ck was standing, and on the
top of this was an old felt hat; the hat still doing duty over the head,
if not on the head, of the dead soldier who lay there. The rain and sun
and growing vegetation of one summer will render it impossible to find
these graves. The grass will cover the fresh earth, the sticks will
either rot or become displaced, and then there will be nothing to
indicate that--

"Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre."

17. The army is turning its attention to politics somewhat. Generals and
colonels are ventilating their opinions through the press. I think their
letters may have good effect upon the people at home, and prevent them
from discouraging the army and crippling the Administration. Surely the
effort now being put forth by a great party in the North to convince
the troops in the field that this is an unjust war, an abolition or
nigger war, must have a tendency to injure the army, and, if persisted
in, may finally ruin it.

19. Work on the fortifications still continues. This is to be a depot of
supplies, and there are provisions enough already here to subsist the
army for a month. Now that the Cumberland is high, and the railroads in
running order, any amount of supplies may be brought through.

Expeditions go out occasionally to different parts of the country, and
slight affairs occur, which are magnified into serious engagements; but
really nothing of any importance has transpired since we obtained
possession of Murfreesboro. A day or two ago we had an account of an
expedition into the enemy's country by the One Hundred and Twenty-third
Illinois, Colonel Monroe commanding. According to this veracious report,
the Colonel had a severe fight, killed a large number of the enemy, and
captured three hundred stand of arms; but the truth is, that he did not
take time to count the rebel dead, and the arms taken were one hundred
old muskets found in a house by the roadside.

The expeditions sent out to capture John Morgan have all been failures.
His own knowledge of the country is thorough, and besides, he has in his
command men from every neighborhood, who know not only every road and
cow-path in the locality, but every man, woman, and child. The people
serve him also, by advising him of all our movements. They guide him to