Zzzhow they Bridged the Blackwater.
When we reached this bridge we were halted and dismounted to await the arrangements being made by the pioneer people for us to cross.
I shall never forget how the boys went out into the fields and dug up sweet-potatoes, and how they were stopped when they made fires to cook them.
We could not afford to make a smoke, we were informed, and so some men devoured their potatoes raw.
General Hampton had stopped all citizens en route, allowing none to go forward for fear information might reach the
Yankees of his movements.
While here we rested and fed our tired horses.
The bridge was completed, and at night we crossed over the
Blackwater and were now particularly enjoined not to make a noise, and several times the musical men of the column were cut short in attempted songs, which they thoughtlessly began.
Nothing was heard but the steady tread of the horses and the rattle of sabres.
The guns of the artillery had been muffled by grain-sacks being inserted between the elevating screws and the guns.
Some time, about half-past 3 or 4, we were halted in a road, very dark, and overhung by the branches of trees; everything was as still as death; nothing disturbed the whip-poor-will's notes, so lonesome at all times, but more doleful then.
