wagons to gain the summit; and as we came to the foot of the
mountain we found a rude, log hut in which lived a hunter. We stopped
there to get dinner, and were all at a loss to guess what kind of fresh
meat we were eating, and in answer to my inquiry the host said: "That,
Mister, is bar meat; I was up on the mounting one day last week, and came
upon this varmint eatin' blackberries, and I fetched him home for winter.
Don't be afeared; bar meat won't hurt ye more'n liftin' on a stick o'
basswood."

That afternoon one of the most amusing incidents of the march occurred.

We came to a farm house, and the farmer being at home, we all sat down on
a log he had hauled up to the front of the house, for cutting up into fire
wood, for a chat with him and to rest a little. The farmer sat on one end
of the log, the Lieutenant next, and the rest of us were strung along.

The fellow who sat next to me had an ear of corn, and there were quite a
number of chickens picking around the wood pile. While the Lieutenant and
farmer were talking, this fellow took out his iron ramrod and laid it
against the log beside him, and then commenced shelling the corn and
feeding the chickens. Watching the farmer, he would tap a chicken across
the back of the neck with his ramrod, stuff him in the breast of his
overcoat, and innocently go on shelling the corn for the other chickens.

In this way I saw him gobble three good fat chickens, when he told the
Lieutenant he was going to walk on a piece. When we overtook him about
eighty rods further on, he was sitting in the woods beside the road,
picking the chickens he had stolen from the farmer. The Lieutenant called
to him and said, sternly: "I thought I told you not to plunder while on
the march." "Well," said he, with a comical drawl, "I don't allow no
doggone chicken to come out and bite at me." That settled it; we had
chicken for supper that night, and the Lieutenant seemed to relish the
supper as much as any of us.

The next day we marched to Morgantown, and there took the cars for
Danville, Va. We saw no opportunity to escape, for we were guarded very
strictly, though at the same time we were treated with all the courtesy
that could possibly be shown us, and I believe our guard would have
defended us with force, against any one who had attempted to molest us.

When we arrived at Salisbury, which was one of the most notorious rebel
slaughter houses of the South, a place that vied with Andersonvil