BOONE, IOWA. FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 5, 1912 

In 1861, when the war clouds obscured the sky I was a boy of 17, living in Tennessee. In common with all the boys of my age, whether living north or south I had the military spirit and at the first opportunity placed my name upon the rolls as a soldier, volunteering to fight for my native state.

On the 21^st day of May, 1861, I enlisted in company B, 16^th Tennessee Infantry, under Col. Jno. H. Savage, and was sent to Estil Springs, on the N. C. & St. L. Railroad, where we stayed a few days, and then went to Camp Trousdale, north of Nashville on the Louisville & Nashville railroad, near the Kentucky line. We stayed there until there were enough Tennessee companies to form a regiment, when John H. Savage was elected Colonel and we were detailed for guard duty while there and had a very easy time until the measles broke out in our camp and several died. I took the measles and came very near dying. I was given a furlough and came home and stayed until I was able to join my regiment which in the meantime had been sent to West Virginia. Myself and brother James A. Carden, who was home on furlough started to our command sometime in the summer of 1861 and finally found our regiment, which was stationed on Cheat Mountain, near the Ohio line.

Our army had had a fight with Gen. Rosecrans' forces just before we arrived there. We stayed there but a short time when we were ordered to Pocataligo, S. C., where we went by way of Lynchburg and Petersburg, Va., Wilmington, N. C., Charleston, S. C., to our destination. We landed there early in the spring of 1862 and did camp duty there. Two companies were sent out to Gardner's Corners, eight miles from where our command was camped and a detail was sent out from Gardner's Corners to Port Royal. Every day we did picket duty as the Yankees were in force on Buford's Island. Right there was where I saw my first Yankees. We could see them walking around while we were on picket. When we were out we would gather oysters and lived high with plenty of oysters, sweet potatoes. We, being green and not knowing when the Yankees might run over on us, would get awfully scared sometimes at night, when we heard the porpoise splashing in the water, and we were sure the Yankees were coming and we would get ready to receive them, but they never came.

Immediately after the battle of Shiloh we got orders to hasten there and landed there a short time after the battle. Bragg's army was then at Corinth, Miss. Our army fell back to Tupelo, Miss. And there I was taken sick and left in the hospital and the command went on to Chattanooga, Tenn. When I got able to travel I started after them. I had no transportation, no rations and not a cent of money and about a thousand miles to travel. Well, the first thing that happened to me after getting aboard the train was when the conductor asked me for my fare. I told about my being in the hospital and being left there but it did not suffice and he told me I would have to get off at the next station and I guess he would have landed me, but there was a big Confederate soldier on the train who said he would not put me off and if he fooled around me any more he would throw him through the window and I was not molested after that.

At Mobile, Ala., I ran across a soldier who had all the necessary papers for transportation, rations, etc, and I took them up to the room at the hotel and drew me off a set just like them. We went down to the landing and got aboard the boat and the captain said he was going to drop down the river to the commissary and that all who had the necessary papers could draw rations. Myself and partner, having papers, felt first rate. When we landed at the commissary, my partner told me to take his haversack along as it would not be necessary for both to go. I did as requested and on passing in there was a big fat fellow sitting in a chair, too lazy to stand up I guess, and he told me to go in, get some hard tack and meat and when I came out he would weigh them but he never done it, for when I filled one haversack with hard tack and put a ham in the other I slid out of the back door and went to the boat. My partner and I went clear up on top and located our quarters under a boat that was turned bottom up and there we stayed and slept every night until we arrived at Montgomery, Ala. Which is 450 miles. After the boat started I think I ate but one meal with my partner. When the bell rang I would go down below, walk into the dining room, hang up my hat and sit down at the table. None of the officers or waiters took any notice of me and I had a fine time. My partner told me they would get after me, but I said if they did I would quit. It took us four days to make the trip and when I got to Montgomery I boarded the train and went to Atlanta, Ga.

In Atlanta I went into a saloon thinking that something might turn up that I might put myself on the outside of some of Paddy's eyewater. I did not have a red cent or any other kind of currency, but had some hope. I always had that, and while standing around seeing others drinking I looked down on the floor and saw a $3.00 bill, state bank money. Any kind of money was good those balmy days, so I stepped up to the counter and called for some of the article itself, and while my three dollars lasted I was in the swim.

I went from there to my command at Chattanooga and was awfully glad to see the boys. We stayed there some time planning where we could locate some Yankees to give them another threshing when we concluded to light out for Kentucky. We crossed the Tennessee river at Chattanooga, then across the mountains to Sparta, Tenn. In crossing the Cumberland mountains we had orders to fill our canteens with water as we could not get any until we got over on the other side. We marched over in the night and never saw a drop of water until we landed near Sparta, all tired and completely exhausted.

I remember that we laid over one ???? there and I got to thinking I would like to have some good old Tennessee applejack, and a comrade named Smartt and I started out to see if we could find just a bit of it. We would inquire of the natives and went to several distilleries and finally after going about eight miles we found it. We had two Yankee canteens apiece and had them filled and you never saw two happier fellows than we were when we started back to camp. We met some of Gen. Bragg's escort and the captain of the squad asked us if we had any liquor, and Smartt, fool-like, said we had some of the best apple brandy he ever saw, and right there is where Smartt made the mistake of his life for the captain said, "Well, boys, you'll have to pour it out." That remark nearly broke my heart for I knew the jig was up, so we commenced to empty our canteens. As I emptied mine I stepped back through the soldiers, spilling the contents of one of mine on the ground. The other was under my coat and I saved that from devastation. Smartt got rid of all that he had. The captain then said if we would go back with him where we got it we should have our money back, so Smartt went back with them and I stayed where we emptied our canteens. One of the cavalrymen asked me if I did not have some left. I told him to hush for if the captain should find it out it would be Katy with me so he went with the rest of the crowd.

When Smartt got back we put ourselves in shape not to pour any of the rest on the ground and when we got back to camp about sundown Smartt was cutting up so the Colonel was about to put him under guard but he did not and neither of us was punished for our trip.

BOONE, IOWA. FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 12, 1912 

Chapter II

We remained in camp for a few days and then marched in a northerly direction, passing through the country where several companies of our regiment were raised and we could see women and children on the roads to greet their loved ones as we marched along. We arrived at Gainsboro, on the Cumberland river and stopped for a rest. A lot of us went down to the river to go in bathing, and I remember a circumstance that occurred while we were in the river. Some of our teamsters came down to water their mules and one of our boys asked permission of one of the teamsters to lead one of the mules into the water. There were several in the water at the time and the mule soon got into deep water and if there ever was a circus that mule certainly made one. It was but a little while till everybody was out on the bank and the soldier and the mule had the whole river to themselves. The soldier finally got away from the mule and we thought sure the animal would drown. Sometimes his head would come to the surface, then the other end would show up, then his feet were up, then he would disappear altogether, but he finally quit his capers, stuck his nose out of the water, circled around a little and came ashore.

After resting up a few days we started northward toward Kentucky. We passed several towns, that I do not remember much about, after fifty years, but I remember that we passed through Bardstown. We also went out of our way to a place named Munfordsville where about 4,500 Yankees had repulsed some of our cavalry but when they found they had Bragg's army before them they surrendered.

I never saw any of them but I remember the night before the surrender we were lying down in the road and by the side of it, when a wagon or artillery got up a big hub-bub and if there ever was a scared lot of tired out Rebels it was us. Everyone was asleep, I suppose, and such running and scrambling I never saw. I remember that I was so scared that I left my gun lying in the road and everybody seemed to be hunting a tree to get behind. I think a Yankee corporal's guard could have captured the whole outfit. I understood at the time that the panic ran through the whole army. I was in another panic in Georgia and it was on the same order. Everybody was scared almost to death and it started in the same way.

From here we continued our march until we arrived at Perryville, Kentucky. The battle of Perryville was fought on the 8^th day of October, 1863. Gen. Bragg said in his report of the battle that his forces did not exceed 40,000, all told, and that Gen. Buell had about two to one. Bragg says: "We captured, wounded and killed not less than 25,000 of the enemy, took over thirty cannon, 17,000 small arms, some 2,000,000 cartridges for the same, destroyed over a hundred wagons and brought out of Kentucky more than a hundred more with mules and harness complete, replaced our horses by a fine mount and lived two months on rations captured from the enemy, and secured material to clothe the army."

I remember we went into the battle close to a small creek. We had just got to the top of a small hill when we saw the enemy rise to their feet and then business began, and things were hot for a time. There was a battery on our left that was giving us grape and canister and the bullets were singing around us. A man was standing just in front of me while I was loading my gun and I happened to have my eyes on him just as a canister struck him in the breast and I saw the white flesh before it bled. He was a dead man.

Col. John H. Savage, in his report of the engagement said that our regiment, the 16^th Tennessee, killed the Yankee general Jackson. The Yankee general was one of the bravest men that ever went into battle. Some of my company was close by him when he was killed. They said that he was standing on some part of a cannon with his hat in his hand, urging his men to put it to us. Our men demanded his surrender but he would not notice a word they said and in the conflict some one shot him dead.

After giving the Yankees a good thrashing we started to hunt some more to whip. We had full possession of the battlefield but our rations being about out we started for Cumberland Gap. On this retreat I suffered more with hunger than I ever did during the war. I remember one day on that march myself and a comrade were sitting down by the road to rest when our Assistant Surgeon came riding by and I asked him if he could give a fellow a bite of something to eat. He reached down in his haversack and gave me a biscuit which I divided with my comrade, and I think to this day how good that biscuit tasted. We had a hard time on this trip as the Yankees had been over this road on their way to Cumberland Gap, and where they had been there wasn't much left for us.

BOONE, IOWA. FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 19, 1912 

Chapter III

From Cumberland Gap we went to the railroad above Knoxville and took the cars to Tullahoma and went into camp where we stayed for some time. I was then within 14 miles of home and I visited home quite often. Our adjutant liked a drink of applejack quite well and as there was a still near my home I would get a pass frequently. I suppose our Colonel did not know anything about it, so I would run up home, visit the folks and lay in a jug of brandy.

I remember on one occasion while we were camped there one of our company had been out about five miles to visit his people and a night or so later four or five of us went out to where this fellow reported that his brother-in-law, a preacher at that, had a lot of liquor on hand and was selling it. As we did not want to buy any, one of the crowd acted as officer, and he told the preacher we wanted some liquor, and as he said he had some the officer told him we would have to take him to camp together with what liquor he had. If you ever heard any begging that preacher did it. As we didn't want the preacher some of us told the officer that if he would promise not to sell any more we would let him off but we would be compelled to take what liquor he had, which we did, and let him go.

As quick as we got started we commenced to store it away and when we got back to camp we were a lively set. It was a cold frosty night and the first thing I did after getting to camp was to try to catch a dog. We had an old fellow in our company who had a little wooly dog. I had a big fish hook and baited it with a piece of meat and proceeded to catch the dog. He did not take hold of it for some time and while I was lying down on my stomach expecting him to bite one of our crowd became boisterous down on the company grounds and an officer was about to put him in the guard house. One of the boys started down there to help him out of the difficulty and I heard him go kersplash into one of the wells we had dug. I was so tickled that I knew the old fellow who owned the dog would hear me laughing so I jumped up to run just as the dog got the bait in his mouth and I dragged him a little distance when the fish hook tore loose and the dog got away. But Charlie Lance got an awful cold bath just the same.

We stayed at Tullahoma for some time until we heard of Rosencran's and a lot of Yankees at Nashville, and as we had whipped Buell at Perryville, we hiked off down to Murfreesboro, passing through Manchester, my home town, so I got permission (I suppose) and went out two miles to see my mother and stayed all night at home, and was back to my command by daylight the next morning.

It took us two days to march to Murfreesboro and we stayed there some time until Rosecrans came out from Nashville to see what we were doing.

We marched out four or five miles on the Nashville road and formed in line of battle and the first thing Mr. Rosecrans knew we were onto him. Our forces put it to him hard and heavy, driving back his right back some distance but we could not move them back but a little where the river turns north from the pike and railroad, so we started south toward Chattanooga to see if we could find some Yankees to whip.

Before going any further with our move I will tell you about our regiment being sent down toward Nashville before the battle to see what was going on. We marched down about Lavergne, half way between Murfreesboro and Nashville and on passing a house about sixty rods from the pike we saw a bunch of our men down there, so myself and Mose Messick went down there to see what was going on. We saw a citizen selling apples to the boys out of a window. He was selling them for 50 cents a dozen. Neither Mose or myself had a cent and I thought it was no go for us, but Mose, after standing there for some time said: "Look here, ain't you going to give me my change back at all?" and the man said he didn't know he owed him any change and Mose proved by me that he had given him $5 and he was tired of standing there so long. The man forked over $4.50 and we went out to the pike. Mose gave me a part of the money and I went back and bought what apples we wanted.

After the battle I went over the field and saw where our forces had captured a battery and there were more dead men to 40 or 50 yards square than I ever saw during the whole war. Most of them were Yankees and I think from the way things looked that the Yankees used their guns until most of them were killed right on the spot. I noticed also that they had cut their horses throats. They were lying around there men and horses together.

We started on the retreat and went to Shelbyville via Murfreesboro and camped there quite a while. Rosecrans did not follow us up and I guess both sides got a plenty.

From there we marched to Tullahoma and remained there until in the summer time. While there we threw up breastworks and cleared Bragg's "new ground" on the west and north of town. The clearing was something like a fourth of a mile wide and went by the name of Bragg's New Ground for years. We did not get to plant it as Rosecrans flanked us and we had to hike for Chattanooga.

On this march I remember I found some apples about the size of a quail's egg, under an apple tree and I ate about as many as I could hold, and that night we were notified that we could draw some rations but I was too tired and sleepy to get up. I was about petered out and had done without rations so long I was not hungry.

BOONE, IOWA. FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 26, 1912 

CHAPTER IV

At Chattanooga we went into camp southeast of town and had a very good time there. As usual, when I didn't have any Yankees to whip I was in some devilment. I had a chum who was always ready for anything and when necessary I would write a pass, sign all the necessary officers' names to it and we would go to town. I had two trusty comrades, Bob Tucker and John Robinson. Robinson and I would go to town and he would borrow $10 of somebody, then we would proceed to enclose the quart. The quart cost $10. Then we would find where some citizen was selling it on the sly. I would take our canteens and go where it was kept for sale, go in and find that he had it, get my vessels full, sit down and have a big talk. About the time we got in a good way Robinson would rush in, the maddest man you ever saw. He would cuss and abuse me, threaten to kick me out of the house, etc., then he would turn to the man and tell him what he would do to me when he got me back to camp, and while that was going on I would quietly walk out with the liquor. They would talk a while (to give me time to get away) then Robinson would say he must go. When the man would say that I had not paid for the whisky, then Robinson was madder than ever. He would cuss and tear around and say he had given me the money to pay for it and he would go and bring me back. He would finally locate me out of town and as our business in town had been transacted we would go back to camp.

On another occasion I took Bob Tucker. Bob had been to town the day before and had partly made a deal for a lot of ginger cakes and had told the fellow he would go back to camp and come in the next day with his partner and close the deal. So I fixed up our credentials and we lit out for town. When we got to the fellow's store, a small concern, he was very busy with customers and told us to walk into the back room, and he would be in soon. He had the cakes in sheets about the size of a door but had a lot cut up into regulation size. About this time we heard an awful noise in the alley and the door being locked I jumped up and caught the transom and held there to see what was the matter and while there Tucker was stuffing my haversack full of cakes. I held on till he filled it and then let loose and as he had his filled we thought while the commotion lasted we would walk out the door. The only thing that had happened was a white fellow had knocked a negro down in the alley. We returned to camp with about as many ginger cakes as anybody ever carried in tow haversacks.

A few days afterwards a fellow came to camp selling pies and other things out of a wagon. I went up to where he was doing business and at once saw he was in need of a clerk, as everything was going like hot cakes. I said: "Mister, you don't seem to be able to wait on them all. I will help you if you want me to." He said, "All right," so I got up in the hind end of the wagon and the way I sold truck was a sight. Robinson, my partner, and messmate wanted a whole lot of stuff and would buy only of me. He would buy 75 cents worth and give me a dollar and I would give him three or four dollars change. Now and then when Robinson was gone I would hand over what money I had to the boss. But Robinson was the best customer we had.

In the evening the fellow went to the Colonel and told him he had a load that ought to have brought him $250 or $300 and he only got about $50 out of it. I felt sorry for the fellow and never charged him a cent for helping him. I'm telling these things as few would know of the kind traits of a soldier if I did not.

I was going down Main street in Chattanooga one day when I saw a crowd of soldiers gathered around a big fat fellow, a Colonel of a Tennessee regiment, who was full as a tick. He had a fish pole on his shoulder and seemed to be headed for the river. The boys were teasing him and they got him red hot. He would cuss them with all the cuss words he could muster up and he could muster a whole lot of them. He told them they would desert if they were not so far from home and he handed it out to them in fine style. One of the soldiers said, "Well, old man, go on about your fishing. I hope you'll catch lots of fish." He said, "I hope I won't get a d--d bite."

While we were camped on Missionary ridge we went up the river a short distance where a creek run into the Tennessee river above Chattanooga and the first we knew a lot of Yankees opened up on us and we got away from there in short order. I remember while we were camped there I took a couple of canteens and went down to a spring to get some water. The spring was in a narrow gulley and I saw three Muscovy ducks about half grown so I spread myself out like a woman spreads her dress when she is driving a hen and chicks; I did that to keep them from going by me. When one came near enough I would grab it, pull its head off and put it in my shirt bosom. I served them all the same way and they cut up and flopped until the front of my shirt was as bloody as though a hog had been butchered in my bosom. But I tell you they were fine eating on an empty stomach.

We camped around Chattanooga until the Yankees came down about the Chickamauga country and concluded to give us a spanking. We were not ready to take it so we ran together and put it to them in fine style. We were going to run them into Chattanooga and I guess we would have done it if it had not been for Thomas. We lost lots of men there and the other side lost heavily too. I drew one minie ball. It glanced across my cheek about half an inch from my right eye and the scar is there now. I don't know how many I killed for I had no chance to count them. I was sent to a hospital below there but was back again in a week. While I was in the hospital it seemed that the authorities tried to starve us so we would want to go back to our regiments.

BOONE, IOWA. FRIDAY MORNING, MAY 3, 1912