Sunday, 27th.—Relieved last night by Clayton’s Division; moved round to right.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Saturday, November 26. — No news from Sherman. Wounded officers from the Macon hospitals arrived here yesterday, and report A. P. Hill’s corps arriving at Charleston. Belcher on. All the militia is being sent forward to Hamburg.
November 26.—We are all ready to make another move. Our hospitals are ordered to Gainesville, Alabama. The base of our army is changed. This will be a long, tedious trip, as we have to change cars very often. Well, there is no use in grumbling.
We have been packed up for some time. We are leaving a nice bake-house, the best the baker has yet put up, a new dining-room and kitchen, and the nicest kind of a distributing-room. I knew when I saw them going up that our doom was sealed as to remaining here.
There has been quite a battle near Macon, and we have had some wounded from it; but I have not seen them. They are militia.
I hear the men telling a good many jokes on them. One poor boy, when he came to the hospital, said the battle was the most terrible of the war. It was quite a severe fight. The enemy set a trap, and the unsophisticated militia were caught in it. I believe there were at least one hundred killed and many wounded, and I am told they were nearly all old men. The veterans whom I have heard speak of the fight say that old soldiers never would have rushed in as the militia did.
“Joe Brown’s Pets” have done much better than any one expected; they have fought well when they have had it to do.
We have some wounded men, who were with General Early in his late disastrous campaign. I have heard some of them blame General Early for not marching right up to Washington, as they think he could have taken it.
Saturday, 26th—The weather is cool but quite pleasant. We lay in camp awaiting the completion of the pontoon bridge. At 10 o’clock we began our march and by 3 in the afternoon both corps had crossed the river. The Fifteenth Corps had an engagement with the rebels on the 22d inst. near Macon, and after the fight the rebels fell back and scattered, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. Their loss was about one thousand, while ours was only five hundred. Their force was mainly state militia and came out from town to attack our approaching army. It is reported that the rebels are concentrating some fifty miles ahead of us and are strongly fortifying themselves on the Ogeechee river. We are on two-thirds rations, but still we have plenty to eat.
Saturday, 26. — Rode with Generals Crook and Duval, Colonel Harris, of [the] Tenth, and Wells, of [the] Fourteenth, to works. A jolly wine-drinking in the evening with Captains Stanley and Stearns, Thirty-sixth, who leave on resignation.
November 26th, 1864.
Thanksgiving Day came bright and beautiful, as though Nature smiled approval, and accepted the thank offering which kind friends, with a degree of liberality never equaled, have sent to cheer the hearts and make glad the stomachs of their “brave defenders.” I am sorry to be compelled to say the kind intentions of our friends were, in a measure, thwarted by circumstances beyond their control. The transports that brought them to City Point were delayed by a storm and did not arrive until Friday evening. Then the work of unloading and distributing to the different corps occupied all the time until Thanksgiving morning. The first installment, designed for the Ninth Corps, did not reach this station until noon of that day. The afternoon was consumed in issuing to divisions, and from them to regiments. We must wait until morning for our dinner.
Doubtless all have seen, in newspapers, an estimate of articles sent to this army. From it, and the time consumed in distribution, some idea can be formed of the amount of food consumed by an army in one day, and the necessity of keeping its line of supplies in working order.
November 26th, 1864.
A dinner of roast turkey in the army! I am inclined to think it unparalleled in the annals of warfare. There were liquors of almost every brand; turkeys both roast and raw; chickens with rich dressings; pies, cakes, fruits and sweetmeats—enough, as intended, for every soldier in the army.
Now for the result.
We drew, for thirty-three men in Company G, twenty pounds roast turkey; thirty green apples; four pounds potatoes; seven cookies; three doughnuts; seven papers line cut tobacco; three papers smoking. The regiment drew in proportion.
We will not measure our thanks to the generous donors by what we received. The effort on their part is appreciated by us, and will be cherished as an expression of sympathy and good will.
November 26, 1864.
A very cold morning. Elbert [the negro coachman] has to go to mill this morning, and I shall go with him, fearing that, if he is alone, my mule may be taken from him, for there are still many straggling soldiers about. Mounted in the little wagon, I went, carrying wheat not only for myself, but for my neighbors. Never did I think I would have to go to mill! Such are the changes that come to us! History tells us of some illustrious examples of this kind. Got home just at night.
Mr. Kennedy stopped all night with us. He has been refugeeing on his way home. Every one we meet gives us painful accounts of the desolation caused by the enemy. Each one has to tell his or her own experience, and fellow-suffering makes us all equal and makes us all feel interested in one another.
November 26th. Orders are that we prepare for winter quarters, as we are to remain here. A good supply of good, clear, running water. Halltown is half way between Charlestown and Harper’s Ferry. All our supplies come from Harper’s Ferry.
Nashville, Saturday, Nov. 26. Ah! it rains again. Continued to do so nearly all day, but by means of our stove and good cheer we passed the day very pleasantly, writing and reading. 3 P. M. mail arrived. None for me. Milton received notice that his folks at home had sent him a Thanksgiving dinner per express. He obtained permission to go to town, and see if it had arrived. I went along. Roads very muddy, but we found it not. To-night a certain number of cedar rails found their way into our stove very mysteriously. Of course it was honest.
26th. Saturday. Remained in camp. Read and wrote to Will.
