Nashville, Thursday, Nov. 24. A still cold night, froze very hard this morning. I think it is ten degrees below zero. Boys skating on ponds, like old times. Detailed early to go after beef. Had to go and obtain post team, then to the slaughter yard located on the Cumberland River. When we reached it we found there was a string of wagons twenty rods long ahead of us, and we had to wait our turn, which did not come before 3 P. M. and we had a good chance to see the magnitude of the work carried on here daily. About one hundred eighty two butchers at work all the time, fifty-four beeves killed before 12 M. An animal would be knocked down and nearly skinned before he was dead, it being weighed out as fast as killed. One hundred thousand rations issued by the government daily. Reached camp in time to eat a good supper and to find no mail for me.
An opportunity offered Griff and me to attend the theatre where the celebrated Alice Kingsbury (Maggie Mitchell) played the part of “Cricket” in the drama called Fanchon. To me it was highly interesting to observe how near art could approach nature. Stage scenery was almost life-like, the grassy woods, shady woodland and bubbling brook, all seemed more real than I could believe possible. As for Alice, she was the principal actress for three hours, and well did she play her part as a poor befriended orphan and an accomplished lady. Anger, sorrow and love depicted with great truthfulness.
