There was no interruption this time, and early in the morning the regiment was up and away.
They descended now into lower grounds near the Mississippi.

All around them was a vast and luxuriant vegetation, cut by sluggish streams and bayous.

But the same desolation reigned everywhere.

The people had fled before the advance of the armies.

Late in the afternoon they saw pickets in blue, then the Mississippi, and a little later they rode into a Union camp.
"Dick," said Colonel Winchester, "I shall want you to go with the senior officers and myself to report to General Grant on the other side of the Mississippi.