Running the gauntlet.
An event of great note among the besieged was the arrival, during the night of the 26th, of
Captain R. S. Pruyn, of the Fourth Louisiana regiment, with dispatches from
General Johnston to
General Gardner,
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and full news from the outer world for the garrison, the latter being immediately published in newspaper form and circulated among our men.
Captain Pruyn was one of those who had been sent out with dispatches by
General Gardner during the siege, and the only one of them who returned.
He had floated down the river supported by a dozen canteens well corked and tied together to form a life preserver, with his dispatches secured in an India rubber army pillow.
As he passed the
Richmond, the current carried him uncomfortably close to her, and he distinctly heard a voice, probably that of the officer of the watch to one of the sailors, exclaim: ‘Look out sharp for that object and see what it is.’
In returning,
Captain Pruyn took a somewhat similar route.
After getting into
Pointe Coupee he made his way through the enemy's position on the river opposite
Port Hudson, crawling on his hands and knees nearly a quarter of a mile through an open space, where he saw them all around him, and then taking to the water he swam across and was picked up in front of one of our batteries.
