No member of this staff will soon forget the gunboat expedition. The cavalry succeeded, I think, in destroying both the boats, and on the fourth of September we marched back to camp, starting at 6 A. M.
The country around Morrisville is invested with guerillas, and if an officer or enlisted man chances to stray beyond the picket line, he is certain of being captured. Many men have thus been taken prisoners and report says, some of them murdered. In many cases where the officers have made the acquaintance of families living just outside the lines, and have supplied them with food and stores, they have accepted invitations to spend an evening, and in several cases have been captured by these guerrillas, who are the friends or relations of the people, and are kept informed by them of all that goes on in the neighborhood; several men, too, have been betrayed in the very act of carrying supplies, none of the natives can be trusted as a rule, and stringent orders have been issued to keep within the lines.
