The firing continued until four o'clock in the afternoon, and then
the gun-boats suddenly withdrew. The rebels cheered loudly as they
disappeared around a bend in the river, and Frank gave up all hope:
nothing now remained for him but a long captivity.
That evening, as soon as it was dark, he, with the other prisoners,
was marched on board the General Quitman, a large steamer, lying just
below the fort, and carried to Haines' Bluff, and from thence they
went by rail to Vicksburg. Here Frank was separated from his men, and
confined, for two days, with several army officers, in a small room in
the jail. Early on the third morning he was again taken out, and sent
across the river, into Louisiana, with about three hundred others.
Their destination, he soon learned, was Tyler, a small town in
Texas, where most of the Union prisoners captured in Mississippi were
confined.
They were guarded by a battalion of cavalry, under command of the
notorious Colonel Harrison, who called themselves the "Louisiana
Wild-cats." Frank had never before seen this noted regiment, and he
found that they were very appropriately named; for a more ferocious
looking set of men he had never met.
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