g. The Eighty-sixth about this time thought it would get a
permanent detail as train guards, get to ride and such; but like many
other of its hopes and plans, it was all "in a horn."

On the march from the Catawba there was a deal of corduroying to be
done on the muddy roads, and by the time our long trains had passed
over they were far worse than ever. Our corps train consisted of more
than six hundred wagons, and when stretched out on the same road, as
was very often the case, it would string out from six to seven miles,
making bad roads for the rearmost wagons. General Davis was surprised
at the rapidity with which General Morgan moved his command from the
Catawba to the Great Pedee, and complimented him for it. General Morgan
was, in every sense of the word, a go-ahead man; he was so kind and
careful with his men that they would speak of him altogether by the
sobriquet of "Uncle Jimmy Morgan." He was odd and peculiar in his
manner; he stood in a position inclining forward, and when he walked he
held his hands behind him, his eyes striking the ground at an angle of
forty-five degrees. In conversation with others, he walked rapidly
backwards and forwards as if in great mental excitement, doubtless, as
Artemus Ward would say, "a way he has." He was plain and unostentatious
in his dress, wearing a soldier's blouse, a soldier's hat, and
soldier's shoes, being a private soldier out and out, the only
distinction consisting in the little star upon either shoulder--the
insignia of his rank.

Those who did not know him would wonder what soldier that was using so
much authority. General Morgan was not only common to and among his
men, but, better than all, he was careful with them, and valued their
lives as much as his own, never commanding them to go where he would
not accompany them. Whenever there was a battle pending, you would see
him on the skirmish line dodging round and looking about for himself;
and when there was great danger, he would tell his boys to be very
careful and not get hurt, seeming really to love them. Before the
General entered the service he was said to have been a pork packer,
though there was another report that he was a Methodist preacher. These
reports were often the source of amusing incidents. Frequently on our
long marches the boys would become tired and worn out, wanting to go
into camp. By and by Uncle Jimmy would come along while they were in
this mood, when some mischievous fellow would cry