Started again by stage for Munroe at 4.30 A.M. My companions
were, the Mississippi planter, a mad dentist from New Orleans (called, by
courtesy, doctor), an old man from Matagorda, buying slaves cheap in Louisiana,
a wounded officer, and a wounded soldier.
The soldier was a very intelligent young Missourian, who
told me (as others have) that, at the commencement of these troubles, both he
and his family were strong Unionists. But the Lincolnites, by using coercion,
had forced them to take one side or the other— and there are now no more bitter
Secessionists than these people. This soldier (Mr Douglas) was on his way to
rejoin Bragg's army. A Confederate soldier when wounded is not given his
discharge, but is employed at such work as he is competent to perform. Mr
Douglas was quite lame; but will be employed at mounted duties or at writing.
We passed several large and fertile plantations. The negro
quarters formed little villages, and seemed comfortable: some of them held 150
or 200 hands. We afterwards drove through some beautiful pine forests, and were
ferried across a beautiful shallow lake full of cypresses, but not the least
like European cypress trees.
We met a number more planters driving their families, their
slaves, and furniture, towards Texas — in fact, everything that they could save
from the ruin that had befallen them on the approach of the Federal troops.
At 5 P.M. we reached a charming little town, called Mindon,
where I met an English mechanic who deplored to me that he had been such a fool
as to naturalise himself, as he was in hourly dread of the conscription.
I have at length become quite callous to many of the horrors
of stage travelling. I no longer shrink at every random shower of tobacco-juice;
nor do I shudder when good-naturedly offered a quid. I eat voraciously of the
bacon that is provided for my sustenance, and I am invariably treated by my
fellow travellers of all grades with the greatest consideration and kindness.
Sometimes a man remarks that it is rather “mean” of England not to recognise
the South; but I can always shut him up by saying, that a nation which deserves
its independence should fight and earn it for itself — a sentiment which is
invariably agreed to by all.
SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three
Months in the Southern States: April-June, 1863, p. 83-4
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