One of the many letters posted in the DeValls Bluff, Arkansas site:
Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission
One hundred fifty years ago, on May 8, 1864, Albert Demuth of the Eighth Missouri Volunteer Cavalry (U.S.) wrote home about a scouting expedition to southeast Arkansas:

Camp 8th Cav. Mo. Vols.
Duvall’s Bluff, Ark. May 8th, 1864

My Dear Parents:
I received your answer to my last some time since, and was much pleased to hear from home. Since I wrote I have been on two Scouts. The first one was a reconnaissance towards Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas River, a distance of seventy five miles from this place, which I accomplished in three days, on one day’s rations. There was a rumor that there was a large force marching on this place which proved to be false. However, I took as hostages two of the most notorious rebels in the country. They had taken the representative of Arkansas County a prisoner, and I took them to keep until he was returned. I also moved his family from their place of residence, DeWitt, to this place for which I received his thanks in a communication; he is now at liberty. One of my hostages died in the guard house, and the other one is not expected to live. Mrs. Crossev, the representatives wife thinks there is nobody in this world like me. She is a very nice old lady. There is no men living in DeWitt. The women stand picket while the men lay in the brush. ..