I

27. Sunday. As soon as it was light the men began active preparations to construct quarters. Axes and hatchets were kept busy in cutting trees and preparing building materials. Though the rain fell in uncomfortable profusion, the work went on uninterrupted. returned to Stringer's Ridge with the teams to bring forward some materials which we could not haul yesterday. Spent the night in Brigham's quarters with A. Ranneberger, Rollin Reed and Isaac

Slocum.

28. Left the Ridge with Ranneberger's two-horse wagon, crossed the Tennessee in a swing boat, and returned to the regiment. The work of building quarters progresses rapidly. Slept with Lieutenant Scarritt and F. M. Riegel in the quartermaster's tent.

29. Spent part of the day at the house of Mrs. Mitchell, out in the country. Returning to camp, I found an order relieving me from duty as wagon master, and instructing me to report to my company for duty. I have been detached since June 5th, and have seen enough hard work in that time to make this a welcome order.

31. The 113th marched and relieved the 75th Indiana Infantry, at a bridge crossing Chickamauga Creek, five miles in an easterly course from our camp. Companies E and G went on duty at once. The other companies put up temporary quarters It turned very cold during the afternoon and evening.

Isaac Green, M. Huddleston, Wm. C. Brinnon, John Wilson, James O. Kite and I were posted near the house of Mrs. Simpson, and at a vacant blacksmith shop, in which we have a big fire. The old structure is well ventilated, and if cool air and plenty of it, is a good thing, we are fortunate.

JANUARY, 1864.

1. This is the coldest day we have ever felt in the service. It is with difficulty that we keep from suffering. I occupied a place in Mrs. Simpson's house while writing a letter to Mrs. McAdams. Mrs. Simpson's family consists of the mother, three unmarried daughters, a married daughter, a colored woman and several children. They are open rebels, but their treatment of us has been rather courteous than otherwise. The male head of the family is supposed to be with Bragg's army.

A year ago to-day we were at Louisville, Kentucky, and had seen very little of hard service. We think now we are pretty well broken

in, for the year 1863 has given us a taste of about all that pertains to the life of a soldier.

The retrospect of the past year shows that steady progress has been made toward putting down the rebellion, and it can safely be predicted that another year will close its eyes in death.

2. The cold is not so intense. We still hold our position at the bridge, and our post of duty at the blacksmith shop is not an unpleasant one. The single men at the post have joined pleasure with duty, and guarding and sparking goes on, first at the shop, then at the house.

Green procured an oven of Mrs. S., and has been baking our flour into buscuits during the day. He is a good baker as well as a good soldier. The mail came out this evening. The Simpsons all ate with one knife to-day, for some of our thieving soldiers stole their knives and forks. This was reported to our regimental commander, and a guard was placed at the house to protect the inmates from loss and insult. These women deserve better treatment than they have received.

3. Sunday. The weather moderates.

"I was on guard from 9 to 11 A. M., and had more fun than at a goose picking. Our ambulance driver has no feed for his horses, and Major Sullivant ordered that some bran in the cellar of Mrs. Simpson's house be appropriated for the animals. The driver, instead of proceeding to take the bran, went into the smoke house for salt. One of the girls, seeing this, fastened him in as a prisoner of her powerful strategy. She then released him, advising him to ask for what he wanted in the future. He then expressed his intention of taking the bran, but the girl intercepted him at the cellar door, braced herself against it, and defied him to go in. The driver called to me for assistance. This placed me in an awkward predicament, but, after exhausting my art of persuasion on her, I took hold of her pouting form and boosted her away by main strength. It was something of a hugscuffle, and a source of mutual enjoyment. We thought our victory complete, but judge of our surprise when Miss S. stepped into the cellar, fastened the door from the inside, leaving the driver and me on the outside. To hoist the door off its hinges was the next thing to do. This we did, and the girl bounded out of the cellar into the house, denouncing us as thieves of the lower type. We got the bran." [G.]

6. Shallow Ford is the name of the point where we have been on duty for several days past. We were relieved this morning by the 85th Illinois Infantry, and returned to our camp near Rossville. It has been raining for several days. Although Mrs. Simpson and her

daughters are out-and-out rebels, we evidently made a good impression upon them, for they admitted that the men of the 113th treated them better than the soldiers who were on duty there before us. Green thinks that he and the girl he imprisoned in the cellar parted on good terms.

From "The Citizen Soldier," by General John Beatty, I make the following extracts :

"My quarters are in the State of Tennessee, those of my troops in Georgia. Just a moment ago I asked Wilson the day of the week, and he astonished me by saying it was Sunday. It is the first time I ever passed a Sabbath from daylight to dark without knowing it.

"I am quartered in a log hut. A blanket over the doorway excludes the damp air and the cold blasts. There are no windows, but this is fortunate, for if there were, they, like the door, would need covering, and blankets are scarce. The fireplace, however, is grand, and would be creditable to a castle.

"The forest in which we are camped was, in former times, a rendezvous for the blacklegs, thieves, murderers, and outlaws generally, of the two states, Tennessee and Georgia. An old inhabitant informs me he has seen hundreds of these persecuted and proscribed gentry encamped about this spring. When an officer of Tennessee came with a writ to arrest them, they would step a few yards into the State of Georgia and laugh at him. So, when Georgia sought to lay its official clutches on an offending Georgian, the latter would walk over into Tennessee and argue the case across the line. It was a very convenient spot for law-breakers. To reach across this imaginary line and draw a man from Tennessee, would be kidnapping, an insult to a sovereign state, and in a states rights country such a procedure could not be tolerated. Requisitions from the governors of Georgia and Tennessee might, of course, be procured, but this would 'take time, and in this time the offender could walk leisurely into Alabama or North Carolina, neither of which states is very far away. In fact, the presence of a large number of these desperadoes, in this locality, at all seasons of the year, has prevented its settlement by good men, and, in consequence, there are thousands of acres on which there has scarcely been a field cleared or a tree cut. "What a country for the romancer! Here is the dense wilderness, the Tennessee and Chickamauga, the precipitous Lookout with his foothills, spurs, coves and waterfalls. Here are cozy little valleys from which the world, with its noise, bustle, confusions and cares, is excluded. Here have congregated the bloody villians and sneaking thieves; the plumed knights, dashing horsemen, and stubborn infantry. Here are the two great battlefields of Chickamauga and Mission Ridge. Here neighbors have divided and families separated to fight on questions of national policy. Here, in short, everything is supplied to the poet but the invention to construct the plot of his tale, and the genius to breathe life into his characters.

"Some benevolent gentleman should suggest a sanitary fair for the benefit of the disabled horses and mules of the Federal army. There is no suffering so intense as theirs. They are driven with whip and spur on half and quarter food, until they drop from exhaustion, and then abandoned to die in the mud hole where they fall. At Parker's Gap, on our return from Tennessee, I saw a poor, white horse, that had been rolled down the hill to get it out of the road. It had lodged against a tree, feet uppermost; to get up the hill was impossible, and to roll down certain destruction. So the poor brute lay there, looking pitiful enough, his big frame trembling with fright, his great eyes looking anxiously, imploringly for help. A man can give vent to his sufferings, he can ask for assistance, he can find some relief in crying, praying, or cursing; but for the poor exhausted and abandoned beast there is no help, no relief, no hope.

"To-day we picked up on the battlefield of Chickamauga the skull of a man who had been shot in the head. It was smooth, white, and glossy. A little over three months ago this skull was full of life, hope, and ambition. He who carried it into battle had, doubtless, mother, sisters, friends, whose happiness was, to some extent, dependent upon him. They mourn for him now, unless, possibly, they hope still to hear that he is safe and well. Vain hope. Sun, rain, and crows have united in the work of stripping the flesh from his bones, and while the greater part of these lay whitening where they fell, the skull has been rolling about the field, the sport of the winds. This is war, and amid such scenes we are supposed to think of the amount of our salary, and of what the newspapers may say of us.

7. Lieutenant Swisher started home on a furlough.

8. Half an inch of snow fell last night.

Flour has been issued to us of late instead of bread. We can make batter cakes and biscuits that will pass inspection, and delight the inner man, but baking light bread is one of the lost arts.

9. Our quarters are now completed, and a description of the one in which I am quartered ought to be recorded:

It is ten by fourteen in its dimensions, seven feet high, and covered with our own make of clapboards. The door end stands to the west and the door opens outward. The chimney is also in the west end. The east gable has a six-light window, filled with glass eight by ten. Our bunks extend from the window toward the fire, leaving a space to the right for the table, which is a homely affair. Four three-legged stools fill the place of chairs, and are real handy things to have around. We have christened our house "Metropolitan Hall," the name being in large letters over the door outside. The dedication took place in due form, several invited guests being present, all of

whom, together with the proprietors, took the oath several times. All we lacked in the ceremonies was a brass band and something more

to eat.

Notwithstanding our comfortable quarters we do not sleep warm of nights. We get up in the night and warm by the fire, and then return to our bunks to sleep.

Stratton and I went to the country, and procured two haversacks full of unbolted flour and two candles, for which we paid seventyfive cents. After our return to camp we baked some biscuits, and ate breakfast, dinner and supper all in one meal. We have struck upon a plan of keeping a feed store on a small scale. Some of our comrades wanted to buy some bread, and we sold them all we could spare, and the money thus realized will be invested in supplies again.

10. Sunday. Chaplain Morris distributed some reading matter among the men, our mess receiving "The Religious Telescope."

II.

The 10th Illinois Infantry, camped near us, started home on veteran furlough. Stratton and I went to their camp and bought some culinary outfit. We then went into the country, and paid a Miss Conner $3 for six dozen biscuits. Paid Mrs. Lomineck $1 for ten candles. Returned to camp and ate three suppers. Sergeants Souder and Flowers made us an evening visit, and the Hall rang with the voice of song. A rumor has been in circulation to the effect that our feed store business had failed, and to deny the statement we posted on the outside of the shanty door the following:

NOTICE.

“This firm, which was recently reported as having failed, has recovered from its embarrassment, and is now doing a cash business. All claims against us will now be promptly cashed.

METROPOLITAN HALL.”

14. Procured a pass for Green and myself. Went out to a mill on Chickamauga Creek, where we tried to buy breadstuff for our feed store. Failing in this, we retraced our steps till we came to Mrs. Mitchell's, where we bought one hundred and twenty-four biscuits for $5. Returning to camp, we sold out in a few minutes, making a profit of $9.60. The cars run to Chattanooga to-day, the first time since our army has been in possession of the city.

15. Went on picket one and a half miles south of camp, taking the place of Sergeant H. C. Scott. Lieutenant McCrea had charge of