r people should certainly expect less.
19. At Tyree Springs. Am the presiding officer of a court-martial.
The supplies for the great army at Nashville and beyond, are wagoned
over this road from Mitchellville to Edgefield Junction. Immense trains
are passing continually.
20. General Bob Mitchell dined with me to-day. He is on the way to
Nashville. Blows his own trumpet, as of old, and expects that a division
will be given him.
30. This is a delightful Indian summer day. I have been in the forest,
under the persimmon and butternut trees. It is the first ramble I have
had at this season for years, and I thought of the many quiet places in
the thick woods of the old homestead, where long ago I hunted for
hickory-nuts and walnuts; then of its hazel thickets, through which were
scattered the wild plum, black-haw, and thorn-apple--perfect solitudes,
in which the squirrels and birds had the happiest of times. How pleasant
it is to recur to those days; and how well I remember every path through
the dense woods, and every little open grassy plot, made brilliant by
the summer sunshine.
DECEMBER, 1862.
2. We move to-morrow, at six o'clock in the morning, to Nashville.
9. Nashville. Every thing indicates an early movement. Whether a
reconnoissance is intended or a permanent advance, I do not even
undertake to guess. The capture of a brigade, at Hartsville, by John
Morgan, has awakened the army into something like life; before it was
idly awaiting the rise of the Cumberland, but this bold dash of the
rebels has made it bristle up like an angry boar; and this morning, I am
told, it starts out to show its tusks to the enemy. Our division has
been ordered to be in readiness.
The kind of weather we desire now, is that which is generally considered
the most disagreeable, namely, a long rain; two weeks of rain-fall is
necessary to make the Cumberland navigable, and thus ensure to us
abundant supplies.
The whole army feels deeply mortified over the loss of the brigade at
Hartsville; report says it was captured by an inferior force. One of our
regiments did not fire a gun, and certainly the other two could not have
made a very obstinate resistance. I am glad Ohio does not have to bear
the whole blame; two-thirds is rather too much.
10. During all of the latter part of last night troops were pouring
through Nashville, and going southward. Our division, Rousseau's, moved
three miles beyond the city, and went into
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