e. The rifle pits had been taken
possession of by a regiment of South Carolina sharpshooters, and if they
had been able to hold them they could have raked the edge of the city and
two or three streets.

December 3. The scouts brought in word that Longstreet had given up the
siege and was preparing to withdraw from our front; and the next day it
was reported that the Johnnies were really moving off to the right up the
valley. On the 5th, a party of us boys went over and took a look at the
Johnnies' camp and works. There was a good deal of camp refuse lying
around. The weather was getting very cold.

The 7th. We started after Longstreet, going toward Morristown. We marched
up to the vicinity of Blaine's cross-roads and stayed there until we
re-enlisted. It was a cold, hard time we had those days. My feet were cold
all the time. I was not comfortably warm for a number of days, and rations
were dreadfully short. Some of the time we had nothing to eat but corn on
the cob. We roasted that and eat it and it kept us from starvation. The
9th, I helped to catch a pig, but it was very small. There was not much
meat on it.

December 24. The order concerning re-enlistment was read to a part of the
regiment, the other part of the regiment was off on picket duty. When the
question of re-enlistment was put to the boys there was a good deal of
hesitation. A few only put up their hands. The idea of going home on a
furlough for thirty days was a strong inducement, but the conditions under
which we were living at the time were unfavorable. December 26. Our supply
train was captured out in the vicinity of the gap with all our hardtack,
sugar and coffee, etc. Re-enlistment was growing popular. I re-enlisted
to-day. The temperature hovered around the freezing point. One hour it
rained, another hour it snowed or the moisture fell in a sort of sleet. We
were camping in a little hollow in the wood sloping towards the south.

December 28. It was reported that two-thirds of the men of the regiment
had re-enlisted. That proportion was sufficient to enable the regiment to
go home, as a regiment, on veteran furlough. It was reported about camp
that the 21st was the first regiment in the 9th Army Corps to report thus
re-enlisted.

January 6, 1864. Orders came directing that we be in readiness to start
for Camp Nelson and the north at once, and in the afternoon of the 7th we
set out. About two hundred Confederate prisoners were to be taken along.