| From the Houston Telegraph |
| |
| June 6, 1862 |
| |
| Letter from Judge Munger |
| |
| Dear Cushing, |
| According to promise, I give
you a short narration of my trip to Virginia, and some of the
pleasures incident to the same. |
| Without preface or further
introduction, I left Houston about the 5th of March, taking passage on
the Houston & New Orleans {Texas & New
Orleans} Rail Road, to Beaumont to which place I
took my horse along with which to make the trip across the country. |
| The trip to Beaumont hardly
need be described to your readers. Every body knows this is the
roughest and most unpleasant Railroad in the world; it being no at all
uncommon for the axles to be plowing through the water, it not
occasionally slightly pressing the mud. |
| From Beaumont I was four and a
half days in making the trip to Alexandria, a distance of one hundred
and ninety-two miles. From Alexandria, I took boat to New Orleans,
where I was detained two days, the first being Sunday, before I could
procure my passport. From this city I traveled by the way of Jackson {on
the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern RR} and Meridian,
Miss. {on the Southern (of Mississippi) RR}, and Mobile,
Ala. {on the Mobile & Ohio RR}, thence on to what is generally
known as the Southern route to Richmond. At Meridian, I missed the
connection with the down train {of the Mobile
& Ohio RR} and had to remain some 10 or 12 hours
for the next that should come. Incessant rains falling about this
time, the road from Meridian to Mobile, and also the one from Mobile
to Montgomery {the Mobile & Great Northern
RR and the Alabama & Florida (of Alabama) RR}, were so washed as to become almost impassable and
before I reached Mobile we were stopped by the running off of a
freight train that had filled the road with its wreck for one hundred
yards, at a point about 13 miles above the city. Being thus
unpleasantly situated, without any early prospect of relief; no chance
to move forward, no place to go to in the rear, and being considerably
pinched with hunger, I concluded to try the trip on foot. So cutting
huge stick and swinging my valise over my shoulders, I set out on a
double quick, which imperceptibly slackened off into very slow time
before I reached the city. After getting breakfast and taking some
rest, I was prepared to pursue my journey up the Alabama river to
Montgomery which I accomplished on the steamer Selma. This trip was
neither speedy, comfortable nor pleasant: after three days of
suffering and human endurance I arrived there with our crowd of about
300 passengers. Here I had vainly hoped that the comforts of travel
would increase and that I would enjoy the remainder of my trip, but in
this I was doomed to disappointment, the further I traveled the more
the crowd increased. At Atlanta I supposed the road through East
Tennessee {the Western & Atlantic RR, East
Tennessee & Georgia RR, East Tennessee & Virginia RR and the
Virginia & Tennessee RR} would relieve us, but not so; it seemed that there were two
passengers that came in to where one went out; recruiting officers,
recruits and the returning furloughed soldiers poured in upon us so
fast that upon arriving in North Carolina and Virginia when the
militia were called out the press was beyond endurance. The seats,
aisles, platforms, baggage cars, aye, and the tops of cars were
covered with the passengers and troops, and thousands were left at the
depots vainly begging for a chance to come. Add to this the
inconvenience, the trouble, and sometimes the impossibility of getting
even a scanty meal at a most exorbitant price, and you may form some
idea of the numerous troubles incident to travel at this time. |
| ***** |
| But we have arrived at
Richmond at last, the Hotel is reached, and we are about the 85th to
register our name. As soon as I could possibly get within speaking
distance of the landlord, I ventured to interrogate him as to the
chances for a room. He seemed to glance at me rather critically, and
seeing neither gilt buttons, epaulettes, nor any other mark of
military distinction, he rather coolly replied, that if I could get a
bed with a friend, I would be fortunate. |
| As this reply nothing daunted,
I gave him to understand that I was a gentleman from Texas, on
important business, and that I might be there for some time and I
wanted a good room, at the same time I gave him to understand that I
was a rheumatic, such as the "mehch" have now, that don't
want to fight, and that I could not walk up two flights of stairs. How
well I succeeded in putting on airs I do not know, but I succeeded
admirably in procuring a room. The next day I was entirely relieved of
my rheumatism and was fully prepared to attend to business which I
dispatched rather summarily, and prepared for my homeward trip. |
| Your paper having been
dispatched Southward some two weeks and everything being now ready, I
set out for home thinking that travel in that direction would be more
agreeable. At Raleigh, N. C., I came up with your paper and found it
stowed away in the railroad depot {the North
Carolina RR} about 20 feet deep in Government
stores, and was informed by the agent that the next day he should have
sent it off into the city for storage. |
| I tried in vain to get him to
ship it, but was informed that the Government had monopolised the road
and it was impossible to ship private freight over it. After three
days of delay I succeeded in getting it shipped to Charlotte, N. C.,
by the Southern Express Company, composed of Yankees almost entirely,
more dyed in the wool than the man that invented the wooden nutmegs.
They cheated me out of about seven dollars in the face of my contract.
I managed after this to get along without the kind assistance of this
company. All of the South Carolina and Georgia railroad officials,
with a single exception, treated me very courteously and rendered me
every assistance in their power. I, however, communicated with them
very freely, told them a great deal about Texas and Texians. That
our's was truly the land of milk and honey and mustang wine. The last
of which they seemed to delight to dwell upon, and I promised to send
on several roots and cuttings of that very prolific grape, to them. |
| The conductor of the West
Point & Montgomery {Montgomery & West
Point RR} train also placed me under lasting obligations
to him in taking my car by express with the passenger train to
Montgomery. |
| Leaving Charlotte {on
the Charlotte & South Carolina RR} I
anticipated stopping one day at Columbia, S. C., but on learning that
the scarlet fever was raging there I went on to Augusta, Ga. {on
the South Carolina RR}, where I
remained three days for my freight to come forward. Here I asked no
questions about sickness but just before leaving I learned that
scarlet fever, measles and mumps, were all in the city and the two
last in the hotel with me, I caught neither however, but am only
surprised that I did not catch the itch or some other loathsome
disease as I do not think I had the pleasure of rumpling more than
three pairs of clean sheets in so many months of travel. At Augusta I
had the misfortune of losing my overcoat, of course some gentleman took
it by mistake. |
| On arriving at Montgomery I
found the Alabama train quite full, and the Mobile railroad out of
order; this forced me to river transportation which after the usual
delays I was prepared to take. At Mobile I again met with difficulties
almost insurmountable. The military authorities that day took
possession of the Mobile & Ohio railroad and cut off my
transportation in that direction. After many little vexations and much
delay I took the steamer Dixie (a fast name but an awful slow boat)
up the Tombigbee river to Columbus. I congratulated myself upon a
forward move in any direction, but this was the most tedious trip I
ever had; ordinarily the run is made in 48 hours. I was about six days
five nights on the trip -- slow running was not all the trouble, the
river was very high, and in the darkness of the night we took to the
corn fields, then broken wheels and every other mistort that would
cause delay. Long before I accomplished this trip the Yankees had
possession of New Orleans, and old Butler, the hypocrite, was
privately ensconced away in some of the closets of the St. Charles
Hotel. All the harm I wish him is that the women of Texas had a lariat
about his neck -- I would risk the balance. |
| From Columbus I procured
transportation down the {Mobile & Ohio} railroad to Meridian, but here I venture to
assert are the most contrary set of railroad officers that ever
disgraced office or car. The Mobile & Ohio road being here
connected by the Southern {(of Mississippi)} railroad, the agents of each fearing that
they would do something that should be done by the other you could get
nothing done by either. As a last excuse for not taking my car by
first train, they said the sun has so expanded the iron rail that the
switch would not work, consequently the could not get my car on the
train; at this information and without solicitation I procured sledge
chisels and crow bars with two or three hands to help, and soon put
the switch in proper working order. When I informed them that I had
repaired the switch the mule had got so big in them that they would
not take it then, though they had no excuse. |
| ***** |
| I left this little sink of
perdition at 12 o'clock at night, glad in my heart once more to be on
the move in the direction of home, intending to await at Jackson the
pleasure of the railroad agent in sending forward my car. I was
getting along finely when about daylight, thump! thump!! thump!!!
across the ties told me in language unmistakable that we were off the
track again, going as we were at the time at the rate of 25 or 30
miles an hour, being on an embankment 12 to 15 feet, and some 300
hundred passengers on board, what could we expect but death and
destruction. Strange as it may seem, no one was seriously hurt, though
every car behind the locomotive was thrown from the track. |
| I then took another of my
railroad walks, going four miles to breakfast, which I got for two
bits. True, it was only a good two bit breakfast, but I had been in
the habit of paying four or six bits for them, and change the name of
the meal to dinner, and then you have at times to pay one dollar for
it. I arrived at Jackson that night, and the next day the paper came
to hand; but having previously been to Vicksburg, and finding the
railroad on the western side of the river inundated {the
Vicksburg, Shreveport & Texas RR}, New Orleans in
the hands of the enemy, the enemy's gunboats on the river, and our
steamboats having all gone out of the trade, hunting the most shallow
water that would hold them, no transportation being left, I was very
unwillingly forced to leave the paper, after the weeks of labor,
trouble and accumulation of expenses on the same, all having been done
that could be to get your paper through, and failing in that, nothing
was left for me to do but to make home by the best route I could find.
I crossed the Mississippi at Vicksburg in a skiff, going 30 miles down
the river and 25 up Roundaway Bayou, which took me to Tallula Station,
on the railroad, 19 miles from Vicksburg. Here I was in no better
condition than at Vicksburg -- 19 miles of railroad still before me
ere I reached the cars, three miles of it inundated by the overflow of
the Mississippi river, and neither boat nor car in which to make the
trip. As much as I disliked it, I was forced again to try my qualities
as pedestrian. I accomplished this distance between 9 o'clock and
sundown, tow others accompanying me. The three miles thro' the water
was very tedious; half the distance the water was up to our boot-tops,
and we had to feel with sticks for the cross-ties, through the muddy
water, upon which to step to keep from plunging in over our heads.
This accomplished our feet were so tender that you may well imagine
their condition when we arrived at Delhi. Suffice it to say, we were
in no walking condition next day. But I fear I am becoming tedious. I
arrived safely b y the cars next day at Monroe, hired a horse and
buggy to take me to Alexandria, 107 miles. Thirty-five dollars cost
and expenses, bad roads, bad water, poor accommodations, gunboats to
cut me off at Alexandria. My darkey driver, on hearing it, says,
"Good Lor', massa, you ain't gwine to carry me whar dem things
is, is you?" |
| Arrived at Alexandria -- no
gunboats, got my pony, start for home, find stranger, swap horses, a
piney-woods company raised on alluvial soil only half an inch deep,
used to turning a cow-pea over three or four times to sprout, fine
company, arrive at Beaumont, met Capt. Turley the expressman, give him
my papers, arrive in Houston, feel at home, walk into Telegraph office
very early, find Cushing very busy getting out the news in an extra,
hardly time to say, where is my paper? but he did, and echo seemed to
answer, where? Of all these, and many other things, I could write, but
I must close. |
| Yours, &c. |
| M. |
|