May 20.—I went up to Atlanta again, but as the army is still retreating I came right back. While there, I met Doctor and Mrs. Hopping, just from Kingston. They came away in a great hurry, leaving a large portion of the hospital stores behind. They did not receive orders to move until our army had entered Kingston. The enemy was expected in by Rome, so Johnston has had to fall back.
Mrs. H. represented the scene among the inhabitants at Kingston as harrowing, at the prospect of having the enemy come among them, as they carry ruin and desolation in their path.
While in search of Mrs. H. I went into the Trout House, in the hall of which I saw a young man lying wounded. I learned he was from Mobile. His name is Leslie, and he is a member of the Seventeenth Alabama Regiment . His wound was not a bad one. He told me that his colonel was in the hotel severely wounded. I paid the latter a visit to see if I could be of any service to him, but found him doing much better than I had expected; his wife was with him.
The Seventeenth Regiment was in Mobile when I was there last; since then it has suffered very much.
I again visited the Gate City Hospital. There were not quite as many wounded as when I was last there. While standing on the gallery I heard a young man just come from a hospital in Cassville, grumbling very much at some doctor who had made him leave there in such a hurry that he had not time to get his clothes. He was giving it to officers in general, and spoke as if he was fighting to please them.
I listened awhile, and then asked him what he was fighting for. He replied, for his country. I then told him how he had been talking. He said he knew that it was wrong, but really the men had a great deal to endure from their officers.
I have heard many complaints of this kind; I think that often the men are to blame; they treat their officers with too much contempt.
Our officers should be the best of our men, and their rank respected if they are not.
Let the privates do their part, and if they have got petty officers over them who abuse the “little brief authority” with which they are clothed, take no notice of it, remembering that there are crosses which must be borne for the good of the cause, and that to “bear is to conquer.”
I know that our men have a good deal to contend with in that respect, as our officers are elected as our civilians are, and whoever is the best electioneerer gets the office, and often not from any personal merit. I am fearful that this same evil will be the means of doing much harm to our cause, if one half of the tales are true which we are constantly listening to, of the drunkenness and evil of all kinds of which these petty officers are guilty. I know of one instance, the truth of which I can vouch for.
The captain of a battery at one time was inebriated while the company was being drilled. He imagined that one of the men had treated him with contempt; so ordered him to be tied to one of the gun-carriages, and dragged behind for twenty miles. This was done by the order of a man who, I am told, was never sober enough at the time of any of the battles to lead his men.
The man who had been thus badly treated was so indignant at the insult, that he immediately applied for an exchange into a company of sharp-shooters—many thought for the purpose of shooting the captain.
I asked a gentleman who had been telling me about some of these misdemeanors, why the culprits were not brought to justice, as drunkenness was a thing which our commanding generals seem very strict about. He answered, that there was a compact between the petty officers to defend each other at all hazards, so it was impossible for a private to have justice.
But we must expect the evil as well as the good. On the other hand, I know of officers so much beloved that their men would lay down their lives in their defense. And the terrible slaughter of our officers shows that there is no lack of bravery mining them. It is said that in every battle we lose many more of them, in proportion, than we do privates.
I have seen enough of our men to know that they will do much better by good treatment than bad.
On the cars, coming back, I met Captain O’Rearin of the Twenty-ninth Alabama Regiment; he was wounded slightly. He told me that he did not believe Captain Haily was killed.
