"Where did you sleep?" the boys asked.
"Who, me? I slep' every night o' my life under the same blanket with your pa, I did. I don' care how tired he was, he never slep' so sound he couldn't hear the snorin'. 'Git up, John,' he would say, 'tell that man snorin' that he's burnin'.'" John laughed at the reminiscence. "I've scared many a good soldier that way, an' made him turn over—when the fightin' an' shootin' couldn't move him."
"But you did retreat after all, didn't you, John?"
"Retreat! Retreat nothin'! Gen'al Lee got so he didn' care to ketch that scalawag Yankee. He warn' wuth ketchin'. We got pris'ners enough now an' to spar. Gen'al Lee come home cos he didn' have no use for Averill. He drove him away, though. He sholy did!"
John was installed as cook and commissary-general. He had no material except flour, rice, peas, and dried apples, such grease or "shortening" as he could extract from bones he purchased of the quartermaster, and sorghum molasses. He made yeast of "life everlasting" I brought from the country,—and he gave us waffles and pancakes. John's pancakes, compared with the ordinary article, were as the fleecy cloud to the dull, heavy clod beneath. Butter could be had at eight dollars a pound; meat was four and five dollars a pound—prices we learned very soon afterward to regard as extremely cheap; bargains, indeed, of the first water. From Agnes's letters I have reason to suppose that Petersburg suffered more from scarcity than did Richmond. There, dinners were given by the members of the Cabinet, and wine was served as of old. In Petersburg we had already entered upon our long season of want. The town was drained by its generous gifts to the army; regiments were constantly passing, and none ever departed without the offer of refreshment.
We heard no complaints from our soldier boys, still in their winter quarters. But a letter to the army from General Lee filled our hearts with anxiety.
"Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia,
"January 22, 1864.
"General Orders No. 7.—The commanding general considers it due to the army to state that the temporary reduction of rations has been caused by circumstances beyond the control of those charged with its support. Its welfare and comfort are the objects of his constant and earnest solicitude and no effort has been spared to provide for its wants. It is hoped that the exertions now being made will render the necessity but of short duration, but the history of the army has shown that the country can require no sacrifice too great for its patriotic devotion.
"Soldiers! you tread, with no unequal steps, the road by which your fathers marched through suffering, privation, and blood to independence.
"Continue to emulate in the future, as you have in the past, their valor in arms, their patient endurance of hardships, their high resolve to be free, which no trial could shake, no bribe seduce, no danger appall; and be assured that the just God who crowned their efforts with success will, in His own good time, send down His blessings upon yours.