half an
hour to let Companies D and E partake of a bountiful supper, to which
they had been invited by their city friends, and to say a last farewell
to their families and acquaintances. My wife, with the little children,
my sister, father, brother, and other relatives, were gathered in a
large room in the hotel opposite the landing. The half hour was soon
past, and the bugle sounded "fall in." I pass over the parting scene,
leaving it to the imagination of the reader, for I cannot find words to
describe it myself. I will only relate one little episode. When the
bugle sounded for departure I held my little two-year-old daughter in my
arms; her arms were clasped around my neck, and, when I endeavored to
set her down, she closed her little fingers so hard together that her
uncle had to open them by force before he could take her away from me.
When a little child was capable of such feelings, it may be surmised
what those felt who were able to comprehend the significance of that
moment.

In a few days we were camped on a muddy field in Kentucky, quickly
learning the duties of soldier-life, and familiarizing ourselves with
the daily routine of an army in the field.

My military career of four years' duration passed without any event of
particular interest or importance; it was like that of two million other
soldiers--to do their duty faithfully, whatever that duty might be--that
was all.

After eight months' service I was promoted to the rank of major in the
regiment. At that time we were serving in middle Tennessee. Shortly
afterward our regiment, with some three thousand men of the troops, made
a forced march across the Cumberland mountains. In order to give the
reader an idea of the hardships which the soldiers occasionally had to
endure on a march, I shall give a short sketch of this. The detachment
broke camp in Murfreesboro in the forenoon of a very hot day toward the
close of May, and marched twenty miles before night, which was
considered a good distance for the first day. Most of the men suffered
from blistered feet, and they were all very tired. We prepared our
supper, and had just gone to rest in a large open field and were
beginning to fall asleep, when, at ten o'clock in the evening, the
signal was given to fall in. In a few minutes the whole force was in
line, and silently resumed the march forward. We marched the whole
night, the whole of the next day, the following night, and till noon the
day after, mov