ROBT. D. BOND.
We traveled over the Mobile & Ohio railroad to Tupelo, from which place I was sent to Aberdeen to bring the medical wagons to Alesia, where they were to be put on cars and taken to South Carolina. At Richmond (while I was in Aberdeen) it was decided to give a furlough to seven men of every company, so we might visit our homes in Arkansas. The boys put my name in the hat and drew for me and I got it. The other boys who got furloughs left at Meridian to make their way to Arkansas. They meant to take chances at crossing the river to get home. I was waiting at the Alesia station to deliver my medical supplies. The officer who came to ship them said, “Isn’t your name Bill Bevens?” I said, “Yes.” “Well, you have a furlough for 120 days to go to Arkansas.” I said, “You are wrong. I never applied for one. Never have had one. I have been with the army nearly four years and have never seen Arkansas in all that time.”
But as the train flew by, the boys yelled at me that I had a furlough; so I went to see about it. It was at the Eighth Arkansas headquarters and I had no authority to stop. I had to go to South Carolina before I could get it. My crowd went without me.
I went on with the army. At Mobile some of us went again to the Battle House restaurant. We ate three rations in one meal, and our bill was one hundred and twenty dollars. Our paper currency had taken a great fall.
It was a cold ride down on the Mobile & Ohio railroad. The soldiers were thinly clad and few of them had shoes. One or two men froze, riding on top of the cars. We traveled to Milledgeville, Georgia, and from there we had to march over a forty mile gap to the Augusta road. I found my friends, Ed Dickinson, Ben Adler and Thad Kinman were still in Augusta. They got me a new gray suit with a long tail coat. I sure was dressed in the height of style, but my shoes hardly corresponded to my suit. They were not very stylish.
In South Carolina I got my furlough, told my comrades good-bye, and took letters from them to the home-folks.
