Colonel Lyons.
Stevenson, Sunday, Sept. 20, 1863.—There is no change in our condition since I wrote you last. Reports come to us that a battle is being fought between Rosecrans and Bragg, but you will know all about it before this reaches you. If we win a decided victory I think the fighting is over in this section of the country.
Captain Blake returned this morning. He brings information that the 102d Ohio is ordered here from Clarksville, and that five companies of the 83d are ordered to Clarksville. So the 83d seems to be elected for the Cumberland. I much prefer being at or near the front. The men feel better and are better soldiers; and then it is almost a disgrace to be left so far in the rear as Donelson and Clarksville now are.
Our dishes were nearly all lost. The sweet corn comes very convenient. It is difficult to get anything to eat except rations. I succeeded in getting a half-bushel of potatoes, a few eggs and a few chickens. We can get very good butter at fifty cents per pound. I am very hearty and bacon tastes good, so I shall not starve, I reckon.
The boys found quantities of lumber in the old camps about us, and they are getting well fixed up. To go through the camp you would think they had been here a month, from the amount of work done. I have a good-sized tent, with a floor, a bunk, a table, two stools and a camp chair—a nice folding one, which Lieutenant Dutton gave me; and I have straw to sleep on and plenty of bedding. So you see I live very luxuriously. Jerry and Minerva live in the rear of my tent, under the fly, and have a sort of board fence which encloses my dining room and their quarters. There is an arbor built over the whole, and, in fact, over all the tents in the camp. These arbors were put up by some other regiment.
