September 1. Reveille at four o’clock, A. M. Started for Crab Orchard, in Lincoln County; spent the night for the third time at Camp Dick Robinson.
September 2. Reveille at an early hour; marched all day; camped near Lancaster.
September 3. Another early start. Reached Crab Orchard, a place of five hundred inhabitants, and abounding with mineral springs. Here and at Nicholasville convalescent camps were established, and during the time which the regiment remained at these places, a very large number of its members went into the hospitals, where not a few of them subsequently died.
September 10. The Brigade left Crab Orchard, and had a hard march of about fourteen miles, and went into camp at a place called Mount Vernon. The road for a considerable portion of the way was very rough and mountainous, being so steep in some places that the horsemen were obliged to dismount and lead their animals. The men were in light marching order, having left the most of their extra clothing at Crab Orchard, and had eight days’ rations served out to them, being thus prepared for a long march.
September 11. The reveille sounded at half-past three o’clock in the morning, and at half-past four the column was in motion. At night, after a very fatiguing march, the camp was formed near Wild Cat Mountain, Kentucky.
September 12. The men were routed out early in the morning, and the day’s march began at five o’clock, but the road was good all day. The weather, which had been fine ever since the march began, became stormy at the end of this day, and at night it rained hard. The camp was formed at London, Laurel County, Ky. On this march the regiment passed over the battle-field of Mill Spring, where the notorious Zollicoffer was killed.
September 13 was Sunday. The men were paid off and allowed to rest all day. Since this famous march began, the Brigade had passed through and into three counties; namely, Gerrard, Rock Castle, and Laurel. The country through which they had travelled was thinly populated, and with the exception of a few wild fruits and nuts which they found on the journey, the men were obliged to subsist upon their rations. It has been stated, that the wild fruits which the men ate on this march proved very beneficial to their health, and resulted in curing them of the complaints they had contracted in the sickly swamps of the Yazoo.
September 14. The march was resumed at five o’clock in the morning, and at night a halt was made at Laurel Spring.
September 15. Only a part of the day was occupied by marching, a halt being made at the town of Barboursville, in Knox County, Ky.
September 16. Marched from Barboursville to Flat Lick; a long march, pausing till the 19th.