As the term of enlistment of our regiment was drawing to a close, a movement was set on foot to have me continue in the service. The Union men of western Kentucky were very anxious to have me return to that district and drive out the guerrillas, who had been very troublesome after I had left that region. They had been in conference with my older brother George, who took a great pride in my military career and was very ambitious for me. The plan was to have me made a brigadier general, and given a special command of western Kentucky. When this was made known to me I answered my brother George that if the command was tendered me without any effort on my part I might take it into consideration, but only on the express condition that my wife would consent to it. It is to this plan I refer in some of my letters to her. In the one of July 31 I say:—
"The expiration of our term of enlistment is drawing near and a strong effort will be made to get our regiment to reënlist for one, two, or three years. What do you say,—must I go in for it? They are also writing me from Kentucky urging me to come back there and clear the guerrillas out of my old field of operations. I must confess the latter proposition is something of a temptation to me. I would like to spend three or four weeks there in chasing out the guerrillas, and then I really do believe I could come home and stay there in peace."
On August 7 I write my wife:—
"I had been back from the army just long enough with my wife and little darlings to appreciate how much I had missed during the three years gone, and I do believe when I get home this time I shall be able to conclude that I have discharged my duty to my country and done my share of the fighting, and that I have also a duty to discharge to my family, which I have sadly neglected for the three years past; and I hope that for the rest of my life I shall devote myself to them. Major Hynes was saying to me the other day that you had acted so nobly during my absence he thought I owed it to you and my children when I was out of the service this time to stay at home. But I take so much interest in the war and am so thoroughly satisfied with the correctness of the principles for which it is being prosecuted, that I must confess I do not like to leave the army, when all of our experienced officers and men are so badly needed, but I hope I will be able to see my duty clear to stay at home. I trust my influence and efforts there will not be entirely useless."
I wrote fully to my wife of the plans of my Kentucky friends and my brother, and from my letters it appears they met with her decided disapproval. On August 20 I wrote: "I was sorry on my return from Knoxville and read your letters and saw how you felt about my going into the service again, that I had written George on the subject." And again I wrote: "I was sorry to know from your letter that my letter in which I had said something about reëntering the service had given you any pain or solicitude, as I did not design that it should do so. I never yet have entered the service or left home except with your consent or approval, and I will not do it in the future. As I have written heretofore, I think I have served my country long enough to serve my family awhile; and I hope nothing will occur to prevent my early return to my home."
Some fear was entertained that the efforts of the Confederate cavalry to break up the railroad connections would detain our regiment in Tennessee beyond the term of enlistment, but no such untoward event occurred. The One Hundred and Thirty-sixth left Murfreesboro on August 25 under my command, passed through Louisville the next day, and the day following took the cars at New Albany for Indianapolis. The citizens of Bloomington, the seat of Indiana University where the "Foster boys" had received their education, having notice that the regiment would pass their town about noon, entertained them with a hurried but sumptuous dinner. We found a warm supper awaiting us and were comfortably quartered at Indianapolis in barracks, where we spent one week waiting to be paid off and mustered out of the service. During this time we took part in a review by Governor Morton of six thousand troops gathered at the Capital of the State, and in this and our regimental parades we were enabled with much pride to exhibit our accomplishments in soldiery.
In the introduction to the compilation of these letters I described myself in entering the service as a peace man, as having no desire for military glory, having no special fitness for the life of a soldier, and entertaining a horror of war. The reader of these letters must have noted the gradual development of a taste for or satisfaction with the service. Even at the outset in Missouri, in describing in glowing colors the exposure to the climate and the hard marching, I manifest a certain enthusiasm for my success as a wagon-master, or for my prospective work of an architect of the log-hut winter quarters. I early mastered the tactics, army regulations, and camp régime, and often wrote of my interest in the drill and regimental and brigade exercises. I refer to the gallant charges of our regiment and brigade at Donelson, and speak of some parts of the bloody battle of Shiloh as "grand beyond description." I hardly had words sufficient to describe the deliverance by our army of the Union citizens of East Tennessee. My intercourse with my comrades, superior and inferior officers and men, is noticed as in all respects agreeable. When I entered the army I was not robust, having too long led a student and office life, but during my entire service I enjoyed almost uninterrupted good health, the letters constantly speaking of how the outdoor life and the most active campaigning best agreed with me. So that it has been seen that while at the end of three years of army service I was rejoiced to go back to my home, to my wife and little ones, an offer to reënter the army was quite a temptation to me.