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place.
The infantry troops were called to attention, and forming in column in the pike, the artillery all hitched up and the men at the guns ready to move at a moment's notice.
I saw we were on the eve of something very important.
I hastened on to General Jackson, and made my report of the situation, as I saw it. He listened very attentively.
The first question he asked in regard to the farm road was, ‘ Could you get artillery up it?
’ ‘ Oh! yes,’ I answered, ‘easily.’
‘Could you get it back,’ was the next question.
‘Certainly,’ I replied, ‘easy enough.’
‘But if you were in a great hurry, could you do it so easily?’
Then I told him I did not know so well about that.
He then asked me how many guns I saw in the fortifications.
On my reply to him—for I had counted them—he asked me how did I know they were real cannon or ‘shams.’
I told him I could not be sure of that, but they looked exactly like real ones.
It struck me that he was examining me as much to see if I had really been where he sent me, so as to determine how far he could use me in the future, for General Jackson knew all that country thoroughly.
After I was through with my report, almost immediately he said, ‘We will not go that way,’ meaning, of course, up the hill road.
