ON PICKET IN THE ADVANCE. 315 "on the back; but the men came out in a body and refused to "take them, declaring that if they had to, they would burn "them. The officer thought discretion the better part of valor, "and did not force the matter." On the 16th, the regiment was on picket in advance, the Rebels in sight. In the afternoon another regiment took our place, while we went out two miles on a reconnoissance. Pickets ran as we advanced. On Sunday, 14th, we had a most excellent service in the morning, and then Jep. Denison, Hop. Steward and I rode over to Gen. Davis' head-quarters to visit Company B Cavalry. We were very kindly received by Capt. Sherer and his men. I distributed papers among them and afterward preached. They expressed great gratitude for the service, which was the first they had had. One man expressed his feelings by giving me a cane which he had been making, with great care, out of cedar and inlaid very ingeniously with ivory devices. I sent it home, and preserve it yet as a memento of that Sunday. On our return we had a large attendance at evening meeting, and a number had to go away. I counted forty inside the tent. On the 17th, I was requested, on behalf of Company B, to present Lieut. P. Douglas with sword, sash and shoulder straps, on the occasion of his promotion. We had an interesting time. The rest of the time until our march to Stone river, on the 26th, was occupied with the usual dress parades, skirmish and brigade drill, picket and forage duty. On the 21st we had service at three o'clock P. M. By this time we were in the habit of drawing attendance from other regiments, and had a large concourse, quite as many as I could address comfortably. The accumulated influence of religious services for weeks had produced in the minds of many men unusual tenderness, and when our service closed it was with such a subdued and solemn feeling that the vast crowd seemed to disperse in almost entire silence. It was the last sermon that many a man heard. Was it the shadow of coming events that rested that afternoon upon us? CHAPTER XXII. BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. OON after the battle of Stone River, I wrote out for a Chicago paper a full account of what I saw and heard during those eventful days. It had a large circulation, was read and commented upon by officers and men at the time, and may, therefore, be regarded as even more strictly correct than any that could now be written from memory. I therefore reprint it, with only such verbal changes as the nature of the case demands. The personal character of the narrative has to be retained, and I know not how to help it. MILL CREEK, Thursday, Dec. 25th, 1862.-Rose at six o'clock. Under orders to march. After breakfast, ordered to pitch our tents as before, and make ourselves as comfortable as possible. Regiments came in from picket and everything looked as before we broke up yesterday. This is Christmas Day, and Santa Claus ARRIVAL OF SHELTER TENTS. has not come, unless he visited the little ones at home. 317 Would give a good deal to be at home to-day. Received a copy of Army Regulations from the Adjutant. Heavy musketry heard out on the lines. Rumors that we leave to-morrow; 89th and the battery are under orders; ours have not yet come. Evening Bible Class; subject, Almsgiving in Sermon on the Mount; very interesting. Friday, 26th.-Called at six, with orders to march at seven; all is hurry and confusion. The shelter tents were issued; the men had threatened they would not receive them, considering it an imposition to have them substituted for regular tents. A shelter tent is composed of two sheets of cotton, which being buttoned together and propped with stakes, makes a tent of the shape of a house roof, under which two men can lie; being only four feet high of course cannot be used for permanent encampment. They are generally designed for march, to lessen the baggage train, it being intended that wherever the army remains awhile they should have the large tents. This morning many refused them, preferring to be without any, as all the large tents were ordered back to Nashville. I had my tent, trunk and stove packed on the head-quarters wagon, so as to be provided for, but by a misunderstanding which it was too late to correct when I learned it, they were carried back to Nashville, so that I had nothing but what was carried on the horse and in Henry's knapsack. We supposed, however, that we should probably be back next day, as it was reported that we were going to capture a force that had ventured too near our lines. We had not gone far before it was evident to all that this was a movement in forceJohnson's Division filing in from the other pike on to our rear, and Davis going by another road, while Crittenden and Thomas were advancing in another direction. It became a certainty that we were now advancing on the enemy, and were about to have It was at this time that I found my tent, trunk, war in earnest. &c., had been left behind. We had not gone far before it began to rain, and soon to pour, making the road tedious to the men. We were shortly turned off the pike to go round a creek by a circuitous route, as it was expected that some fortifications had been erected there. A negro was engaged as a guide, who, misunderstanding the General's orders, took us the wrong way; so after wading and slipping through the mud, the artillery cutting deep ruts, we had to return and scek another track, very much to the annoyance of the officers and the disgust of the men. Many remarks were made anything but complimentary to "reliable contrabands." The skirmishers soon came upon a band of the enemy's cavalry, and a brisk firing was kept up for some time. Our regiment being on the advance, we were very near. Our skirmishers were very much exhausted by tramping through the muddy corn and cotton-fields and trailing through the brush. Having successfully crossed the creek, we again came upon the pike, to find that Davis' Division, which was behind us, had gone on to Nolansville before us, in consequence of our delay in finding the right road. Davis is a fighting man—the same that shot Gen. Nelson-and we soon heard by the cannonade that he had come up with a body of the enemy. After a little delay we entered Nolansville, a dirty, dilapidated place of from fifty to one hundred houses. One shell from a secesh battery had entered a house and exploded in it. Here our boys bought some butter and apples, the people preferring Confederate money to greenbacks, which is the case through all this region. We soon heard still heavier cannonading, and as we advanced, the signs of a fight became thick and strong. All was excitement, and but way, for being in the I should have ridden forward to see what was being done. We halted for a time opposite a house where there was a large number of negroes-the owner having a negress for a wife. After a while the firing ceased, our Generals returned and ordered us into camp in an orchard opposite. One of our regiments had made a charge on a battery and captured one gun. One man was killed and thirteen wounded; two more died the next day. The enemy had fled toward Triune, where we expected to find a heavy force within fortifications, and it seemed that to-morrow we must have a general engagement. The ground was thoroughly drenched with rain, and my prospects were anything but flattering, my tent having been left behind. The boys began to put up their shelter tents, and then it appeared as though those who had refused them were not wise. The Major kindly invited me to sleep in his tent which I gladly accepted. During the night the rain began to pour down in torrents, and it was sad to think that so many of our boys were sleeping out in their blankets, and must inevitably be made sick. My sympathies for them began to seek a new channel, for the tent being on a side hill and the men having neglected to trench it as a tent needs in a rain storm-the water began to pour into the tent, wetting our blankets, causing us to draw up our feet to keep them out of the water. Blankets once wet require a good deal of drying, so that altogether this was a little the hardest soldiering I had had. Saturday, 27th.-Rose at six o'clock; somewhat blue. The rain had stopped, and things did not look so gloomy as I had anticipated. One thing, however, this rain had done, converted most of the boys into friends of the shelter tent. The much abused thing became a real favorite, for those who had taken care |