sting to recount the facts connected with the retreat
of the Rebel army, and then to follow our men to their winter quarters,
among the mountains of East Tennessee, where, throughout the icy season,
they remained, without shoes, without overcoats, without new clothing of
any description, living on quarter rations of corn meal, with
occasionally a handful of flour, and never grumbling; and where, at the
expiration of their three years of service, standing forth under the
open skies, amid all these discomforts, and raising loyal hands towards
heaven, they swore to serve their country yet three years longer. But I
must pause. I have already illustrated their fortitude and heroic
endurance.

The noble bearing of General Burnside throughout the siege won the
admiration of all. In a speech at Cincinnati, a few days after the siege
was raised, with that modesty which characterizes the true soldier, he
said that the honors bestowed on him belonged to his under officers and
the men in the ranks. These kindly words his officers and men will ever
cherish; and in all their added years, as they recall the widely
separated battle-fields, made forever sacred by the blood of their
fallen comrades, and forever glorious by the victories there won, it
will be their pride to say, "We fought with Burnside at Campbell's
Station and in the trenches at Knoxville."

FOOTNOTES:

[A] This statement is confirmed by the following extract from Pollard's
(Rebel) "Third Year of the War." Speaking of his charge on Fort Sanders,
he says: "The force which was to attempt an enterprise which ranks with
the most famous charges in military history should be mentioned in
detail. It consisted of three brigades of McLaw's division;--that of
General Wolford, the Sixteenth, Eighteenth, and Twenty-fourth Georgia
Regiments, and Cobb's and Phillip's Georgia Legions; that of General
Humphrey, the Thirteenth, Seventeenth, Twenty-first, Twenty-second, and
Twenty-third Mississippi Regiments; and a brigade composed of General
Anderson's and Bryant's brigades, embracing, among others, the Palmetto
State Guard, the Fifteenth South Carolina Regiment, and the Fifty-first,
Fifty-third, and Fifty-ninth Georgia Regiments."--pp. 161, 162.

RELEASED.

A little low-ceiled room. Four walls
Whose blank shut out all else of life,
And crowded close within their bound
A world of pain, and toil, and strife.

Her world. Scarce furthermore she knew