regiment cast as heavy a vote for the peace-on-any-terms candidate. Some of the men are down near the river, west of camp, procuring brick to make a chimney for Colonel Mitchell.

The enemy built rafts of logs up the river a day or two ago, and floated them down to break our pontoons. The trick was discovered in time to tow the rafts to shore before they accomplished the design.

17. The impression prevails that we may stay on Stringer some time yet, and the men are busy building huts and dug-outs in which to live. Axes, wedges and froes are in demand to make these chestnut trees into logs, puncheons and clapboards for building purposes." With rude tools and ruder materials we are putting up houses that will be very comfortable, but not very ornamental.

18. Sunday. Some are giving the day a proper observance by ceasing to work on their houses, but many others are falling trees, carrying logs, making boards, etc. A soldier sees very little of God's day of rest.

From our camp we get a fine view of the river, the city, and of our main army in their camps south of Chattanooga. We can see the glimmer of their camp fires at night, and during the day the untiring motion of the rebel signal post on Lookout's side goes on. Our batteries sometimes toss shell and solid shot at the feet and over the head of the brave "Jonny " who handles the signal flag, but he stands at his post with a daring devotion equal to the boy who stood on the burning deck. Grit is a thing to be admired, even in a rebel.

Of a clear day we can see the camp of Bragg's army on Mission Ridge and stretching westward to the base of Lookout. Such a thing as two great armies lying side by side in plain sight of each other, each unable to attack the other, is a strange feature of the war.

21. Several men of the company have been out on an independent scout for something to eat. They found a young cow tied near the house of her owner, and in trying to take possession of her they were set upon by two fierce dogs, which disputed their right to the cow. But the cow was led to the picket line by a rope. She was then knocked in the head with a hatchet, and her carcass was soon boiling in the kettles. The boys must have beef.

22. Lieutenant Swisher and I start with an empty train to Bridgeport, going the river road. Ascended the mountain with great difficulty by doubling teams in places. Camped five miles from the mountain summit.

23. Moved ahead in a heavy rain. Just before we began the descent we met General Grant and his attendants on their way to Chattanooga. Built a fire in a stable, and, while waiting to descend to the valley, we dried our clothes. Reached the valley and halted for the night. Went to a house and paid fifty cents for some corn bread. 24. After driving a few miles several of our teams became exhausted, and we halted in consequence. Rol. Reed and I proceeded ahead with his team several miles, halting close to the Soldiers' Home, and near the house of Mr. Kelly. Lieutenant Swisher and A. J. Powell, who had been in advance looking for corn, returned, and I accompanied them back to the exhausted train. Here we drew two barrels of flour, a box of meat and a bag of coffee of Lieutenant Drake, who was on his way to Chattanooga with a train loaded with supplies.

Returned with Swisher to where we had left Reed. Then, accepting Kelly's hospitality, we spent the night in his house, sleeping on a feather bed!

25. Sunday. Reed and I drove ahead with his team. Gathered some corn in a field by the roadside, and while feeding some to my horse he bit off the end of my finger on my left hand. Tied up the finger with the back of Reed's vest, crossed Sequatchie Creek on a pontoon, took a hasty dinner at Jasper, drove on beyond Battle Creek, and spent the night before a fire in the open air.

Drew corn for the Half rations is the

26. At Bridgeport. Arrived here at 10 A. M. mules on the requisition of Captain Pollock. order for the animals now, but by doubling the number of mules in my train I drew plenty of corn. This is the first square feed they have had in a long time.

28. At Stevenson. Came here on a railroad train from Bridgeport this morning. Troops of the Twelfth Corps are coming in and passing on to the front. Hooker's men wear better clothes than we do. Saw General Hooker yesterday for the first time. He was in the act of emptying the contents of a long bottle down his throat. Spent the night with J. S. McAfee, of the Second Ohio. Joe was a pupil of my first school.

29. Returned to Bridgeport on a train with the 66th Ohio.

NOVEMBER, 1863.

3. Started at 2 P. M. yesterday on our return to Chattanooga. We are camped at Jasper for the night. Several of the 113th, who have

been sick at hospitals at Nashville and other points, are of our party, on their way to the regiment. Sergeant Horton read Alice Seymour to us during the evening before we slept.

4. Being overloaded, we unloaded several tents and chests by the roadside, erected a tent, and left the whole in charge of James Hurrigan, Company F, and Sergeant Cloud, Company A. Moved on and met Lieutenant Scarritt on his way to Nashville. Took the obscure road leading to Kelley's Ferry, and halted some distance from the ferry. Spent the night in a sweet potato patch.

5. Drove on to the ferry, but found no means of crossing. Proceeded up the river, and, late in the afternoon, one of our wagons upset over a fence into a garden close to the river bank. Pitched a wall tent and stayed here all night.

6. Resumed our trip, following an almost extinct road along the river bank. Our weary train reached a point four miles from camp at dark, and there halted for the night. Being mounted, I rode into camp, finding nine of my wife's letters awaiting my arrival.

We now have a Chaplain. Rev. Joseph Morris has been transferred to the 13th from some other field of labor. His first sermon, has made a good

preached last Sunday, is favorably spoken of. He impression on the men thus far. We have had a sutler at times, but at this time there seems to be a vacancy in that department.

7. Our brigade has been reorganized. Colonel Mitchell is again in command of the 113th, and General John Beatty succeeds him in command of the brigade.

The new organization is as follows: 113th O. V. I., Colonel John G. Mitchell; 121st O. V. I., Colonel H. B. Banning; 108th O. V. I., Lieutenant Colonel Carlo Piepho; 98th O. V. I., Major James M. Shane; 3d O. V. I., Captain Leroy S. Bell; 78th Ills. V. I., Colonel Van Vleck; 34th Ills. V. I., Colonel Van Tassell.

Short rations prevail to an extent that is very distressing. The men gather up and eat the scattered corn where the mules eat their scanty fare. They hover around the commissary department and pick up every crumb that falls from the bread boxes. They scout to the country and appropriate to their own use all they can find that is eatable. The animals fare much worse than the men. Hundreds of these have starved to death, and their carcasses can now be counted by scores on the river bottom and elsewhere.

But a better day seems at hand; two steamers are now plying between here and Bridgeport, and our wagon trains are daily bringing in food for the hungry. The men appear to bear their hardships with

cheerfulness, and their faith in the good time coming, seems unshaken.

Now that Rosecrans has been displaced, and his command placed in other hands, the soldiers are inquiring into the causes that brought it about. They conclude that the old hero has been doing too well, and that the Administration does not want a man in command who does all that can be done to end the war. The adoring soldier points to the time when Rosecrans took command of his army, and to the long list of successful actions and campaigns which drove the defiant enemy from his stronghold in Kentucky, to his late position beyond the line of Tennessee. Having shared in the crimson glory of his brilliant record, they are now willing to share in his unjust humiliation.

9. Started with two teams for Bridgeport, and am now halted for the night at South Side Coal Mines. The recent engagements on Lookout Mountain have opened a new and better way to Bridgeport. We now cross the river near camp, and travel the road by which we first marched to Chattanooga. One of my teams, driven by Ben. Anderson, gave out early in the day, and I sent him back to camp. The remaining one is driven by J. E. Buzzard. Slept on a feed trough before a fire, suffering with cold. One of the mules, Bogus by name, made his final kick; that is, he died, during the night. 10. Reached Bridgeport at 2 P. M.

13. At Stevenson. Came here from Bridgeport this morning on business for Lieutenant L. S. Windle of the 113th. Expect to return to-night.

14. At Stevenson. night.

Came here from Bridgeport on the cars last Quartermaster Scarritt is here, and thinks I had best not start for the front till to-morrow. Bought a $7.00 hat and made plans for starting early.

15. Sunday. Pulled out early, going towards Battle Creek, but learning that a pontoon crossing the creek had been taken up, we returned to Bridgeport, crossed the Tennessee and reached Shellmound before dark, giving me an opportunity to explore the celebrated Nickiejack Cave. This is eight miles from Bridgeport.

17. Our train reached Whiteside yesterday evening, and to-day we landed in camp with better loads and with much less difficulty than by the former route. Several letters await me.

"Lookout Mountain resembles a straw rick in appearance, a huge straw rick, mind you, beginning about nine miles southwest of Chattanooga, running up by a gradual slope to within two miles of the city, where it assumes nearly a perpendicular stop, overhanging the

town, almost, at the height of thirty-four hundred feet. On the highest point an immense rock hangs out as if to threaten destruction to everything in the valley below. On this overhanging rock the enemy have siege guns planted. These guns are daily belching their displeasure at our camps south of the city, or at the troops of Hooker, westward.

"Brown's Ferry is the name of a crossing of the river three miles below the city, where we have a pontoon, and where we have been for some time constructing a landing for our boats which ply between here and Bridgeport. On account of the rebels holding Lookout Mountain, our boats cannot yet run up to the city, and are compelled to discharge their loads at Brown's Ferry. The river is so low now that no boats have been up since Sunday, but they are said to be running up as far as 'Kelley's Ferry,' six miles below here." [G.]

"Rations were issued to-day at the following rate: two-thirds bread, whole rations of coffee, half of sugar. If we could get beans or hominy now and then, neither would be thrown away as we used to do when full rations of various articles. were issued.' [G.]

18. "To-day we had issued to us some articles furnished by the Christian Commission. These consisted of needles, pins, thread, pens, handkerchiefs, snatch bags, combs, &c., &c. We have often needed such things, but this is the first time we have ever received them, which is a strange fact. Some of these articles are accompanied by patriotic letters addressed to the soldier by the donor. Being almost entirely out of money, and having no means of procuring supplies of this kind, the soldiers' expressions of appreciation of these kind tokens are abundant and genuine. After dinner Spotty and I took some coffee and went to the country to barter for some corn bread. Two miles from camp we found a house inhabited by a number of women. They were lean, lank and shabbily clad and exhibited little signs of intelligence. We bolted into the house, the inmates telling us to take seats. There were only two unoccupied seats; Spotty made for the better one, leaving one for me which had very little bottom, and which kept going down, down, down, as I put my weight upon it. Modesty, coupled with the forbidding appearance of things in the house, kept us from making known the object of our visit. The women were addicted to tobacco and a number of children shared in the general squalor of the household. It is now after night and my bunk mates are abed. The pen in which we live deserves a description. It is built of logs which cost us no little labor, for we cut them at the foot of the hill and carried them to the summit of the ridge. It is six logs high, the gable being 'boarded' with pine branches woven together so as to turn the rain to some extent. The roof consists of our shelter tents stretched tightly in the shape of a roof. The door and chimney are in the northeast end, the latter being constructed of sticks and mud, and is a success. The furniture consists of a stool, bench, table, cupboard and bedstead. The bench is built on four legs driven into the ground, and is immovable. Our cupboard is a cracker box sus