L. P. Brockett, The camp, the battlefield, and the hospital: or, lights and shadows of the great rebellion

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[113] night there. In the morning, her host, Milam by name, who carried on a considerable business in smuggling goods and supplies out of Nashville for the benefit of his rebel friends across the river, purchased her horse and equipments, giving her confederate funds therefore and hired her a buggy and driver under whose care she set forth in the direction of Columbia. Through dreary woods and terrible roads and a drenching rain they pursued their way, finally arriving at her destination, where she was, fortunately for her strength, compelled to wait, for three days, the re-opening of the railroad to Shelbyville, which had been destroyed by the Union troops. While here, she met with much sympathy from the rebels, to whom she appeared in the character of an abused woman, seeking for her brother, an officer in the army; and she also had to pass the scrutiny of more experienced judges-officers, and others high in official rank. But she bore the test, and in turn made the most suspicious her most useful tools. Columbia proved a rich field to our heroine, who made many friends and accumulated much valuable acquaintance while there. Soon she went to Shelbyville, from whence she found, much to her annoyance, that Bragg had removed his headquarters-and where she could not ascertain. But, ever alive to any opportunity that offered of doing good to her country, she acquired some valuable information which more than compensated her for the frustration of her original object in visiting Shelbyville. It chanced that she learned that at the same hotel table where she dined there sat a young officer of engineers, who was engaged in drawing important plans for the rebel government. She immediately conceived the plan of