Saturday, September 5th, the regiment was inspected by Captain Simcoe, Division Inspector General, and the report thereon was briefly: "Equipments much worn, and clothing poor, but muskets in fine order." With the cooler weather of autumn, better rations, and rest from fatiguing marches, the men rapidly improved in health and spirits. Crab Orchard is quite a favorite resort of the people of Kentucky, and is celebrated for its mineral springs, and as a very healthy region. Whether the men tried the waters of the springs or not the writer cannot say; they certainly were not delectable to the taste, and it is very doubtful whether they were used medicinally. Twenty very happy men left here for home, on a furlough for twenty days, greatly envied by their comrades.
It was long ere any of these rejoined the regiment, and some never returned. Lieutenant-Colonel Goodell, having exchanged the golden leaves of Major, for the well-earned silver leaves, rejoined the regiment, August 31st, and was heartily welcomed, as was also Major Draper, upon whom the golden leaves had deservedly fallen, and who returned September 9th, with Dr. J. H. Prince.
CHAPTER VIII.
IN EAST TENNESSEE.
At an early hour in the morning of September 10th, the familiar call of "assembly" sounded once more. Camp was quickly broken, and at eight o'clock the regiment was on the march for Tennessee. Having the head of the column we did not find the march a severe one, though the roads were rough; and at five o'clock P.M., after a tramp of eleven miles, we halted for the night at Mount Vernon. More than one hundred and fifty of the regiment were left at Crab Orchard on the sick list, too feeble to march, but most of them rapidly gaining strength; and if the regiment could have remained there a week longer many of them would have been in the ranks again, for active service.
September 11th reveillé was sounded at half-past three o'clock A.M., and we marched at five. The sun was hot and the roads rough; country mountainous, and thinly settled. We marched fifteen miles, and at night bivouacked on the bank of Little Rockcastle river. A courier from General Burnside brought stirring news from the front, of the capture of Cumberland Gap, and its garrison of over two thousand rebels.
September 12th the regiment marched eight miles, and went into camp at noon. A severe thunder-shower came up at night; the baggage being far behind, and the field and staff without any tents, Lieutenant Tuttle, in charge of the division ambulance corps, kindly provided a tent for the use of the head-quarters.
September 13th, Sunday, we lay quietly in camp,—a very welcome rest,—for the men were getting very footsore from the rough Kentucky roads. It would be hard to find worse ones even in rocky New England.
September 14th we were on the march at five A.M., and moving rapidly until after one P.M., a distance of fourteen miles. Between eleven and twelve o'clock the regiment halted by the roadside and witnessed the passage under guard of the rebel prisoners captured at Cumberland Gap. They numbered about twenty-two hundred, and consisted of the Sixty-second and Sixty-fourth North Carolina, Fifty-ninth Georgia, and a Virginia regiment of infantry and some artillery. It was generally conceded that they were a very forlorn-looking set, and would fare much better as prisoners than as fire-eaters. General Frazer, their commander, was with them, riding in an ambulance. It appeared that they had been led to believe that the Ninth Corps had surrounded them, and they were much disgusted to find they had surrendered to the Twenty-third Corps, which was composed of new troops.