My husband having been transferred to the Army of Tennessee, where he
continued to serve until the close of the war, this plan was changed.
I have never since revisited the scene of my earliest service to the
Confederacy. Perhaps it is as well that I did not, for memory
preserves at least this one picture, more full of light than shadow,
because always softly illumined by the beautiful star which had not
then begun to wane,--"the star of Hope."
CHAPTER II.
ALABAMA.
_"Here we rest."_
The hoarse panting of the steam-pipes, the clangor of bells, the
splashing of the paddle-wheels, died away in the distance as I stood
upon the landing watching the receding boat steaming down the Alabama
River on its way to Mobile.
Ah, how lovely appeared the woodland scenery around me! The sombre
green of pines, and the equally dark though glossy foliage of oaks,
were beautifully enlivened by lighter greens, and by the brilliant
hues of the sassafras-tree. Here climbed in tantalizing
beauty--tempting as insidious vice, which attracts but to destroy--the
poison-oak vine. Cherokee roses starred the hedges, or, adventurously
climbing the highest trees, flung downward graceful pendants.
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