attempts to arrest me at Charlotte. I resist the Arrest, and am permitted to proceed. The Despatches delivered to Van Dorn in Safety. My Arrest in Lynchburg. The Rumors that were in Circulation about me. I am pestered with curious Visitors. A couple of Ladies deceived by a simple trick. A comical Interview with an old Lady. She declares herself insulted. An insulting Letter from a general Officer. My indignant Reply, and offer to fight him. I obtain my Release, and leave Lynchburg.
WAS now about to commence a new campaign, and to enter upon experiences of another kind from those through which I had just passed. The condition of affairs was materially different in an infinite number of ways from what it had been when I first sought the Confederate capital with rather vague dreams of glory floating through my brain, but with considerable confidence that the Federal forces, against whom the brave boys of the
South were marching, would melt away before them,
and that I and my comrades in arms would, ere many
days, have the flag of the Confederacy floating from the dome of the Capitol at Washington, and, perhaps, indulge in a march through a portion of the North, just for the sake of convincing the Yankees that they had been rash in meddling with us.
Well, we met the forces sent out against us by the Federal government, and long before the close of the day they were running back as fast as their legs would take them to their intrenchments before Washington. The flag- raising on the Capi-
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