Daily Davenport Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1864-1874, 1864-04-27

1e1ch seth, 1884.
En-. nsnocaAr ~ took - ePpcspity,
whl an 3 Milton IL msa IN
der = q mind Of urs l10o
little4usd J mes feve ago,
isla fori1he hrst tiae See nav =
hhryy and With my usual good luck, mp
pencd TO be on hand when the eyes Of the
both were blessed with the sight Of real
| live Confederate soldier for the iirst time IN
Texas. hasten to give you an account Of
the expedition.
We had been for . long time aware that
there were several ambulanccs and about
sixteen horses, which belonged to the Con-
federates At rancho" (farm) some twenty
miles from the coast, ana Major Thompson
had been considering the propriety Of send
| ing force to capture them. But for some
reason he had Mt tootYudcd to 10 50 until
one of the altnost tnnumerabhe deserters
who come touD, @te him such an account
| q the s.situatbn' Ss induced him to believe
| that 1t would lie al easy thing to get !he
ambulances. and ut the same time breaking
I'M camp Of rebels. and probably capture
the whole of them, which was situated fif-
teen miles further IN the interior. Our
means Of TRANSPORTATION TO the mainland are
several small vessels and large two masted
scow called Y<"salt fat Nhe last capable
Of CARRYING say $50 mem which VIC have
from tiip< 10 time captured since VIC have
been here, and once on the shore night
march Of 40 or 80 miles was Just in our
Inc. The expedition Consisted of about
100 men, mostly Of Cos. II. and X. We
embarked about noon, and started for Cor
pus Christi Bay with a spanking breeze in
our favor
The Bay Is a considerable body Of water,
about 20 or % miles wide, and runs into the
| land about the same distance, when the
shores close round it, leaving y channel Of
perhaps mile in width, across which runs
u reef or bar that divides the Corpus Chris
ii from the Ncueccs I}ay--thc latter being
the outlet Of the Ncueccs river, and running
into the land several miles further. The
water in Corpus Christi Bay is % feet deep,
and hut for the exceeding difficulty in get
ting into it, the bay would be very profit
able institution TO this part of Texas Tn
fortunately the only channels Of ingrcss are
the Corpus Christi and Arsnsas PASSES
The former is Of very little account, and the
latter will only admit the passage of vessel
drawing q or Z feet Of water, and the shoal,
between the Aransas and Corpus Bays fur
nish too little water for even such limited
requirements, but channel had run be-
tween them before the rebellion, and not
withstanding the efforts Of the rebels to OBJ
/ "a ~ M M Ill
in navigating it than may be reasonably ex-
| pected in any very narrow and very crook
cd channel. We were continually running
aground, and a dozen men were constantly
jumping overheard and pushing the schoon-
cr's bow of, then climbing on board and
standing by to jump over again the next
minute. This dug OUT is about three
miles long, and when it is passed you have
no further difficulties in your path to any
part of Corpus Christi Bay.
| The sun was about an hour high when
we landed at Flour Bluffs, point on the
western side of the bay, and IL miles dis
tant from the town OF Corpus Christi. We
Immediately began our preparations for
night march, and just as it was fairly dark
we left strong guard with the vessels, with
instructions to sail up to Corpus the next
afternoon, and started off on march across
the literally trackless prairlcs Of Texas.
For the first three or four miles our road
took US over succession of sand hills which
were unrcievcd by any green thing, except
an occasional clump OF cactus, which seems
to grow prof,sely on all the corsts of Wcs-
tern Texas. Leaving this barren waste, we
crossed tract of land still SANDY, but GOV
cred with dwarf oaks that never grow more
than three feet high arc very thick and diff
ficult to walk through. We stumbled over
these pests for hour or So and then came
to "a salt DOGGY prairie, where there is plen-
ty of grass but of SO unwholcsomc quality
that the cattle prefer starving to eating it.
BY this time the sky was completely cover
ell by clouds and it was so dark that it was
impossible to see any distance and there is
no road to follow; the only means of know
| ing where We were being certain cluinps Of
trees, called ''motts' by the natives, and in
the darkness VIC missed them Still our
guides, Of whom we had about dozen,
t'Ioyal Texas refugees they style them
selvcs) insisted that we were going right,
and so we marched onward as if our lives
depended OH our going, ten miles an hour
Meanwhile everybody, except the guides,
was sure that we were going wrong, and
| about two O'Clock \. NJ, even they halted.
and after consultation agreed that they had
no idea of where We were; so the Captain
ordered us to stop aud wait for daylight
| Our picket guards were posted and the
rest Of the command through themselves on
the ground and were soon asleep. But. ina
very few minutes the wind chopped
round to the north. and the rain began to
pattcr in our faces, the 'Drowsy God" was
rudcly banishcd. and wet and chilled and
thoroughly miserable we waited ilnpatientlv
for morning.
| 1t came al last. and the first dim light
| revealed that We were about My,e miles
from our starting place the evening before
We had been marching in circle all night.
Pleasant, wasn't it9
| Well, SO far as cftccting Il surprise of the
rebel camp, our expedition was clearly
failure, and it was determined to make the
best speed we could to Corpus Christi.
| 1t will be impossible for me to give yo,
any adequate idea of the dcsolation of the
country through which we marched in 90
ing there.
About s O'Clock we came to the Oso. a
deep creek about thirty yards wide, which,
when it rains, flows into Corpus Bay. At
present it is only muddy slough. its bot
tom Is almost paved with dead animals that
have gone down for water, and being too
weak to climb its steep banks have laid
| down and 11insl tloro W.. ,....l,