In the afternoon of the day before we were to return, General Price sent me word that my brother, General _Ruggles_, had arrived. I immediately went to head-quarters to see him. He expressed great delight at meeting me, and called me "Bub," as he used to do when at home, though I was forty years old. The Adjutant-General assigned us a tent by ourselves, and I remained with my brother all night. He had not been to Ohio for a great many years, and he was very much interested in learning the changes that had taken place in the neighborhood where he was raised. All I learned of him about the army was, that his command was near Baton Rouge, La., and that he had come there on business pertaining to his command. He did not ask me where I lived, nor allude to the subject of the rebellion. He knew that I had spent a great portion of my life in the South, and, naturally enough, supposed that I was identified with her interests. In the morning I returned with Colonel Slemmens to Cold Water. I had learned, by this time, a great deal of information, and had been absent a much greater length of time than I had calculated on when I left Bolivar, and I began to feel anxious to get back and report. I had become quite a favorite with Colonel Slemmens, and I could generally get from him any favor that I asked for. "Colonel," said I to him, the next morning after we returned, "all the rest of the boys have got horses of their own, and I have got nothing but that little mule of mine to ride, and I want something else. Can't you make a cotton-burning trip up into the vicinity of Bolivar? While I was there I found one regiment of Yankees camped out a little distance from the other regiments, and the Colonel of it has got a splendid horse; if you will go, I can get in there and capture it." "Pshaw! You could not get into the lines if you were there!" "Yes I can; I know right where to get in, and if I don't get _that_ horse I'll get some other. I'm bound to have a horse." "Well, I can't go now, but I'll see about it." I waited two days, and then tried him again. "Colonel," said I, "what do you think about that cotton trip to Bolivar now? I'm getting _very_ anxious for that horse." "If I thought you would succeed, I'd go." "I _know_ I'll succeed." "How close can we get without getting into the Yankee pickets?" "We can get as far as Jonathan Herse's place, and there you can halt until I go in and return." "Well, then, I'll take five companies and we'll go up there to-day, and we'll have every thing ready to start at 10 o'clock A. M." At the appointed time we started, and moved along rapidly until we reached Herse's plantation. It was in the night when we reached there. The Colonel retained three companies, and sent two, under command of a Captain, with me, with instructions to stop at such a place as I should designate, and wait three hours for me to return, unless I returned sooner, and if I did not come back at the end of that time, to return without me.