"But I fear the worst of our campaigning is yet to come. It is becoming a serious question how we are to sustain our army in East Tennessee this winter. There is enough bread and meat, but the men have no winter clothing, and unless it comes soon it cannot get over the mountains. Winter will soon be upon us, with muddy roads and swollen rivers. We have just started a train of wagons from our division over to Kentucky for clothing and supplies, but I do not expect to see it short of six weeks, if ever. We had been hoping to get railroad communication open by way of Chattanooga, but the disaster to Rosecrans has at least postponed that. Just now I am anxious to get over into North Carolina with my brigade, but military movements are very uncertain and most likely I shall be disappointed."
On the 29th of October I wrote again:—
"General Shackelford had a report of the advance on us of an army of eighteen thousand and out of due precaution ordered us to fall back eighteen miles, but this morning matters look as if we ran too soon from an invisible enemy. It will not surprise me if we are ordered back to our old camp at Jonesboro. It will suit me very well if we are, for I may then have a chance to make my contemplated raid over the mountains into North Carolina. I am anxious to get over there to see the people. The trip would take us through the Blue Ridge."
I quote from a letter of November 1:—
"I wrote in my last how we got down here, how we ran from Sancho Panza's windmills. We are still here. We had orders to march and were all ready an hour before daylight yesterday morning, when the orders came countermanding the marching. We were to go back to Jonesboro. We are having a delightful day and a very quiet and most welcome Sabbath. I have been reading 'The Words and Mind of Jesus,' and I got hold of an 'Independent,' which was quite a treat, as I don't often see any religious paper here. I went over to the house of Mr. Henderson (the leading citizen of this place) and found he had quite a good religious library; plenty of Presbyterian works. I told him he appeared to be sound religiously, if not politically; he is considerable of a rebel.
"We have been enjoying our rest of late very much, and if we were not stirred out every little while with reports of large rebel forces right upon us, we could get more real enjoyment out of it. This evening a citizen (a reliable one, of course) reports the enemy advancing in force. To-morrow an equally reliable and intelligent one will know that there are none this side of the Holston River. If Willie were out here he would see a great deal more about soldiering than he used to see at Henderson."
In my letter of November 8 I give an account of a bold dash of the rebels to Rogersville, which routed a Federal force stationed there, and captured four hundred and four guns:—
"General Wilcox, who was in command in upper Tennessee, when he got the report of the fight from the scared fugitives, became alarmed for fear the enemy would get in our rear, and he caused a general retreat of the whole army. Our cavalry and all marched all Friday night and till late in the morning of Saturday, and abandoned the whole country for eighteen miles below Greenville, thus giving up all we had gained. And all without reason, for as it turned out while we were marching all night one way the rebels were retreating with their booty and prisoners the other! Where we will go next I do not know, but I hope right back and occupy the country clear up to the Virginia line. We can do it without difficulty.