I went to Petersburg on April 23d. At Petersburg I was invited to make a visit to Mr. William Cameron, and was very glad to accept. All his servants had left him, and Colonel Frank Huger, of the artillery, and I amused ourselves by preparing the table for breakfast and dinner, and were Mrs. Cameron’s chief assistants in cutting vegetables in the garden and in washing up the dishes. I must say that this last process was anything but advantageous, as we contrived between us to break a good deal of our friend’s pretty china and delicate glass. The unfortunate things had a horrible way of losing their handles and of coming to pieces, as we scrubbed them with more zeal than discretion.

Early in June, I went to Mechlenburg to see Mr. Raines, who was still living on the plantation which he had rented near the plantation of Dr. Jones; and it was then that I heard of the barbarous conduct of the Federal cavalry on their raid through that neighborhood, and which I have mentioned previously. This raid it will be remembered was made after the surrender of General Lee’s army, and when there was no shadow of military justification or excuse for it. Little was wanting to make the conduct of the soldiers utterly execrable, and Dr. Jones escaped better than most of his neighbors. By this time the health of Mrs. Jones was exceedingly feeble, and in the September following she died. Meanwhile, the seeds of consumption were developed in her younger sister, Miss Martha Raines, and she too died a few months afterwards. Consumption also carried off the only remaining sister, Miss Anna Raines, who died, I think, in 1866.

It was rather difficult for me to get back from Mechlenburg to Petersburg, a distance of about one hundred miles; but I borrowed an old horse, and, out of the remains of several old buggies and carriages that were on the place, succeeded in making up what appeared to be a rather respectable vehicle. It did hang together pretty well until I had occasion to cross a river on my route, when the action of the water caused one of the wheels to fall to pieces in the middle of the stream. With considerable difficulty, I dragged what remained of the buggy out of the river, and was fortunate enough to be able to borrow another wheel from a planter near by. The wheel that I borrowed I was to return to him when I should go back to Mechlenburg. As I never went back, the wheel, I grieve to say, was not returned; and, as I do not know the name of my kind friend, it would be vain to try to compensate him for the loss he sustained. What weighs, I think, rather more heavily than this on my conscience, is a commission entrusted to me by an old farmer, on the road, with whom I took supper one night. Finding that I expected to come back in a few days, he asked me if I would bring him a Richmond newspaper, and gave me a silver dime to pay for it. That dime he had saved during the war, and only parted with it from a desire to get some news of what was going on. No doubt he, and the friend who lent me the buggy wheel, think of me to-day as one of the gay deceivers who were abundant after the cessation of hostilities.

While still a good many miles from Petersburg, what with insufficient food and hard driving my horse broke down completely, and I dragged along the rest of the way at the rate of a mile or two an hour. Near Petersburg I stopped to dine with a planter, who, finding that I was an Englishman, asked me how far it was from London to Windsor. I told him, and he replied that the distance could not be so great, for he remembered an anecdote of the singular experience of one of the sentries at Windsor Castle, who was accused of sleeping on his post. Denying this emphatically, the sentry told the officers that he had heard the bell of St. Paul’s, at London, strike at midnight. This was thought to be impossible; but he told them that he not only heard it, but that the bell struck thirteen instead of twelve. It was afterward ascertained that, through some derangement of the machinery of the clock, thirteen had been struck instead of twelve, and the vigilance of the sentry was established. I do not know what the origin of the anecdote was, but it was curious to meet with it in the bosom of Virginia. And this reminds me of the quaint knowledge of things in London that I found here and there in the South. Mr. L. M. Blackford, who was attached to the Military Court of Longstreet’s Corps, asked me one day as we were riding along the road, what streets I would take if I wanted to go from one part of London, which he named, to another part. I told him, and he said he thought it would be nearer to take other streets than those I had mentioned. I asked him if he had been to London. He said that he had not, but explained that his father and himself were so much attached to England, and to everything English, that they had studied the map of London, and were almost as familiar with the place, by the map, as if they had lived there. Mr. Blackford, by the way, is now the Principal of the Episcopal High School at Alexandria, Va. I have not seen him since the war, but know that he has been to Europe, and has, therefore, had an opportunity of putting his knowledge of London streets to good account.

My efforts to obtain employment in Petersburg were entirely unsuccessful, although I was not particular about the kind of work. I was on the point of getting an engagement as the driver of a dray, but a stalwart negro, at the last moment, was taken in my place. It was a sensible thing on the part of the employer of the negro, no doubt, but it was mortifying to me that a negro should be allowed to earn his bread, and a white man, who was willing to do the same work, be denied the opportunity.

In July I went over to Richmond, and with a Mr. Evans, (a relative of Mr. Tyler) began arrangements for publishing a small weekly newspaper. My work was to be local reporting and canvassing for advertisements. The type, I think, was borrowed from the Richmond Whig, and we got to the point of making up one form, consisting of the first and fourth pages of the forthcoming paper. But the Whig had done something to offend the military autocrat who was in command at Richmond, and one fine morning he sent a party of soldiers to the Whig office, who took possession of the whole establishment, and closed it up. Our newspaper in embryo was embargoed with the rest of the establishment, and there my first connection with American journalism came to an untimely end.

Returning to Petersburg, I walked down to Mr. Raines’ plantation, and there earned something for myself, for the first time since the war had ended. Mr. Raines had returned home, and had cut his wheat crop, which was a very fine one, and, as much to amuse us as anything else, he told his son Frank and me that, if we would take the horse-rake and glean the fields, we might have what wheat we could find. It was desperately hot work, but we succeeded in getting a considerable quantity of wheat, which Mr. Raines threshed out and sold for us in Petersburg. My share of the proceeds was about $10.

I spoke just now of walking down to the plantation. The distance from Petersburg was about eighteen miles, and I frequently walked it by the middle of the day, leaving Petersburg early in the morning.

One of the Ordnance Sergeants of Longstreet’s Corps, John J. Campbell, lived at Petersburg, and I stayed there with him for some time, after my visit to Mr. Cameron. Mrs. Campbell was a plain, unaffected and thoroughly good-hearted woman, and was unremitting in her kindness. Unfortunately there came to be more talking than I liked about my own affairs, and a coolness grew up which I greatly regretted. I mention Mrs. Campbell here, in order to have the satisfaction of showing that, whatever was the cause of the discontinuance of our friendly relations, I am, and always have been, most grateful for her kindness.

Mrs. Andrew White had been zealous in her efforts to secure for me some employment, and to her I was indebted for the clothes which took the place of my Confederate uniform. Through her instrumentality, in October I was engaged by Seldner & Rosenberg, of Petersburg, as book-keeper. I fear that I knew nothing, or next to nothing, about book-keeping. But my employers were not aware of that awkward fact, and I do not think that they discovered it. The pay was $40 a month, and I paid $30 a month for my board. I went to work at half-past six o’clock in the morning, and remained at work until eight o’clock at night. There was not much margin for my personal expenses, and the long hours made the occupation terribly irksome to me, but I had the promise of an advance of pay, and, with that before me, struggled on until November.

In Petersburg one day I saw a Federal officer riding my black horse, which I had sent to Mr. Raines’ to recruit during the previous winter, and which had been captured in the raid there after the cessation of hostilities. I claimed the horse at once, and the first difficulty I encountered was the fact that I was not regarded as a citizen of the United States. The officer in command at Petersburg told me that my claim would not be considered, unless I could show that I was an American citizen, or intended to become one. As a matter of fact, I had become a citizen of Virginia, by my service in the Confederate Army. But this was not sufficient for the captors of my charger, so I made no difficulty in fully renouncing before the proper officer at Petersburg my allegiance to every foreign King, Prince or potentate, and more particularly Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. This was my formal “declaration of intention” to become a citizen of the United States, and I received my naturalization papers from Judge Bryan, of the United States District Court, at Charleston, in 1867.

In spite of the greatest economy, I found that my expenses were greater than my income, and I determined to abandon book-keeping in the clothing and dry goods establishment of Seldner & Rosenberg, and try my hand at planting, with Dr. Jones. The understanding with him was that I should assist in managing the plantation under his direction, and receive a portion of the net profit, whatever that might be.