I regret my inability to give a full list of the losses sustained by the regiment; a few names, however, which now occur I will mention. Lieut.-Col. Cotton was killed at the battle of Stone River, on the 30th of December, 1862. Adjutant Middleton died in the hospital—an accomplished Christian gentleman, and soldier brave and true. Orderly-Sergeant W. H. Harper was badly wounded at Chickamauga; and among the killed of my company were Sergeant G. W. Lindsey, James Downs, and John H. Hall. On the 24th of December my time, and that of my company, will expire; and I trust, ere that day dawns, that bright-winged, dove-eyed peace, with the olive twig just plucked off, will return. But if this may not be, I shall not feel that I am discharged from further duty. The feeble efforts I have made in my country's cause have been made freely; I regret not the wounds I have received, or the cruel imprisonment I have endured; and if peace, an honorable peace, be not obtained, I am willing to pass through yet greater perils that my country may triumph. That triumph will come at last, I can not doubt; the justice of our cause and the spirit of our soldiers assures me of this. We have met with defeat and disaster on some occasions, it is true; yet our cause has ever been advancing. We have had many cases of individual suffering, and yet those who have suffered most have never despaired. Amid the privation and starvation of Libby Prison I never found any who regretted the part they had taken in this struggle, or who for a moment doubted the glorious result. As Paul and Silas sang praises at midnight in the recesses of the Philippian jail, so did they nobly bear all they suffered, sustained by the firm conviction that the cause in which they had periled all was a just one, and would prevail at last.
And now, reader, we must part; and if I have awakened in your breast a stronger sympathy for the soldier in the field, and the captive in prison, we have not met in vain. Should peace speedily come, you may conclude that I have turned the sword into the plowshare; but if the war must go on, you may safely conclude that I am a soldier for the Union still.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. For example, worn out, worn-out; inclosed; reënforced; intrenched; hights; tyros.