h, all who
could get away were gone, and none but the military were prominent
in the streets, and the sick and wounded were sent southward. The
main body of the army camped on the Nashville side of the river.
Work was suspended on two fine gunboats in process of construction,
and orders given to be ready for their destruction at a moment's
notice. The railroad bridge was also prepared for the same fate.

In the mean time the citizens, believing that General Johnson would
make a stand, commenced a fortification, four miles from the city,
on the south side of the Cumberland, for the purpose of resisting
the advance of the gunboats. When it was announced that no defence
would be made, the people were highly indignant, because the
suddenness of this decision left the citizens no time for the
removal of their remaining goods. As the Confederate authorities
could not remove all their commissary stores, the warehouses were
thrown open, and the poor came and carried off thousands of dollars'
worth. Some of these people subsequently set up boarding-houses and
fed Union soldiers from the provisions thus obtained.

At length the railroad bridge and the gunboats were burned, and the
suspension bridge cut down. An act of pure vandalism was this last,
as it neither aided the Rebel retreat nor delayed the Federal
advance. Curses against General Floyd and Governor Harris were loud
and deep for this act, and General A.S. Johnson never recovered the
reputation lost during this retreat.

My company was constantly on scout duty, guarding the roads on the
north side of the river, protecting the rear of the retreating
hosts, and watching for the coming of Buell's advance. This whole
retreat, from Bowling Green to Corinth, a distance of nearly three
hundred miles as traveled by the army, and occupying six weeks, was
one of the most trying that an army was ever called upon to perform
in its own country and among friends. The army was not far from
60,000 strong, after General George B. Crittenden's forces were
added to it at Murfreesboro. The season of the year was the worst
possible in that latitude. Rain fell, sometimes sleet, four days out
of seven. The roads were bad enough at best, but under such
a tramping of horses and cutting of wheels as the march
produced, soon became horrible. About a hundred regiments were
numbered in the army. The full complement of wagons to each
regiment--twenty-four--would give above two thousand wagons. Ima