--Whittier's "Battle Autumn of 1862"

The Summer and Fall of the "Battle Year" of 1862 had passed without the
Army of the Cumberland--then called the Army of the Ohio--being able to
bring its Rebel antagonist to a decisive struggle. In September the two
had raced entirely across the States of Tennessee and Kentucky, for the
prize of Louisville, which the Union army won. In October the latter
chased its enemy back through Kentucky, without being able to inflict
upon it more than the abortive blow at Perryville, and November found
the two opponents facing each other in Middle Tennessee--the Army of
the Cumberland at Nashville, and the Rebel Army of the Tennessee at
Murfeesboro, twenty-eight miles distant. There the two equally matched
giants lay confronting each other, and sullenly making ready for the
mighty struggle which was to decide the possession of a territory
equalling a kingdom in extent.

In the year which had elapsed since the affair at Wildcat Harry Glen's
regiment had not participated in a single general engagement. It had
scouted and raided; it had reconnoitered and guarded; it had chased
guerrillas through the Winter's rain and mud for days and nights
together; it had followed John Morgan's dashing troopers along limestone
turnpikes that glowed like brick-kilns under the July sun until
three-fourths of the regiment had dropped by the roadside in sheer
exhaustion; it had marched over the mountains to Cumberland Gap, and
back over the mountains to Lexington; across Kentucky and Tennessee to
Huntsville, Ala., back across those States to the Ohio River, and again
back across Kentucky to Nashville, beside side marches as numerous as
the branches on a tree; 50 per cent. of its number had fallen victims
to sickness and hardship, and 10 per cent. more had been shot, here and
there, a man or two at a time, on the picket or skirmish line, at fords
or stockades guarding railroad bridges. But while other regiments
which had suffered nothing like it had painted on their banners "Mill
Springs," "Shiloh," and "Perryville," its colors had yet to receive
their maiden inscription. This was the hard luck of many of the
regiments in the left wing of Buell's army in 1862.

Kent Edwards, whose promotion to the rank of Sergeant, and reduction for
some escapade had been a usual monthly occurence during the year, was
fond of saying that the regiment was not sent to the field to gain
martial glory, but to train as book agents t