oners.

General Mitchell is well pleased with my action in the Paint Rock
matter. The burning of the town has created a sensation, and is spoken
of approvingly by the officers and enthusiastically by the men. It is
the inauguration of the true policy, and the only one that will preserve
us from constant annoyance.

The General rode into our camp this evening, and made us a stirring
speech, in which he dilated upon the rapidity of our movements and the
invincibility of our division.

8. The road to Shelbyville is unsafe for small parties. Guerrilla bands
are very active. Two or three of our supply trains have been captured
and destroyed. Detachments are sent out every day to capture or disperse
these citizen cut-throats.

10. Have been appointed President of a Board of Administration for the
post of Huntsville. After an ineffectual effort to get the members of
the Board together, I concluded to spend a day out of camp, the first
for more than six months; so I strolled over to the hotel, took a bath,
ate dinner, smoked, read, and slept until supper time, dispatched that
meal, and returned to my quarters in the cool of the evening.

We have in our camp a superabundance of negroes. One of these, a
Georgian, belonged to a captain of rebel cavalry, and fell into our
hands at Bridgeport. Since that affair he has attached himself to me.
The other negroes I do not know. In fact they are too numerous to
mention. Whence they came or whither they are going it is impossible to
say. They lie around contentedly, and are delighted when we give them an
opportunity to serve us. All the colored people of Alabama are anxious
to go "wid yer and wait on you folks." There are not fifty negroes in
the South who would not risk their lives for freedom. The man who
affirms that they are contented and happy, and do not desire to escape,
is either a falsifier or a fool.

11. Attended divine service with Captain McDougal at the Presbyterian
Church. The edifice is very fine. The audience was small; the sermon
tolerable. Troubles, the preacher said, were sent to discipline us. The
army was of God; they should, therefore, submit to it, not as slaves,
but as Christians, just as they submitted to other distasteful and
calamitous dispensations.

12. My letters from home have fallen into the hands of John Morgan. The
envelopes were picked up in the road and forwarded to me. My wife should
feel encouraged. It is not every body's letters that are pou