ng developed, since entering the service, from a mere youth in size
to a man of two hundred pounds, to fit me out in becoming style was no
simple matter. I recall one occasion when I started out on my
visiting-round, wearing Frank Preston's coat, Henry Wise's trousers, and
Col. John Ross's waistcoat, and was assured by my benefactors that I
looked like a brigadier-general. Sometimes as many as four or six of our
company, having leave of absence at the same time, would rendezvous to
return together in the small hours of the night, through Rocketts, where
"hold-ups" were not uncommon, and recount our various experiences as we
proceeded campward.

Indications of the hopelessness of the Confederacy had, by midwinter,
become very much in evidence, with but little effort at concealment.
Conferences on the subject among the members of companies and regiments
were of almost daily occurrence, in which there was much discussion as
to what course should be pursued when and after the worst came. Many
resolutions were passed in these meetings, avowing the utmost loyalty to
the cause, and the determination to fight to the death. In one regiment
not far from our battery a resolution was offered which did not meet the
approbation of all concerned, and was finally passed in a form qualified
thus, "Resolved, that in case our army is overwhelmed and broken up, we
will bushwhack them; that is, some of us will."

Notwithstanding all this apprehension, scant rations and general
discomfort, the pluck and spirit of the great majority of our men
continued unabated. To give an idea of the insufficiency of the rations
we received at this time, the following incident which I witnessed will
suffice: Immediately after finishing his breakfast, one of our company
invested five dollars in five loaves of bread. After devouring three of
them, his appetite was sufficiently appeased to enable him to negotiate
the exchange of one of the two remaining for enough molasses to sweeten
the other, which he ate at once. These loaves, which were huckstered
along the lines by venders from Richmond, it must be understood, were
not full-size, but a compromise between a loaf and a roll.

Desertions were of almost nightly occurrence, and occasionally a
half-dozen or more of the infantry on the picket line would go over in a
body to the enemy and give themselves up. The Federals, who had material
and facilities for pyrotechnic displays, one night exhibited in glaring
l