Lieutenant Clinton off on a side road to Lawrence hill - distant some seventeen miles - with twenty men. I passed during the day many men from the rebel General Jonston's army, on their way home. Some of them were mounted and armed. At a place called Thomas' Cross-Roads I heard of several hundred of them, who were all mounted. They had passed amount one hour before I arrived. They were a part of a brigade of cavalry from General Johnston's army. At Dublin I camped near the ferry. About 11 p. m. Lieutenant Clinton arrived with his men. I could get no information from the whites whatever. About 12 o'clock at night a negro came to me, and told me that Jeff. Davis, with his wife and family, had passed through the town that day, going south on the river road. The negro stated that they had eight wagons with them, and that another party had gone down on the other side of the river; that he heard the lady addressed as Mrs. Davis, and one of the gentleman spoken of as President Davis; that Mr. Davis did not come across the river at the regular ferry with the rest of the party, but that he came over on a small flat-boat about three miles lower down the river, and that he was mounted on a fine bay horse; that he did not come through the town, but only up to the outstrikes; when the party left he joined them, and all went together. The story of the negro being so straight that I believed it to be true, I detached Lieutenant Lane, with forty-five men, to remain at Dublin, watch the ferry, and picket the cross-roads. May 8, at early dawn, started in pursuit on the Jacksonville road. At Turkey Creek I got form a woman information that convinced me that Jeff. Davis was certainly with the party that I was pursuing. Here we entered the pine regions. The country was poor, and almost uninhabited. I think that during the day I saw only two or three men. After leaving the vicinity of Dublin it commenced raining in torrents, and after a few hours the track of the wagons could no longer be followed. While endeavoring to find the trail again a citizen came along on horseback. At first he professed to know nothing of any party, but upon my threatening to press his horse, he said that he had heard of some wagons stopping over night about eleven miles away. This man guided us through the pine woods in a westerly direction about a dozen miles to the place where the wagon party had stopped the previous night. Discharging the guide, we followed the trail a few miles, when we again lost it. Here I found a new guide who, for a consideration, showed us through the swamps of the forks of the Alligator Creek over to where the track of the wagons could plainly followed. Continuing on to the crossing of Gun Swamps, and it being after dark, we stopped for the night. We had made about forty miles this day, but, owing to the great rain, it was a hard day's march. The men had no rations except a little corn meal.

May 9, started a little before light and pressed on through the same wilderness country to the Ocmulgee River, thence down a few miles in a dense swamp to Thomas' Ferry, where after some difficulty we crossed over. An accident to the boat caused a delay of about two hours and a half. Here I learned that the wagon party had left at 1 o'clock that morning. Passing on to the little town of Abbeville, which contained only three families, we stopped to feed the horses corn. Here I ascertained that the wagons had gone in the direction of Irwinville. Just as we were leaving Abbeville four Union soldiers appeared in sight. They informed me that they belonged to the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, Lieutenant-Colonel Pritchard commanding, and that Lieutenant-Colonel Pritchard with his regiment was advancing on the Hawkinsville road