appointed third sergeant, and
after serving a few days as such was promoted to orderly sergeant.
This position, of course, exempted me from actual labor in the
trenches, but I had to oversee a squad of workmen. During these two
months we, with three other regiments, built Fort Wright, an
irregular fortification, inclosing about thirty acres. The fort had
no spring of water within the line of intrenchment; and after long
deliberation about some means of supplying it with this
indispensable article,--during which time we carried every bucket of
water used from the river,--the engineers erected a small wheezy
second-hand steam-pump on the bank of the river, which was intended
to force the water up the bluff into a large cistern that had been
constructed for that purpose. The cistern held about a week's supply
for two thousand men; but they never seemed to think that a single
cannon-ball could smash up the pump and cut off our supply of water.
If this defect had been remedied, and the fort had been well armed
and manned, it would have been hard to take; but it never availed
any thing to the Confederate service. We built four batteries on
the bank of the river, three of them mounting three guns each, and
the lower one six guns. These guns were 32 and 64 pounders. Three
miles further up, above the mouth of Hatchie river, another battery
of three 32-pounders was built.

Our rations at this time were neither very lavishly given nor very
choice in quality, yet there was no actual suffering. For the first
month whiskey was served, and the men were satisfied to work for the
promise of forty cents a day extra pay and three drams. In the fifth
week the drams were stopped, and the extra pay never began. I am
letting that little bill against the Jeff. Davis government, and
some larger ones, run at interest. The reader will agree with me
that they are likely to run some time.

"Stolen waters are sweet," says high authority, but some of our
regiment seemed to set a higher value upon stolen liquor. While the
whiskey ration was continued, there was little drunkenness. The men
were satisfied with the limited amount given, and the general health
of all was good. When the spirit ration was stopped, illicit trade
in the "crathur" was carried on by Jews and peddlers, who hung
around the camp a short distance out in the woods. The search after
these traders by the authorities was so vigilant, that at last there
was no whiskey vended nearer