e. They received only one
hundred and forty dollars a month then, and the high private got plenty
to eat, and Mr. Cormorant quit making as much money as he had heretofore
done. Were you to go to them and make complaint, they would say, "I have
issued regular army rations to your company, and what is left over is
mine," and they were mighty exact about it.

DALTON

We went into winter quarters at Dalton, and remained there during the
cold, bad winter of 1863-64, about four months. The usual routine of
army life was carried on day by day, with not many incidents to vary the
monotony of camp life. But occasionally the soldiers would engage in
a snow ball battle, in which generals, colonels, captains and privates
all took part. They would usually divide off into two grand divisions,
one line naturally becoming the attacking party, and the other the
defensive. The snow balls would begin to fly hither and thither, with
an occasional knock down, and sometimes an ugly wound, where some mean
fellow had enclosed a rock in his snow ball. It was fun while it lasted,
but after it was over the soldiers were wet, cold and uncomfortable.
I have seen charges and attacks and routes and stampedes, etc., but
before the thing was over, one side did not know one from the other.
It was a general knock down and drag out affair.

SHOOTING A DESERTER

One morning I went over to Deshler's brigade of Cleburne's division to
see my brother-in-law, Dr. J. E. Dixon. The snow was on the ground,
and the boys were hard at it, "snow balling." While I was standing
looking on, a file of soldiers marched by me with a poor fellow on
his way to be shot. He was blindfolded and set upon a stump, and the
detail formed. The command, "Ready, aim, fire!" was given, the volley
discharged, and the prisoner fell off the stump. He had not been killed.
It was the sergeant's duty to give the _coup d'etat_, should not the
prisoner be slain. The sergeant ran up and placed the muzzle of his gun
at the head of the poor, pleading, and entreating wretch, his gun was
discharged, and the wretched man only powder-burned, the gun being one
that had been loaded with powder only. The whole affair had to be gone
over again. The soldiers had to reload and form and fire. The culprit
was killed stone dead this time. He had no sooner been taken up and
carried off to be buried, than the soldiers were throwing snow balls as
hard as ever, as if nothing had happened.