gine
such a train of heavily loaded wagons, passing along a single mud
road, accompanied by 55,000 infantry and 5000 horsemen, in the midst
of rain and sleet, day after day, camping at night in wet fields or
dripping woods, without sufficient food adapted to their wants, and
often without any tents, the men lying down in their wet clothes,
and rising chilled through and through; and let this continue for
six weeks of incessant retreat, and you get a feeble glimpse of what
we endured. The army suffered great loss from sickness and some from
desertion; some regiments leaving Bowling Green with six or seven
hundred men, and reaching Corinth with but half of this number. The
towns through which we passed were left full of sick men, and many
were sent off to hospitals at some distance from our route.

One of the most desperate marches men were ever called to encounter,
was performed by General Breckenridge's division between
Fayetteville and Huntsville. They moved at ten A.M., and marched
till one o'clock next morning, making thirty miles over a terrible
road, amid driving rain and sleet during the whole time. The reason
for this desperate work was, that a day's march lay between the
rear-guard and the main body of General Johnson's army, and there
was danger that it would be cut off. It cost the general hundreds of
men. One-fourth of the division dropped out of the ranks unable to
proceed, and were taken up by the guard, until every wagon and
ambulance was loaded, and then scores were deserted on the road, who
straggled in on following days, or made their way back to their
homes in Tennessee or Kentucky.

This retreat left a good deal of desolation in its track; for
although the officers endeavored to restrain their men, yet they
must have wood; and where the forest was sometimes a mile from the
camping ground, and fences were near, the fences suffered; and where
sheep and hogs abounded when we came, bones and bristles were more
abundant after we left. Horses were needed in the army; and after it
left, none were seen on the farms. And then the impressed soldiers,
judging from my own feelings, were not over-scrupulous in guarding
the property of Rebels. The proud old planters, who had aided in
bringing on the rebellion, were unwillingly compelled to bear part
of its burdens.

This long and disastrous retreat was rendered a necessity as soon as
Fort Henry, on the Tennessee river, was taken by the Federal forces,
as this