The next day, May 1st, was spent in bivouac, momentarily expecting orders to march, but nothing was received until evening, when we were ordered to prepare to march at five o'clock in the morning. At daylight the order was countermanded.
May 2d we were allowed to pitch our A tents, which led us to think our stay at this place was to be prolonged. Fortunate it was for us that we pitched our tents, for a heavy thunder storm prevailed all day of the 3d, and nearly all day on the 4th, and without the tents we should have been in a sorry condition.
Late on the 4th orders were received to cook two days rations, and be ready to march at midnight, and shortly after that time "Boots and saddles" was blown, and we commenced a march of about fifteen miles, over a very rough road and through an all day rain, which, with the rain of the two previous days, transformed the red clay into several inches of a sticky paste, which made our progress very slow and tedious. Early on the morning of the 6th we continued our march, reaching the town of Bumpus about noon. Stopping only long enough to feed our horses and eat dinner, we then pushed on and made camp a few miles from Somerset.
On the 7th we moved our camp to Somerset, where we remained until June 4th, our time being occupied with general camp duties, drills, etc. Hay was very scarce, and every other day the horses were taken out and allowed to graze. These trips proved very pleasant for the men, as it brought them in contact with the farmers, and gave them opportunities to buy butter, eggs, and other desirable eatables.
On the 22d orders were received to turn in A tents and all our surplus baggage, and rumor had it that we were soon to start for East Tennessee; but day after day passed and nothing further was heard of such a movement.
On the 25th, the drivers being some three or four miles from camp grazing their horses, an orderly rode furiously into camp with an order to have the battery hitched up as soon as possible, and bringing the startling information that our pickets had been driven in by the enemy, who were fast approaching Somerset.
A messenger was immediately dispatched for the horses, and upon his reaching them there commenced as grand a hurdle race as one would care to witness—every one upon his own responsibility starting for camp—across fields, over fences and through ditches they went, making for the men in camp a most interesting and amusing finish. Upon their arrival the battery was hitched up, and remained in that condition, ready to move at a moment's notice until dark, when everything quieted down and assumed its usual condition.
It was while in this camp that the men of the battery had a rather startling illustration of the cavernous condition of this part of Kentucky. Our camp lay upon the ridge of quite a sizable basin, in the bottom of which there was a pond of perhaps five or six hundred feet in circumference. It had been there ever since we came to the place, and we had no reason to think that it was not a permanent fixture to the landscape; but one night about midnight the men were aroused by strange and unusual noises, evidently proceeding from the pond. Investigations were made, but nothing was ascertained beyond the fact that the water in the pond was falling very fast. Daylight was patiently waited for, when it was discovered that our pond had disappeared, and in the very centre of the depression was a hole as large as a hogshead, evidently leading into one of the numerous caverns with which the country thereabout is filled.
Gen. Burnside left Cincinnati on the 30th of May for Hickman's Bridge, Ky., for the purpose of leading the Ninth and Twenty-third Corps over the Cumberland Mountains into East Tennessee, but when he reached Lexington he was met by an order from the War Department directing him to reinforce Gen. Grant, at Vicksburg. Gen. Burnside had at this time the Twenty-third Corps, formed from small bodies of troops which had been scattered about in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, whose organization he did not consider thoroughly perfected, and his old staunch and true Ninth Corps. With his usual unselfish noble-heartedness Gen. Burnside put behind him all his plans and desires and immediately put two divisions of the Ninth Corps in motion for Vicksburg, and telegraphed the Secretary of War for permission to accompany them, but the Secretary would not permit it, and Gen. Parks assumed command.
The order for this journey of the Ninth Corps reached Battery D at its camp in Somerset just before one o'clock on the morning of June 4th, and at sunrise the battery pulled out of park and started on its march for Lexington.