Sunday, April 26th. Left Mansfield last night at 10 o’clock, and after a miserable, jolting ride of twenty-nine miles, got to the breakfast stand about 9 o’clock a. m. The road was better and the ride more agreeable for the next twenty-five or thirty miles, which brought me to Natchitoches, La. Met some militia-men, a few soldiers from Sibley’s command, all of whom gave the most doleful account of affairs below, on Red river; said that General Kirby Smith and all his staff and everything of military character had left Alexandria on a steamboat for Shreveport; that the Federals were within fourteen miles of Alexandria yesterday morning; that there were 50,000 of them. I do not believe more than half the rumors that are afloat, and am patiently awaiting the arrival of the stage, which left Alexandria last night, to learn something positive.
