The second raid resulted in the capture of about 1,500 or 2,000 prisoners and the destruction of twenty miles of railroad track. Co. K had no more stragglers, but the men were weary and footsore, having, since leaving Palmetto, marched some two hundred miles in seventeen days.
On the 17th, at 2, A. M., the command again broke camp, and marching ten miles halted for the day at sunrise. The army crossed the state line of Alabama on the 18th, passed through Gaylesville, and camped three miles beyond, having marched fifteen miles. Fifteen miles were scored again on the 19th, the route taking us past the Round Mountain Iron Works, in Cherokee County. Reveille sounded at an early hour on the 20th, and by 3, A. M., the regiment was on the road; twenty miles were made by 2, P. M., when we camped five miles beyond Gadsden. A welcome rest of forty-four hours was here allowed the soldiers, and on the 21st some clothing was issued to those most in need. Another treat was the distribution of a large army mail, the accumulation of two weeks or more. The order to march was given at 3, A. M., on the 22d, but it was countermanded before we had gone three hundred yards, and it was 10, A. M., before the final start was made; fifteen miles were, however, accomplished before camping, the route being over Lookout Mountain. The army crossed the Black Warrior River on the 23d, and, passing through Brooksville, added seventeen miles to the march record. Though the road was very rocky, a march of seventeen miles was also made on the 24th; the town of Summit was the only point of interest. On the 25th the regiment marched thirteen miles to Somerville, and on the 26th thirteen miles to the lines around Decatur, a total of one hundred and thirty-five miles in ten days, including two days’ rest at Gadsden.
A brisk cannonade was in progress when the regiment arrived, and it was at once ordered to the picket line. It had been raining at intervals all day, and the night closed in cold and gloomy. When the picket line was reached it was quite dark. At 10, P. M., an order was received to advance the line one hundred and fifty yards and dig rifle pits. It was impossible to see more than five feet in any direction, and as the command was deployed as skirmishers, the movement was executed with considerable difficulty, but the new line was at last formed. About the time the rifle pits were completed, the men supplementing the few entrenching tools with tin-cups and pans, the rain came pouring down, filling the pits and converting the whole ground into a marsh. The men were so exhausted that so soon as the rain had ceased and they had bailed out the pits all but those on guard lay down in the mud and fell asleep.
At daylight skirmishers were ordered forward, but finding the enemy in force they fell back to the picket line with a loss of one man mortally wounded in Co. E. Soon after daylight the regiment was relieved and rejoined the brigade. It rained at intervals all day, and to add to the discomfort of the soldiers no rations were issued except a little beef; there was no bread for two or three days. At this time began the private foraging, which later proved so disastrous to the discipline of the army.
On the morning of October 29, the regiment left Decatur and marched sixteen miles westward, along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, camping three miles east of Courtland. The line of march on the 30th was through a level, fertile country, but desolated by Federal raids, nearly every plantation building having been burned. We camped that night at Leedam, having marched fifteen miles and passed during the day through Courtland and Jonesboro. On the 31st a march of ten miles brought the regiment to Tuscumbia. The march record from September 29th now footed up three hundred and eighty-five miles.
For several days after arriving at Tuscumbia it was rainy; it then cleared off cold. On Sunday, November 6th, there was a general review and inspection, and on the 12th Gen. Beauregard reviewed the army, which, at that time, was said to number about 30,500 men. In Stewart’s Corps there were 9,000 men. Corp. Rice and Privates A. D. Ellis and J. W. May rejoined the company on November 2d, and Junius Robinson on the 4th, making a total of 20 muskets. Our number was reduced by several sick sent to the rear before we crossed the Tennessee.
Monday, November 14th, the regiment marched to Florence and went into camp, and on the 18th received several months’ pay, the first since leaving Meridian. At this muster there were present Lieut. Smith, O. Sergt. J. L. Alexander, Sergts. C. H. Royals and E. L. Averheart, Corps. J. D. Rice and Josiah Tunnell, and Privates T. M. Boggan, C. W. Brown, W. W. Day, A. D. Ellis, W. L. Ellis, E. Hearn, J. C. Hearn, J. Killough, J. W. May, G. F. Martin, Wm. Moncrief and John Tunnell. Private Martin, during the entire campaign, was detailed at the wagon camp as cook.
One great want of the army when it started on this campaign in the depth of winter was that of shoes. At the outset there were not a few who had but apologies for shoes, and when Hood reached the Tennessee River on his retreat, no less than 3,000 barefooted men straggled in the rear, literally leaving a trail of blood along the frozen pikes. The lack of rations was another serious misfortune; for a month prior to entering upon the campaign the troops had been on short rations of a miserable quality. Three-quarters of a pound of very coarse cornmeal and one pound of fresh beef, bone and all—and generally the bone predominated—nominally constituted a day’s rations. These rations were issued at the wagon-yards or camps, where details from the companies cooked them. The beef was boiled and the meal, wet up with cold water and made into “pones,” was browned—not cooked—in “Dutch ovens.” Thus prepared, the food was distributed—company commissioned officers and men sharing alike—the bread, three days’ rations at a time, the beef every day. By the time it reached the company the ration had so “shrunk in the pot” that the writer has seen a lean and lank Confederate dispose of his three days’ rations of bread and one of beef at one sitting. All the army had chronic diarrhœa, and all were hungry. As a consequence of this latter fact, when the rich fields of Tennessee—the “land of hog and hominy”—were reached, no discipline could restrain the men, and thousands at a time were scattered through the country searching for something to satisfy their hunger. Company officers, themselves half-starved, sympathized with their men, and would not have punished them for foraging had it been possible; but what punishment could be inflicted upon men who were marching from early morn till night? “Mud Lark,” as skinned hog meat was called by the soldiers—who even in their suffering still indulged in jokes—was brought in every night; six hundred pounds was captured one night by the foragers of the “First.” The Regimental Commissary, who was on the lookout, seized it and compelled a pro rata distribution; but no other notice was taken of the offence. Parched corn augmented the scanty ration of bread, and, after marching all day, half the night would be spent by the hungry men in cooking up what had been gathered along the road or after camping.
In spite of the many hardships which our company had endured, the men, when they crossed the Tennessee, marching northward, were cheerful and willing for any duty or danger, and this was the spirit in the regiment and army.