..................... "_Adjutant General._" The Generals of both armies commanded districts of the same name, "Etowah." I turned the sheet over and wrote as follows: "_Headquarters, District of the Etowah, In the Field, Swope's House, Northern Alabama, December 22, 1864. Special Order No.----._ "Immediately upon receipt of this order, Captain Swope, Quartermaster in the Confederate Army, will turn over to Major General Steedman and staff the basket of champagne recovered from Doctor----, in charge of the Post Hospital at Courtland, and mentioned on the opposite side of this paper. "By order of Major General Steedman. ANSON MILLS, "_Captain, 18th Infantry, Inspector General_, _District of the Etowah_." Both the ladies eyed me intently. I laid the book on the table, and one of the ladies picked it up and read the paper. She passed it to her cousin, who also read it, and, after a short conference, they went upstairs. Soon Mr. Swope entered, asking, "Can I speak with Captain Mills?" I announced myself and he said, "My dear sir: your order is good. I would obey it with pleasure were it possible, but, unfortunately, I was unable to recover the champagne. It was used in the hospital before this order was presented to the doctor. I regret exceedingly that I am unable to do so, for I realize the propriety, in case it were possible." By this time we were well established in good relations with the family. Our evening passed as pleasantly there as anywhere during the war, and we flattered ourselves the family was as reluctant to part with us as we with them. On the 23d of December we established headquarters at Courtland, abandoning a vigorous pursuit of Hood. The next day in Steedman's office, Oakly Bynam came in and greeted him as a fellow Mason, and asked for help. He had bought several thousand bales of cotton, which the Federal troops were destroying. He wanted a permit to ship it to Louisville by the government vessels then in the river. Steedman angrily told him that neither former friendship nor Masonic brotherhood should influence him to aid one willing to play "Good Lord, good devil" to either the Confederates or the Federals who might be in control. That night Mr. Bynam told me he had several thousand bales of cotton worth a dollar and a half a pound in Louisville; and that, if the soldiers burned it, it would ruin him; but that if I had sufficient influence with General Thomas to allow it to be shipped north, he would make a fortune and would divide it equally with me! Of course, I declined, and most of the cotton was burned by Steedman's army. [Illustration: MAJOR GENERAL JAMES B. STEEDMAN. BRIGADIER GENERAL O. L. SHEPHERD. BRIGADIER GENERAL H. B. FREEMAN.