June 12. [Okolona, Mississippi]—I took a horseback ride, in company with Miss C. and Captain ——.
I had a chance of seeing a little of this prairie country. This is said to be one of the richest portions of Mississippi. I am very fond of a mountainous country and dense forests; so the scenery had little charms for me, although I could not but look with pleasure on the fine wheat and corn fields, which are here in abundance. The enemy say they will starve us into submission. I do not think we run much risk of starving, with such fields as these.
We had a pleasant ride. The captain is a fine-looking man, and, as a matter of course, is fully aware of the fact, as all good-looking men are. He had told Judge T. that he was a married man. As his manner does not indicate that he is, we think that he is only saying this for a joke; so we concluded to take him at his word, and treat him as such. The tables are completely turned, and nothing he can tell us to the contrary will make us change our minds. It worries him not a little to think that he should be so ignominiously laid on the shelf.
Mr. John Fowler from Mobile is here, taking care of his brother, who is quite sick. The latter is a captain in the Twenty-fourth Alabama Regiment. He is at a private house. I called on him, and he told me that the march from Corinth was terrible—enough to kill any one. I intend going home in company with these gentlemen. Mr. Miller has been here, and informed me that Mrs. Ogden and nearly all the other ladies from Mobile have gone home.
The wounded and sick at Mrs. T.’s are doing well. The Missourians are both improving. Mr. Curly has his brother with him, who takes care of both.
A lady called, a few days ago, to see Mr. Oliver. She is the wife of General Price’s chief surgeon. She told us that the last lady she spoke to before leaving Missouri was Mr. O.’s mother, who begged her, if any harm befell her son, to attend him. She could not help shedding tears when she saw the plight he was in. But he does not seem to mind it, and is, like all the others, perfectly cheerful and resigned. He does not seem to suffer near so much as his friend. His foot has been amputated above the ankle, while Mr. C. is wounded through the center of the foot, and it is a very painful wound.
When I first came here there was a very sick captain from Alabama. I made him a nice drink, thinking it would be a treat; but he did not like it, and took no pains to conceal his dislike. Miss G. remarked that, if I had made it for some Frenchmen who are in the house, they would have taken it for politeness’ sake, whether they liked it or not.
I hear many complaints about the bad treatment our men are receiving in the hospitals. I have been told that many a day they get only one meal, and that of badly-made soup, and as badly-made bread. I have asked some of the ladies of the place as to the truth of these reports, and have been informed that they are only too true.
The citizens have done what they could for them, and they are still doing; but there are so many that they require a great number to take care of them—more than there are at present.
If our government can not do better by the men who are suffering so much, I think we had better give up at once. But when I recollect how much mismanagement of this kind there was in the British army at the commencement of the Crimean war, it is not much to be wondered at if we, a people who have been living in peace so long, should commit errors at first.
