CHAPTER XI.
SUBSEQUENT MOVEMENTS IN EAST TENNESSEE.
There was some delay in following up the retreating enemy. On the morning of December 7th, however, we were called early, and notified that orders had been received to march at seven o'clock. At that hour we were in motion, marched through the town, and advanced twelve miles on the Newmarket road, the whole of the Ninth Corps with us. About two o'clock we went into camp, found plenty of forage, and built good fires. The march was continued on the 8th; and on the 9th, shortly after noon, we went into camp about a mile south of Rutledge.
December 11th, while we were still near Rutledge, Lieutenant Hodgkins, who had been home on leave of absence and detached service at Cumberland Gap, rejoined the regiment, and brought not a little cheer to all hearts by the announcement that a large mail and supplies were at Tazewell. The supply-train arrived on the 13th, and once again we had a taste of bread, coffee, and sugar. The mail reached us on the following day.
We had orders during the night to be ready to march at early dawn; yet the 14th passed and we still remained at Rutledge. But there was trouble ahead. Longstreet had attacked our cavalry at Bean's Station, and had compelled it to fall back, leaving a wagon-train in his hands. At the close of the day we had orders to march at a moment's notice. About midnight a part of the Twenty-third Corps passed our camp, moving to the front.
December 15th tents were struck soon after breakfast, and about eleven o'clock we moved back a few hundred rods and formed in line of battle. There we remained during the day, ready for the enemy if he should appear, and about nine o'clock in the evening we took the road to Knoxville. On account of the bad state of the roads we were nearly six hours marching six miles. It was a bitter cold night, and the men built fires of fence-rails at our numerous halts. At length we bivouacked in a field at the roadside, where we managed to get about an hour's sleep in front of our fires.
About half-past nine, December 15th, we renewed our march, and halted at noon at Blain's Cross Roads. The enemy followed, and there was some skirmishing at the outposts. About three o'clock in the afternoon we formed a line of battle, and constructed a breastwork of rails. Companies A and B, of the Thirty-sixth, were sent out on picket. But the enemy did not attempt to advance. Indeed, as we soon learned, Longstreet withdrew his forces to the other side of the Holston, and, marching to Morristown, ordered his men to make themselves comfortable for the winter.
We, too, at Blain's Cross Roads, which has well been called the Valley Forge of the Rebellion, endeavored to make ourselves comfortable; but it was not an easy matter. Very few of our men had overcoats; indeed, they were poorly clothed in every respect. For the lack of shoes many were obliged to protect their feet with moccasins made of rawhide. Rations, too, were short. A few spoonfuls of flour were served out as the daily allowance, and, had it not been for the corn picked up here and there, sometimes where the mules were corralled, the men would have suffered severely. Foraging parties were sent out on every hand, but the natives generally "were plumb out"; there was "not a dust of meal" in the house, they said.
December 27th we moved our camp a short distance, and built as comfortable houses as the means at hand would allow. The days that followed were uneventful, for the most part. January 8th the Eighth Michigan started home, the men having reënlisted on the promise of a furlough. The One Hundredth Pennsylvania followed January 12th. No more inspiring sight can be imagined than that of the remnant of a once full regiment at the expiration of its three years of service, and living on quarter rations of corn-meal, with occasionally a handful of flour, standing forth under the open skies amid a thousand discomforts, and, raising loyal hands toward heaven, swearing to serve the country yet three years longer!