agg has left
Kentucky, and is thought to be hastening toward Nashville. We shall
follow him. Having now twice traveled the road, the march is likely to
prove tedious and uninteresting. The army has been marching almost
constantly for two months, and bivouacking at night with an
insufficiency of clothing.

The troops are lying in an immense grove of large beech. We have had
supper, and a very good one, by the way: pickled salmon, currant jelly,
fried ham, butter, coffee, and crackers. It is now long after nightfall,
and the forest is aglow with a thousand camp-fires. The hum of ten
thousand voices strikes the ear like the roar of a distant sea. A band
away off to the right is mingling its music with the noise, and a mule
now and then breaks in with a voice not governed by any rules of melody
known to man.

NOVEMBER, 1862.

9. In camp at Sinking Spring, Kentucky. Thomas commands the Fourteenth
Army Corps, consisting of Rousseau's, Palmer's, Dumont's, Negley's, and
Fry's divisions; say 40,000 men. McCook has Sill's, Jeff C. Davis', and
Granger's; say 24,000. Crittenden has three divisions, say 24,000. A
large army, which ought to sweep to Mobile without difficulty.

Sinking Spring, as it is called by some, Mill Spring by others, and by
still others Lost river, is quite a large stream. It rises from the
ground, runs forty rods or more, enters a cave, and is lost. The wreck
of an old mill stands on its banks. Bowling Green is three miles
southward.

When we get a little further south, we shall find at this season of the
year persimmons and opossums in abundance. Jack says: "Possum am better
dan chicken. In de fall we hunt de possum ebbery night 'cept Sunday. He
am mitey good an' fat, sah; sometimes he too fat."

We move at ten o'clock to-morrow.

11. We have settled down at Mitchellville for a few days. After dinner
Furay and I rode six miles beyond this, on the road to Nashville, to the
house of a Union farmer whose acquaintance I made last spring. The old
gentleman was very glad to see us, and insisted upon our remaining until
after supper. In fact, he urged us to stay all night; but we consented
to remain for supper only, and would not allow him to put our horses in
the stable.

We learned that a little over a week ago the rebels endeavored to
enforce the conscription law in this neighborhood, and one of Mr.
Baily's sons was notified to appear at Gallatin to enter the Southern
army. He was informed that