Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[345] of Mississippi--a man of sense, moderation, and courtesy, who was our pleasant traveling companion from Decatur, in Northern Alabama, to Magnolia, in Mississippi, where we parted with him at breakfast. In the same car we met a Doctor Billings, of Vicksburg, who had been for several years a surgeon in the Mexican army, and was then returning to the city of Mexico, to carry out the preliminaries of a scheme of leading men in the Southwest for, seizing some of the richest portions of Mexico. Wine or something stronger had put his caution asleep, and he communicated his plans freely. He was a Knight of the Golden Circle, and was charged with the duty of procuring from the Mexican Congress permission for American citizens to construct a railway from the Rio Grande, through Chihuahua and Sonora, to the Gulf of California. He intended to get permission to commence the work immediately, with five thousand men, armed ostensibly for defense against the Indians. Once in the country, these men would seize and hold possession of those States until sufficiently re-enforced to make the occupation permanent. This was to be the end of the railway enterprise. It was to be a movement, in co-operation with the secessionists of Texas, to open the way for the extension toward Central America of that grand empire to be established on the foundation of Slavery, whose political nucleus was at Montgomery.¹ Billings left New Orleans for Mexico a few days afterward. His scheme failed.

We found much excitement in New Orleans. The politicians were giving out ominous hints of great events near at hand. Ben. McCulloch² was at the St. Charles Hotel, having arrived on the 6th, and was much of the time in consultation with the leading secessionists. Howell Cobb³ was also there. I called on some of the active a politicians for local information, but found them too intently engaged in matters of immediate and pressing importance to listen or reply to many questions. On the following morning, intelligence that Fort Sumter had been attacked was brought by the telegraph. The absorbing occupation of the politicians was explained. They foreknew the event. All day long the spaces around the bulletin-boards were crowded by an excited multitude, as dispatch after dispatch came announcing the progress of the conflict.

At an early hour on Saturday, we left the city in a barouche for Jackson's battle-field

Washington Artillery.

below. We passed the Headquarters of the celebrated Washington Artillery,⁴ who were afterward in the battle at Bull's Run. They were on parade, in the uniform in which they afterward appeared on the field. We rode down the levee as far as Villere's, where Pakenham and other British officers had their Headquarters in 1815; and returning, stopped to visit and sketch the remains of the famous old battle.