Oct. 21st our battery was in motion at daylight, towards Loudon. After passing Lanoir's Station we continued on towards Loudon for about two miles, where we halted for about an hour, after which we countermarched back to the station and made camp. Lanoir's Station at this time was a large—perhaps the largest—plantation in East Tennessee, belonging to a Dr. Lanoir. Its land was very extensive and beautifully situated. The station consisted of the doctor's mansion, farm buildings, yarn factory, houses for his overseers, and a hundred or more negro huts, making a very sizeable settlement. Lanoir was a large owner of slaves, and, as may be imagined, a very pronounced secessionist.
A good many of us felt inclined to forgive the doctor for all the hard things he said of and to us Yankees, because of his wisdom—from our standpoint—in planting such an extensive cornfield, many of us being willing to make oath that it extended for four miles along the road towards Campbell's Station—for our use. It certainly was for our men, and the doctor's part in it was simply that of an instrument in the hands of a higher power.
Oct. 22d we were ordered to Loudon. We moved out of park about one o'clock in the afternoon, crossed the river on the pontoon bridge, and camped at sunset. On the next day it looked a little as though we should have a brush with the enemy.
On the 24th the battery wagons, forge, and all surplus baggage was sent to the north side of the river. The right section of the battery, left at Knoxville for want of horses, returned to us on this evening.
Oct. 25th, 26th and 27th were days of perfect quiet. Towards evening on the 27th we received orders to be ready to move in the morning.
On the morning of the 28th all our troops on the south side of the Holston River were withdrawn, the pontoon bridge taken up, and the Ninth Corps fell back to Lanoir's.
On the 29th our camp was changed a short distance, just on the edge of a fine grove of pine trees. When the battery was parked, the men were ordered to the front, and Capt. Buckley addressed them, saying: "This spot will probably be our winter camp, and I desire that each detachment build for itself log cabins, from the materials in sight."
As soon as the line was dismissed, the men commenced staking out their locations, and felling the trees preparatory to the building of their houses. The material was of the very best, straight as an arrow, and of about uniform size; they were just what was needed for this purpose, and could be laid one upon the other so closely that it was unnecessary to do but very little "chinking."
Day after day the men worked at this hut-building, and as they progressed became more and more interested in them. An immense amount of labor was expended upon these huts, the desire of each detachment to equal if not excel the others, resulting in the production of some very excellent cabins.