Robert Carden's Civil War Civil War Tales...part 2...continues.....

CHAPTER VI

After the battle of Chickamauga we fell back to Dalton and went into winter quarters and had a very quiet time. I remember a few things that happened while there. There was a wood shed and water tank and a detail was sent out every night to see that nothing was molested. I was a non-commissioned officer and I took half a dozen privates and went out there on guard duty all night. On one occasion I remember a soldier came around there to wait till the train pulled in to get a jug of whisky that he had ordered. One of my chums and I found out that he had a bottle of whisky in his pocket and we wanted it. He sat around the fire for quite a while before he went to sleep. When he got to snoring about right I motioned to my chum to see if he could ease it out of pocket. He worked for quite a while but failed to land it so I motioned for him to get out of the way and let me try my hand at it. The bottle was a round one and I gave it a kind of a twisted pull and out it came and we went out in the dark and tanked up on it.

I think it was the same night when the train had pulled in, took on wood and water and had pulled out again a citizen who had come in on the train come into the shed where the guard was and told me he had brought a half dozen sacks of apples and that they were up the track about fifty yards. I told him it would not do to let them remain there, that the soldiers who were camped around there would steal every one of them, and that he had better carry them into the shed where they would be safe. I had several of the guard help him carry them in and put them around the fire under the shed. I thought that fellow never would go to sleep but he finally dozed off and when he had got to sleeping about right I told one of the guards to get a move on him. He picked up a sack of the apples and hid them. The fellow never missed them, for just before day a bunch of soldiers came in and gobbled up the whole business, but we saved our sack and took them to camp when we left.

We were at Dalton on Christmas day, 1853. We wanted to have something extra, so we put ourselves to thinking. One of our company, G. J. Newman, (Gabe, for short) drove a commissary wagon, and on Christmas day he had brought in a barrel of whisky, for the officers, I suppose, but Gabe let us into the secret, and after night Robinson took a water bucket and got it full and we filled our canteens and whatever we had to put it in. Just before day Gabe came over to our mess and said he had to go to Dalton after some more rations and wanted John Robinson to go with him. I was satisfied that when Robinson went we would have something in the way of a Christmas dinner that would be a hummer when Robinson filled up from a canteen before he left.

When Robinson and the teamster got to the depot at Dalton Robinson went in and saw a box that he thought would suit him, so he carried it out and put it in the wagon, then went back and got a side of bacon and loaded it. When they arrived in camp Robinson brought the box and meat to our mess and when we opened the box the stuff was there sure enough. The box had been sent from somewhere down in Georgia to some of their folks who were camped around Dalton but they never received it. The contents consisted of sugar, pies, eggs and plenty of other good things too numerous to mention. We invited our company officers and some of the regimental officers to take dinner with us. They inquired where all the good things came from but they never found out. Besides having plenty of good things to eat we had plenty of good old fashioned egg nog. It was a Christmas long to be remembered. We had good times at Dalton as there were no Yankees near to cause us any uneasiness.

I remember a couple of incidents at Dalton that had slipped my mind. One was a snow battle between some Tennessee soldiers and some Georgia troops. It commenced in a small way but grew to be a big battle with at least a brigade on each side with the officers and colors. The snow was five or six inches deep. There was a small branch between the combatants and sometimes one side, then the other would have possession of the field. Sometimes the Tennesseans would drive the Georgia men back, then they would rally and drive the other side. They used up all the snow on the field then each side had a detail to bring up big snow balls to be used as ammunition. Our Tennessee side finally charged the Georgia fellows and ran them back to their camp. I never got there for at the branch a Georgia fellow rolled up a snowball with a lot of ground with it and struck me in the eye, coming very near knocking my eye out, so I got knocked out and went back to the rear. I understood that several lost an eye in the fight.

While in camp at Dalton Gen. Johnston issued an order giving a furlough to one in every twenty-five, so each officer commanding a company put all the names of his company in a hat and let each man draw. A soldier of my mess drew one and as he had no place to go in the South he gave it to me for I had an aunt in Northern Mississippi. I fixed up in the best clothing I had which was the same I wore every day, and started with a little less than a hundred dollars. I had to go by way of Atlanta, Montgomery, Ala, and there boarded a boat for Selma, Ala. From there to Meridian, Miss then down to Jackson, the capital. There my troubles began, for an army of Yankees had come out from Memphis and done the railroad up in apple pie order. They had burned every bridge and car except one box car on the road from Jackson north to Grenada, the engines had been burned, all the woodwork about them being gone and I had to go fifteen miles in a hack to where the train was to start. I put up at a hotel and stayed all night and I thought I had better go down and pay my bill which I did. The clerk said the regular price was $5.00 but that he would charge me but $4.50. My money was growing short. I had transportation but I could not go north until the next day. I went back to my room and when the bell rang I would go down and take a meal with them and I kept that up till I left the next afternoon when I crossed the river and went up to the next station. I don't know what I would have done if the clerk had got after me for the hotel bill, but he did not.

CHAPTER VII

After we were put across the river we started on our way and got along all right until after we separated. I left him within about two miles of his destination and cut across to strike the road from his town to Holly Springs. I was making good headway till I looked ahead and saw a squad of cavalry coming my way, so I went back from the road a little distance and laid down until they had passed. I went on some distance when I ran right into a company of Rebel scouts. They never took any particular notice of me and I continued on my way. They had left one fellow on picket and when he saw me he inquired my business there and I told him I was on a furlough from old Joe Johnston's army, and pulled out my papers for his inspection and this satisfied him.

I had no further trouble and went on. That night I stayed at the home of a widow and the next morning arrived at Holly Springs.

I inquired around for my aunt and was told that she was down the railroad the way I had come, about twelve miles. On inquiry I found some of my relatives of whom I had heard but had never seen, and visited them.

It got out around town that there was a Rebel in town from Tennessee, and about the second day after my arrival a man came to me and asked what part of Tennessee I was from. I told him and found that two of his boys were in my company. He told me to make his home my headquarters and to make myself at home. The next day another man asked me where I was from and he was born and raised in my country and I knew his people well. Gen. Marcus J. Wright's sister sent for me and I took dinner with her. I was in Gen. Wright's brigade.

After spending about a week in Holly Springs and having a big time, I concluded to start on my way to see my aunt. I got ready and boarded the train. The engine was a small mule hitched to a handcar and the engineer a boy about ten or twelve years of age. When we got to the top of a grade the boy would take the mule out and we would make good time down grade when we would stay around until the boy and mule would catch up with us and hitch onto the train again and we followed that kind of travel until we landed at our destination. The fare for the trip was $10.

After inquiring around I found my aunt was about seven miles out in the country so I started out on foot. I had not gone more than three or four miles when I ran up on a Rebel cavalryman. He asked what I was doing there and I showed him my furlough and that satisfied him. While I was walking along I found a currycomb, one of the kind you can buy for five cents now and he asked me what I would take for it. As I was broke I told him I would sell it for a dollar, and after a good deal of parleying he gave me a dollar for it. I found my aunt this time and stayed with her quite a while.

I had a good time here and attended a number of dinners and parties where I had a fine time with the girls.

My furlough had about expired and I began to figure on my return. My aunt had cooked a lot of good things to eat, and I was to start the next morning. Along some time in the night a neighbor came and said there was a lot of Yankee cavalry within two or three miles of us. While I was up in this north Mississippi country the pesky Yankees had run out from Memphis and destroyed the railroad that I had come over and instead of returning the same way I had to cut across the country to the Mobile & Ohio railroad, about fifty miles.

I started real early and looked back often to see if the Yankees were coming and traveled thirty-five miles that day. I stopped over night with a widow lady and started out early next morning. I struck up with a lot of soldiers returning to the army. They had a spring wagon and I had to pay them $10 to get to ride with them. My aunt had given me $60 to bear my expenses and we finally arrived at Tupelo, Miss. And found we were cut off on that railroad too.

The bunch held a consultion and decided that the only thing that could be done was to cut across the country in the direction of Selma, Alabama. We would march twenty or twenty-five miles a day and put up two at a place. I think there were six of us, and no one would charge us for lodging. I remember that another fellow and myself put up at the house of a professor who was running a big school and he had two nice girls. They told me if I would stay and go to school it would not cost me a cent.

We went on from day to day until we struck the end of a railroad and camped at the depot. We cooked sweet potatoes with pine knots and we made up between us not to pay any fare on the train.

Some time in the early morning we boarded the train and when the conductor came around I was the last one he tackled. I noticed that he made them all pay, so when he came to me I told him where I had been, about being cut off from getting out of Northern Mississippi and that I was busted. To my surprise he said "All Right."

After we had got under good headway I noticed that a couple of ladies just opposite me were nearly tickled to death at something about me. I examined my clothing to see if any buttons were off or any of my clothing was unbuttoned and finding nothing wrong concluded as I was the laughing stock I would go into another coach. In passing out I looked in a mirror and right there I saw what tickled the ladies. I hardly knew myself for in cooking the potatoes with pine knots the smoke had settled all over my face till I looked like white people do in a negro show, white around my eyes and mouth and the rest of my face as black as a negro.

We arrived at Selma some time before noon and boarded the first boat for Montgomery but passed our regiment on the river some time in the night, bound for Selma. I did not find this out until we arrived at Montgomery and found some of our company officers who had been left there to bring up the stragglers. I then got on a boat and went back down the river to Selma. I will say here that in making the trip from Holly Springs to where we boarded the train was 257 miles that I traveled on foot.

CHAPTER VIII

We remained at Selma but a few days and then returned to near Dalton, Georgia.

I had another trip, I think it was somewhere on our retreat from Dalton to Atlanta, that I was sent out with six men, down on a railroad, I do not remember what road it was, to see if we could find out what the Yankees were doing. We went about eight or ten miles and were walking leisurely along when the first thing that attracted my attention was the soldiers that were with me cocking their guns. They were a little behind me and as I looked around I saw a Yankee officer about twenty-five yards away coming in the road behind us. I told the men not to shoot and the officer came walking up to us very unconcerned and I commenced to question him. I asked him what he was doing there by himself and he said he was lost from his command, that he was a lieutenant in some regiment I don't remember now. I told him he could consider himself a prisoner and he handed me his sword and he had a bottle of liquor and I confiscated that as I needed it in my business. About that time we looked down the road, and saw a squad of Yankee cavalry ride out and we went back from the road about seventy-five yards and made a bee line back the way we had come, with our Yankee in front on a trot. We ran about three quarters of a mile and halted and I went to the edge of railroad to see how things looked. I saw a lot of Yankees at the place we had just left and we started again at a faster gait than ever. I stopped and looked again after going about the same distance but saw no more of them so I took my man to headquarters and handed him over to the proper authorities and never saw him again. He ???? as he had taken on too much liquor which was the cause of his being lost.

Once more we are back to the Chattahoochie. After our young Yankee got across the river all right we staid there doing picket duty for several days, talking and having a good time generally. I remember on one occasion I had a newspaper and was sitting in a square place that had been cut down to get to our pontoons when I looked across and saw a Yankee. We had orders to fire at everything in sight that day. I would wave the paper and he would run a little ways and stop, then I would wave the paper and he would run again, then some of our soldiers up the river opened fire on him and if ever a Yankee run, he did, and got back all right. I never thought I treated him wrong. Our officers inquired about it and knew that somebody had done something to cause him to run down toward where I was, but they never found out what it was.

The relief would come on of evenings and each side would tell the other side to hunt their holes until they found out what the orders were. If everything was O.K. we would come out from our holes and be as friendly as ever. If not we whacked away at each other the best we knew how.

We remained here several days and fell back in front of Atlanta where we threw up breastworks. We had quite a lot of Georgia militia and would put them in the front breastworks to relieve the old soldiers. It seemed that each mess of them had a negro servant to cook. I remember seeing the negroes go to the front with cooked rations and some of them would hold a frying pan in front of their heads to keep the minie balls from puncturing their heads.

I was acting Sergeant Major and had to get up the picket force for each evening. One evening while the pickets were coming in to be sent out a Yankee battery sent a shell right over among us. It exploded not over twenty-five feet in front of us and broke the thigh of one man and tore the flesh from the calf of the leg of another. I tore the suspenders off each one and put around their legs, put a stick in it and twisted it to stop the flow of blood. A piece of the shell struck a stake that was stuck up in breastworks and a splinter struck me on the arm. I was afraid to look at it for fear my arm was gone. One of the men died that night and the other some time afterward at the hospital.

We got short of lead here and the officers employed the soldiers to pick up balls that were scattered in the rear where the Yankees had fired at our pickets.

I was on picket here one night and just before daylight we believed the Yankees had left our front. Another soldier and myself started out to see if it was so. We would walk a little distance and listen, then go on a little further and listen again. We kept on this way until we got to their breastworks and they were sure enough gone. We got to their works about the break of day and looked around a while to see if any stragglers were left, but everybody was gone.

On going back to our picket post I saw more signs of shooting than I ever saw before. Between the picket posts the bullets had cut down saplings as large as a man's leg, it would lodge and then be cut in two again and if the limbs and brush had been thrown out of the way a team and wagon could have been driven through the woods anywhere. After I returned to my regiment that morning I reported what I had seen and we commenced to get out of there and change our position. I believe we went out on the east side of town. We had a large cannon on a handcar and one day our regiment was in front of it about a hundred yards, when it was fired and the shell went right over us, it made a noise like a turkey flying, landed over in Yankeedom and exploded. It shook things up in great shape. It was reported that one shell killed nearly a whole company. There was only one discharge of the gun while we were in front of it. A piece of the band around the bomb broke off and killed a lieutenant in our regiment. We were moved somewhere else after that.

I well remember the night Sherman threw shells into the city. I was lying down and could see the fuses burning and hear the shells burst in town and we could hear the fire department out putting out fires. Most every family in town lived underground and one could see the stovepipes protruding from the ground. The shells from Sherman's batteries had been falling in the city for some time and "bomb proofs" were all over the city.

CHAPTER IX

General Hood was in command of the Army of the Tennessee at this time and if anything was ever out of all sorts it was the Army of the Tennessee. Old Joseph E. Johnston looked after his men and did not run them into any unnecessary engagements. Hood would fight at the drop of the hat and drop it himself, so he thought he would show Sherman a few things out of the ordinary.

We slipped out of Atlanta of the 21^st of July and we thought we were doing the same old thing of falling back. He fooled Sherman too, as Sherman stated in his narrative of the Atlanta campaign. We marched the balance of the night and until the next afternoon when we struck Sherman's extreme left wing and took the Yankees by surprise, I think, as we run right over them and took their works and a number of batteries. We run them out their works and we had possession of them. I saw in passing through where they had fallen back that the Yankees had their dinner on cooking and they did not stay there long enough to set the tables for their company who arrived so unexpectedly, and I have always felt kind of thankful to the Yankee boys for having our dinner ready for us when we arrived for we were tired and hungry.

I felt very sorry for a Yankee officer who had been wounded and was lying in an exposed position, and could not get to a place of safety. He was lying about ten steps inside of the works and just behind us, and the shells and minie balls were making it hot for us. He called to us and asked us to please come and get him down in the ditch where we were, so I started out to bring him in but one of our officers told me to come back and I had to let him lie in his dangerous position. I never knew how he came out.

I ran up on a wounded Dutchman and he was doing a whole lot of Dutch talk. I offered him a drink of water from my canteen and he would shake his head. He might have been cussing me for all I knew.

We held the works that we captured until after night but just across a draw further up their line they held part of the works. I ventured out in front of our line to see what I could find and run up on a dead Rebel and got me a good hat and a few shirts out of the Yankee knapsacks and then went back into our lines.

I do not remember now when we did leave there, but suppose we left that night but we were over toward Atlanta after that as I was on the battle ground several days after that and could see parts of soldiers sticking out of the ditches where they were buried. I don't know who buried them. I saw the worst shot man there that I ever saw. A cannon ball cut him entirely in two except a little strip of skin on each side.

Gen. McPherson, a union general, was killed here.

After the battle of the 22^nd we dropped down to Jonesboro and Lovejoy station and had a little fighting there but not to amount to much.

Gen. Hood concluded that he would let Sherman go on south and he would go back in Tennessee and see about Sherman's trains that furnished his army their supplies and we started on the march back on the west side of the railroad. I do not remember that we struck the railroad until we got to Dalton. I remember that we marched up close to the town and found in line of battle. The soldiers were lying around on the ground when we saw a Yankee cavalryman who would ride out to within a hundred yards or so of us, fire his carbine and then gallop back toward town. We noticed that he would stop at a house just at the edge of town, then he would repeat the performance, so a soldier of my company and myself went down in a cotton patch and got behind a pile of logs and waited for him to come again. About the time we started down to the cotton patch we saw the Yankee commander and some of our head officers ride along in front of our lines. Our general had demanded the unconditional surrender of the Yankee garrison and I heard that he supposed that we were a Rebel cavalry force and that he was not going to surrender to them, but when he rode around and saw that it was Hood's army he surrendered the place.

His force consisted of a negro regiment or two with white officers. Myself and the fellow that was with me down in the cotton patch saw our forces start up in town and we hurried on ahead to see if we could capture the Yankee cavalryman but he saw us in time and made his escape, but we went on into town and to the fort. Everybody was hurrying around and the negroes were about half drunk. I saw a negro with a bottle of whisky and told him to hand it over, which he did. I felt so elated over my capture that I showed it to one of our officers and he took it away from me and I did not get even a taste of it.

The fort was built around a big house, a hotel, I think, and I went in and up to the second story and saw a lot of Yankee officers. They were talking about having to go to prison. I ran across one of our generals and he ordered me out of there but I just kept out of his sight and stayed as long as I wanted to.

We did about as we pleased and when night came I saw that a detail was ordered to go into the fort and bring out the sutler's stores that were there. I went up to the officer in charge and told him to roll me out something. He eyed me closely and said, "Of course, or I wouldn't be there," and he hand me a box of raisins and a box of ground pepper, and by the time I had hurried to my company and gave the boxes to the boys of my mess and got back the detail had moved the balance. I run up against a fellow who had got about half a sack of coffee and he asked me and another fellow to help him take it out the back way. We helped him in a neighborly way but by the time we were out we had filled our haversacks with his coffee.

There was nothing more to do in the fort so we were marched down to the railroad and went to fixing it. We would rip up the iron and make pens out of the ties, then lay the irons across the pens and set the pile on fire, and when the irons got hot each end would bend to the ground. We had the negroes helping us and one smart negro refused to help burn the ties and he got a minie ball through him. The rest of them were all right after that.

CHAPTER X

-We then started on a march and I saw next day a lot of negro stragglers I never knew what became of them but suppose they and the Yankee officers were paroled.

I remember on the march one day hearing a soldier say that Sherman had wound up the ball but Hood was unwinding it.

There was nothing out of the ordinary during that march. I don't remember the number of days it took to reach the neighborhood of Decatur but we did not go into the town at all as there were a lot of Yankees there and from the looks of the forts at a distance we had no time to waste with them, so we dropped down the river to the little town of Florence and put our pontoons across the river and lit out for middle Tennessee. We just cleaned everything up or everybody got out of our way until we landed about Franklin, I suppose and believe that Franklin was one of the hottest battles of the war. I was not in the battle myself but had arrived on the hill south of Franklin when I saw the battle begin. It was fought about two miles from where we were and we never got into the engagement.

I went up to where our lines had fallen back to and formed near the Carter house the next morning and saw what had been done the evening before. The Yankees had retreated toward Nashville during the night and left their dead and wounded on the field. I never saw as many dead as were on the ground in front of the Yankee breastworks. There was a locust thicket in front of their works and I counted 19 balls that had hit one sapling from the ground to the height of a man's head. These were shots from the Yankee side, but at the Carter house there was a small brick building, I don't know what it was used for, which was struck by over 100 balls. I saw it again in 1911. It has never been molested or changed in any way since the war. This house was inside the Yankee lines and these shots were fired by the Rebels.

Just inside the works in the Carter house, I think it was the next morning after the battle I saw a Yankee officer who had been wounded, I don't know how badly but he looked kind of glum as he had not got in good humor since the battle. I asked him if I could do anything for him and he looked at me as though he would like to kill me. I told him it would be a pleasure to me to help him in any way I could and he said I could give him a drink of water which I did. I saw another poor fellow who was still out in the breastworks. I think from his uniform he was artilleryman. He was sitting with both hands up holding his face, his eyes were about closed and his face had a greenish color.

I went back to our lines and saw a lot of prisoners, all surrounded by a lot of Rebel guards. I was standing around looking at them when one stepped up to me and said he wanted to speak to me privately. We stepped to one side and he told me that he had a watch that he would have no need for in prison and that if he could get some Confederate money for it he would be very glad. He told me the reason he had picked on me was that he thought I would treat him right. Well, I could have taken it from him and kept it but I gave him twenty dollars in Confederate money for it, all the money I had, and he went on to prison.

I suppose from the appearance of everything that this was one of the hardest battles of the war. We lost many killed among them several Generals and officers of less prominence. We left here in a day or two for Nashville, but we never got there, although we arrived in sight of the city.

I remember the first afternoon several of us went up on a hill in a clearing where we could see Fort Negley. We were about two and a half miles from the fort and were standing around looking at it when we saw a puff of smoke shoot up from the fort, and someone remarked that they were shooting at us. We finally concluded that we were mistaken about it, but soon after that here it came and about that time its mate barked and we left there before it landed. It surprised us that it took the shell so long to come two and a half miles.

I remember that one day while we were around here waiting for the Yankees to come out so we could whip them that I ventured out in front of our lines to see what was what I came to a fine big brick residence belonging to a Widow Brown, the wife of one of our ex-Governors. There was only Mrs. Brown and a grown daughter living there at the time but there was a big Missouri Yankee there who had been left for protection. I had my gun with me and his gun was standing against the stairs. He never tried to get it but said that it was one of the rules of war not to molest a guard under such circumstances. I told him I understood the rule and I staid there quite a while talking to the ladies and the soldier too. The ladies told me they were southern sympathizers, and after a while I thought I would venture a little further on. I went out and crossed the pike that run along the yard fence and had not gone twenty steps when I saw a lot of Yankees around a fire, presumably cooking. It was down a slant in the ground and if they had seen me at all they could only have seen my head, but none of them saw me. I stooped and turned around and if ever a Johnnie Reb moved, I did. I never even stopped to tell Mrs. Brown and the rest good by. I have always thought they did not treat me right. That Missouri Yankee might have told me it was not safe to go very far out that way. Mrs. Brown being a good southern woman might have given me the wink and nodded her head back south and I think I would have taken the hint, but she did not. I understand her daughter still lives in Nashville. I would like very much to meet her.

CHAPTER XI

We laid around in front of Nashville until something did happen sure enough. I was out on picket duty here some of the coldest nights I ever saw. We had to stay on picket two hours, then go back a short distance and thaw out. Our command was finally stationed on the extreme left. Our company was on a little round hill. We could not see the Yankees in our front on account of the timber and brush but we could see to our right nearly a mile. Now and then some Yankee cavalry would run in behind us and some of our command would get after them and run them back, but they would keep getting in our rear. That position was the only one I was ever in that a fellow could not get behind a tree. Late in the afternoon the Yankees charged our works about half a mile to our right, in full view of our position and some of them broke through our lines. Right then things began to happen. The break in our lines widened our as the Yankees pressed forward and they never stopped but kept right on. There was a big hill just ahead of them and our officers told us to fall back, which we did in a hurry, every man taking care of himself. After the Yankees broke our lines on our right they came right on until they got to the foot of the hill. Then they would go to forming on their colors. While that was going on the cavalry came in our rear and we had to run right through a lane of them. I never saw one of my company after we started back. When I got to the foot of the hill I started up it as fast as I could go. A fellow would be shot near me and fall and roll down the hill and I was thinking all the time that it would be my turn next. I had got to within about twenty steps of the top my left foot stopped a minie ball. It cut a hole through the leather of my shoe and sock and to the bone and stopped. I thought it was Kattis with me and threw down my gun and cartridge box and went on the best I could. Darkness soon overtook me and I finally came to the pike leading to Colombia, when I got on a caisson that came by. The drivers never saw me the whole night. I rode on the caisson till morning and my foot was so painful that I could hardly walk. The Yankees simply whipped us to a frazzle and that's a fact.

Hood ought to have been hung to lay around Nashville until Thomas got all the reinforcements he wanted. Hood's army was in no shape to fight this battle but Hood would fight whether he was able to do much or not.

The official returns of the Army of the Tennessee show that when Hood crossed the Tennessee river at Florence, Alabama, he had 26,000 of all arms. He assaulted Scholfield at Franklin, Tenn. Who had 16,000 men. Hood lost 4,500 here and moved on to Nashville with 21,000 men. He had sent Bates' division of about 1,600 to Murfreesboro, leaving about 21,000 men. Gen. Thomas had inside the works at Nashville about 30.000 and was reinforced to about 60,000. Hood's affective force did not exceed 20,000 men. Hood lost in these engagements, killed, wounded and missing 4,492, leaving Hood with less than 15,000 men.

Official returns made after Hood retreated to Tupelo, Miss. Showed an effective force of 16,931 men. Hood lost 50 pieces of artillery and had 59 left. Gen. Forrest captured and destroyed sixteen blockhouses and stockades, twenty bridges, four engines, one hundred cars, ten miles of track, captured 1,6oo prisoners, one hundred head of horses, mules and cattle. Hood was relieved of his command Jan. 25, 1865. I get this information from Battles and Sketches by Bloomfield Ridley, pages 440 and 441.

When we retreated to Columbia a lot of us got permission to visit our homes. We started early in the morning. There was about ten in the bunch. I was in bad shape to walk but I hobbled along as best I could. When we got out from our camp we got the direction to Tullahoma and took a straight course, regardless of roads. We did not want to travel the roads as we might come in contact with the Yankee cavalry. We got along all right, stopping with the people at night. Before we got near Tullahoma we got a man to pilot us across the railroad track two or three miles north of town as there was a lot of Yankees there. The man had a horse that I rode as I could not travel as well as the rest of the bunch. It was an awful cold night and the ground was covered with snow and ice. We had traveled two or three miles when we heard a lot of cavalry approaching, so we all hurried to one side of the road. The horse I was riding got loose and started for his home. We could hear him running on the frozen ground for a mile or so. We laid on the ice till the cavalry had passed. We found out afterwards that it was some Rebel cavalry going south.

We crossed the railroad all right and continued on our way until we arrived at the house of a man I knew who lived about ten miles from my home. We stayed the balance of the night with him and after breakfast crossed Duck river and on towards home, crossing the Manchester and Buck Grove road about a mile north of Manchester. We saw in crossing the road a lot of Yankee pickets about a quarter of a mile from where we crossed. I was then within two miles of home. When within a mile of home I met my mother who was then visiting a son, and went on home with her. . The boys who were still with me went on to their homes. I had not seen my mother since Bragg retreated from Tullahoma, or heard from her either. I stopped around home for some time keeping out of sight of the Yankees that frequently passed. I found everything in bad shape. The farm was all run down stock all gone, but the negroes were still at home and worked reasonably well, but they had little to live on. When they would raise a crop the soldiers would take it. I remember that the tableware consisted of tin plates and the tumblers were the lower parts of glass bottles cut in two by drawing a yarn string around them until they were hot and by pouring water on them they would come apart.

Chapter XII is missing

CHAPTER XIII

While we were in the trenches at Atlanta the authorities gave so much a pound for minie balls picked up in the rear of our main line, as our ammunition was running short and we wanted to send them back the first chance we got. Those that were whole did not have to be moulded again. Some of the men made good wages picking them up. When we would be in line of battle or in the ditches when some part of our army would be engaged at some part of the line the soldiers would write letters to friends on the line to find out whether any of our acquaintances was killed or wounded. We would get a small stick about six inches long and split one end far enough to put the envelope in, then take a string and tie around the split end to hold it secure, then toss it where we wanted it to go. Some one would toss it again and so on until it reached its destination. I have got an answer the same day.

I remember when we were in line of battle at Atlanta that the Georgia militia would be in reserve just behind our line, and they would have a negro cook to bring their rations to them at their line, and I have seen the negroes carry a frying pan up in front of their heads to keep the Yankees balls from hitting them. The balls would probably have glanced off anyway, as a negro's skull is almost bomb proof.

Soon after I got home, in 1865 I married and settled down at the old home. I looked after the family, my mother being a widow, as my father died when I was about ten years old. I reared a large family of children, two boys living in Iowa, one daughter in California, the rest that are living are near me in Tennessee.