March 3. Moved forward across the creek again, and camped.
March 5. The regiment had a skirmish with the enemy’s cavalry while on picket.
March 12. Colonel Barnes was placed in command of the Brigade, the command of the regiment devolving upon Major Chipman. Moved to Morristown.
March 13. The enemy attacked our pickets, causing some excitement, but nothing serious resulted.
March 14. The regiment and brigade marched with the First Brigade to a cross-roads, as a support to the latter, in their movement towards the enemy’s lines. While here the First Brigade dashed upon the enemy, and scattered and broke up one of his camps.
March 17. The regiment and corps moved through the woods and fields to New Market. The day was very cold, and the march extremely hard.
March 18. Marched to within seven miles of Knoxville, crossing the Holston on pontoons. The day was very cold. On the next day the regiment went into camp near Fort Sanders.
March 21. The corps and regiment marched to Clinton, nineteen miles, and encamped upon the banks of the Clinch River.
The regiment had already received orders to go to Massachusetts on its veteran furlough. It had been arranged for a part of the men—those who were the most destitute and unfit to march—to go by rail by way of Chattanooga and Nashville; while the balance, by far the minority, were to perform the march over the Cumberland Mountains. Captain Richardson was placed in command of the railroad party, and started on his trip about March 20. The mountain party under command of Major Chipman—Colonel Barnes having been assigned to the command of the Brigade—were provided with six pack mules and saddles, with which to transport their baggage over the mountains. The allowance was indeed scanty, for the march was to be a long one; no food could be obtained on the road, and these animals were to carry all the necessary stores, tents of officers, mess kits, and other baggage.
On the 22d of March, the Brigade was ferried across the Clinch River in scows. Here a furious snow-storm came on, which grew so severe as to prevent the balance of the corps from crossing. Colonel Barnes was ordered to move on without waiting for the rest of the troops; the air was biting cold and raw, and the roads frozen and slippery. The officers were compelled to dismount and lead their horses; while the men, many of whom were poorly off for shoes, suffered intensely from cold feet. Worn out, tired, and miserable as men could be, the camp was formed early in the afternoon in a forest near the roadside. To add to their misery, a heavy rain-storm set in soon after nightfall, continuing till morning. “Even the climate of East Tennessee seems to grudge us our departure, and to place all its impeding powers in the way of our passage homeward,” says an officer of the regiment in his diary, under this date.