The next morning I started again for Grenada, mounted on the mule taken from the negro the night before, with a letter to Captain Townsend, who had been sent to the vicinity of Coffeeville, during the night, with a detachment of cavalry, requesting him, if admissible, to pass me on. On reporting to the Captain, he informed me that he had men deployed all through the country about Coffeeville, watching for rebel scouts and stragglers, and that it would be hazardous for me to undertake to get through, and advised me to remain with him until his men came in before attempting to go on. It was so late in the afternoon when the cavalry came in that I concluded to remain with the Captain all night. In the morning I resumed my journey, and at 1 o'clock, P. M., without having experienced any difficulty in passing the rebel pickets, I entered Grenada. The first thing that attracted my attention, was the suffering and destitute condition of the infantry and artillery soldiers. Very many of them were lame and foot-sore. Hundreds of them were barefooted, and very many of them were bare-headed, and all of them more or less ragged and destitute of blankets. Sickness prevailed to a great extent. The soldiers were loud in pronouncing curses upon General Sherman, whom they represented as having brought on much of their suffering by attempting to execute a flank movement upon them while in their intrenchments at the Tallahatchie River, which caused them to make a precipitate retreat to Grenada. A Sergeant, in describing to me the retreat, said: "So closely were we pressed, that while camping at Water Valley for the night, after a hard day's march, we undertook to get some breakfast before resuming our march in the morning, and had hardly commenced when the Yankees commenced shelling us, and we had to leave. We then marched to the vicinity of Grenada, and there worked several hours at cutting down timber and forming abattis, to protect us from the Yankee cavalry, before resting long enough to get any thing to eat." From such hardships and exposures, and the prevailing destitution of clothing at the worst season of the year, the men had become sick and disheartened. Artillery horses were in as bad a condition as the men, having been worked and short-fed until nearly starved. Large numbers of sick, lame, and foot-sore men were being sent on the cars to Jackson, Miss. The heavy artillery and commissary stores were also being sent there. Every thing indicated to me that General Price did not expect to hold the place. As near as I could learn, General Price had had at the Tallahatchie 18,000 men; but the force then in Grenada did not exceed 12,000. What cavalry troops there were in the place seemed to be much better clad and in better spirits than the infantry or artillery.