During the first of March Captain Kingman was home on leave of absence. Before leaving for the South he came to Racine to call upon me. I was expecting a passport in every letter, and was ready to start for the South any day that it should come. I decided to go South with Captain Kingman, for I felt that I could go as far South as Nashville, and thought that if I could go no further Mr. Lyon could no doubt come to Nashville to see me.
I left for the South on the 13th of March, with Captain Kingman and Minerva. We left Chicago at 9 p. m., on the 16th, riding all night. We reached Cairo at 8 o’clock the next evening, just in time to take the boat. The packet Armada was just ready to start, so we went on board immediately, considering ourselves very fortunate, for there were some ladies there who had been waiting three days for the boat.
Mrs. Lyon’s Diary.
March 15, 1865.—The boat is tied up to a tree on the Cumberland river. The wind is so high they dare not run for fear of running into the woods, for the banks are all under water. The river has not been so high in fifteen years. The water is up to the chamber windows of all the houses along the shore. Yesterday one of the houses was floating in the river and some men took a boat and went out to it. They found in it the bodies of a man and woman and five children. I presume we shall hear of more such cases. We have seen a number of horses and cattle floating down the river, all dead.
