“At that minute you and Daniel began to cry, and when I turned about to see what the matter was, I found the road blue with Federals. The boat had landed in front of the house, and a party was coming off with an officer. They entered without ceremony, and asked me who it was that rode off on that white horse, and if I knew where there were any weapons. I told them that he was my husband and your father, and that he had taken all the weapons with him. They evidently did not believe the last statement, for they searched every room in the house, and tumbled things about at a great rate; but they didn’t break anything, and all I missed after they were gone was your father’s picture which he had just had taken for me in Rochdale. “Having satisfied themselves that there were no weapons in the house, the sailors went back to the boat, which moved off into the lake, and went down the Pass toward Coldwater. I was glad when they were gone, and glad too to be let off so easily, for I had been told that these gunboat men were awful fellows; but they never troubled us, although we saw hundreds of them afterward. It was the soldiers that did the damage and our experience with them began the very next day. A transport loaded with them came into the lake, and the soldiers camped on our plantation. When they first came, we had cows, pigs, chickens and milk and butter; but in less than an hour we had none of these things left, and but little furniture. They took the rocking-chairs out to sit in beside their camp-fires, and broke the tables, washstands and bureaus up into firewood, when there were plenty of fence-rails to be had for the taking. Then one of them said there wasn’t light enough for them to eat by, but he’d soon have more, and he did; for he pulled a straw bed into the middle of one of the rooms and touched a match to it. “How I lived through that night I don’t know. When morning came the house was gone and so were the soldiers; and I was turned out of doors with two little children to take care of. Your father came back as soon as the soldiers were all out of sight, and threw up a little brush shantee, that we lived in, until some of the neighbors could get together and build us some better shelter. They put up this cabin for us, and after we had time to collect the clothing and furniture the soldiers had left us, we found that we were not so badly off after all. But the war was hardly more than half through then, and we had a good deal to stand before peace was declared. The guerillas came next, and you see just what they left us. I thought things would go better with us when your father came home, but somehow they didn’t. Times have been growing harder instead of better. We’re getting poorer and poorer every year, and mercy knows what’s going to become of us!”