sight of Fort Zollicoffer, only seven miles below Nashville.

Upon the second day matters had arrived at such a state, and the
excitement and disorder were so extreme, that it became necessary to
take other precautions to repress the license that was prevailing,
besides the establishment of guards and sentinels about the camps where
the troops lay, and General Johnson ordered the establishment of a
strong military police in Nashville. The First Missouri infantry, one of
the finest and best disciplined regiments in the service, was detailed
for this duty, and Morgan's squadron was sent to assist it. Our duty was
to patrol the city and suburbs, and we were constantly engaged at it
until the city was evacuated. General John B. Floyd, of Virginia, was
appointed commandant of Nashville, and entrusted with the enforcement of
discipline and with all the details of the evacuation. His task was one
of no ordinary difficulty. It was hard, at such a time, to know how to
begin the work. In such a chaos, with such passions ruling, it seemed
folly to hope for the restoration of order. Those who remember the
event, will recall the feeling of despair which had seized upon the
soldiery--the entire army seemed, for the time, hopeless of any
retrieval of our fortunes, and every man was thoroughly reckless. Few
excesses were committed; but, with such a temper prevailing, the worst
consequences were to be apprehended, if the influence of the officers
should be entirely lost and the minds of the men should be directed to
mischief. General Floyd would have found the demoralization and license
which had grown apace among the troops, and the terrors of the citizens,
serious impediments to his efforts to remove the valuable stores which
had been collected in Nashville, even if he had possessed abundant
facilities for their removal. But of such facilities he was almost
entirely destitute. The trains with the army were needed for
transportation of supplies for immediate use. The scanty wheel
transportation which belonged to captured and disorganized commands, and
had been brought to the city, could scarcely be made available. When it
could be discovered and laid hold of, the wagons and teams were usually
found to be unserviceable. General Floyd's first care (after satisfying
himself by active scouting, that there was no truth in the reports of
the proximity of the enemy, and burning the bridge at Edgefield
junction), was to make arrangements for s