[399] citizen of a free country he attached no importance whatever to the insolent pomp of a capitulation. He despised those formalities so humiliating to brave though unfortunate soldiers, and which are the supreme delight of men with whom military genius is associated with vulgar souls. Neither salvoes of artillery nor shouts of joy on this occasion formed a contrast with the grief of those brave Confederate soldiers who, with tears in their eyes, cast a last lingering glance upon the place whose ramparts they had so heroically defended. In passing the intrenchments the roll-call was formally gone through, and that was the end of it. On the evening of this mournful day their column disappeared behind the woods which surround Vicksburg. Shortly after it crossed the Big Black River bridge, and then the battlefield of Champion's Hill. It is easy to imagine what must have been the feelings of these soldiers and their unhappy leaders in again beholding the mournful scene of their defeat. Must they not have envied the fate of those who had perished with arms in hand during these fatal encounters, and who had thus been spared the spectacle of this grievous issue of a long campaign?
They had not, however, reached the end of their troubles. The heat was suffocating, the road dusty, the water scarce and of bad quality, the men worn out by watching and privations. The country they were traversing was ravaged by the war and abandoned by its inhabitants. They were made to avoid the town of Jackson, which Johnston had but recently evacuated, so that until their arrival at Brandon they did not see a single house nor was there a friendly hand held out to them by way of encouragement. Physical sufferings and discouragement soon engendered irritability and insubordination among these men, who had been so well disciplined up to the present time. As Pemberton had predicted, their dissatisfaction broke out when, instead of being sent home, they were told that they were about to be taken to distant camps and wait to be exchanged, so that they might again join the armies in the field. The government, knowing how difficult it would be to again pick them up when once inside of their homesteads, had decided to grant them no leave of absence. A large number deserted immediately: the remainder, having arrived at Brandon, mutinied when it was sought to force them on
