6th May (Wednesday).—We left all the passengers at Crockett except the Louisianian Judge, a Government agent, and the ex-boatswain of the Harriet Lane, which vessel had been manned by the Confederates after her capture; but she had since been dismantled, and her crew was being marched to Shrieveport to man the iron-clad Missouri, which was being built there.
The food we get on the road is sufficient, and good enough to support life; it consists of pork or bacon, bread made with Indian corn, and a peculiar mixture called Confederate coffee, made of rye, meal, Indian corn or sweet potatoes. The loss of coffee afflicts the Confederates even more than the loss of spirits; and they exercise their ingenuity in devising substitutes, which are not generally very successful.
The same sort of country as yesterday, viz.—large forests of pines and post-oaks, and occasional Indian-corn-fields, the trees having been killed by cutting a circle near the roots.
At 3 P.M., we took in four more passengers. One of them was a Major ——, brother-in-law to ——, who hanged Mongomery at Brownsville. He spoke of the exploit of his relative with some pride. He told me that his three brothers had lost an arm apiece in the war.
We arrived at Rusk at 6.30 P.M., and spent a few hours there; but notwithstanding the boasted splendour of the beds at the Cherokee Hotel, and although by Major ——’s influence I got one to myself, yet I did not consider its aspect sufficiently inviting to induce me to remove my clothes.
