[4V50 Gary]

From Edward Young McMorrises' History of the First Regiment Alabama Volunteer Infantry, C. S. A. pages 118-9:

I now come to relate an unimportant but the most striking co-incident of my whole life. The last night of our stay a card party was given at Mrs. Little's, and it was largely attended, mostly by young girls and young men. We played the usual games until a late hour, when we hanged to "telling fortunes" with cards. The lass (about 15) with whom I had mostly played, after telling or foretelling when I would marry, the color of the eyes and hair of my wife-to-e, etc., asked me i I would like to have another furlough. I replied, "Yes, run these cards and tell me how long before I get another."

She dealt off the cards, and after consulting them declared I should get another furlough in a very short time. I replied that I didn't believe it, because I was returning from home on a furlough; that I was going then to "head off" Sherman in the Carolinas, and that an early furlough for me was absurd. "you have consulted the wrong cards," I said, "try that again with the cards." She did so, and at the conclusion threw up her hands and shouted: "Oh, it will be no time hardly before you have another furlough." She went through all this with the most affected sincerity and gravity. "Impossible," I said. "you are a failure, I know, as a fortune-teller. Run these cards again."

A third time she ran the cards in reference to my getting a furlough, the last time going into ecstacies of joy, and affirming with still more earnestness it would be almost no time before I received another furlough. The next morning Ardis and myself took leave of our kind friends, and set out on foot for Augusta. We had to pass down through the business part of the city, and here I met Lieut. Alex. Frier and Sert. Hector McLean of my company returning as a special detail to Alabama. Lieut. Frier had been sent back on a special service, and with authority and orders to detail two non-commissioned officers to assist him in his duties. He had already detailed one (MMcLean), he lacked another and promptly detailed me. This would give another furlough of ten days at home. It had not been fifteen hours since the young lady with a pack of cards had foretold this! Was there ever a more remarkable coincidence!