CHAPTER XXIV. War and Romance -- Colonel Fred Jones -- Hanging in the Army -- General A. J. Smith vs. Dirty Guns. WAR AND ROMANCE. During the late movement against Vicksburg the national transports were fired upon by a rebel battery at Skipwith Landing, not many miles from the mouth of the Yazoo. No sooner was the outrage reported at head-quarters than the Admiral sent an expedition to remove the battery and destroy the place. The work of destruction was effectually done; not a structure which could shelter a rebel head was left standing in the region for several miles around. Among other habitations destroyed was that of a Mrs. Harris, a widow lady, young, comely, and possessed of external attractions in the shape of a hundred and fifty "negroes," which she had contrived to save from the present operation of "the decree," by sending them up the Yazoo River. But Mrs. Harris was a rebel--intense, red-hot in her advocacy of Southern rights and her denunciation of Northern wrongs. Although she had not taken up arms against the Government, she was none the less subject to the indiscriminating swoop of the Proclamation; her niggers, according to that document, were free, and if the Confederacy failed, she could only get pay for them by establishing her loyalty in a court of justice. Her loyalty to the Yankee nation?--not she! She was spunky as a widow of thirty can be. She would see Old Abe, and every other Yankee, in the happy land of Canaan before she would acknowledge allegiance to the Washington Government. Nevertheless, being all she possessed of this world's valuables, she would like to save those niggers. "Nothing easier," suggested Captain Edward W. Sutherland, of the United States steam-ram Queen of the West, who, attracted by her snapping black eyes, engaged in a friendly conversation with the lady after burning her house down. "Nothing easier in the world, madam." "How so, Captain? You don't imagine I will take that odious oath, do you? I assure you I would not do it for every nigger in the South." "But you need not take that oath, madam--at least not _the_ oath." "I do not understand you, Captain," said the widow, thoughtfully. "I said you need not take the oath of allegiance; you can establish your loyalty without it--at least," with a respectful bow, "I can establish it for you." "Indeed! How would you do it, Captain?" "Simply enough. I am in the Government service; I command one of the boats of the Western navy--technically denominated a ram, madam--down here in the river. Of course, my loyalty is unimpeached, and, madam, I assure you it is unimpeachable. Now, if I could only say to the Government, those niggers are mine"---- The Captain waited a moment, to see what effect his speech was producing. "Well!" said the widow, impatiently tapping with her well-shaped foot one of the smoking timbers of her late domicile.