of their action on that occasion was utterly untruthful. If,
however, as I apprehend, he was behind the rifle pits, six hundred yards
in the rear, he might, like thousands of others, who were distant
spectators of the scene, have honestly conceived that his troops were
doing the fighting. General Rousseau's report contradicts his
statements, and in a meager way accords the credit to my regiments.

Officers are more selfish, dishonest, and grasping in their struggle for
notoriety than the miser for gold. They lay claim to every thing within
reach, whether it belongs to them or not. I know absolutely that many of
the reports in the volume before me are base exaggerations--romances,
founded upon the smallest conceivable amount of fact. They are simply
elaborate essays, which seek to show that the author was a little
braver, a little more skillful in the management of his men, and a
little worthier than anybody else. I know of one officer who has great
credit, in official reports and in the newspapers, for a battle in which
he did not participate at all. In fact, he did not reach the field until
after the enemy had not only been repulsed, but retired out of sight;
and yet he has not the manliness to correct the error, and give the
honor to whom it is due.

21. The day has been a pleasant one. The night is delightful. The new
moon favors us with just sufficient light to reveal fully the great
oaks, the white tents, and the shadowy outline of the Cumberland
mountains. The pious few of the Eighty-eighth Indiana, assembled in a
booth constructed of branches, are breathing out their devotional
inspirations and aspirations, in an old hymn which carries us back to
the churches and homes of the civilized world, or, as the boys term it,
"God's country."

Katydids from a hundred trees are vigorous and relentless in their
accusations against poor Katy. That was a pleasant conceit of Holmes,
"What did poor Katy do?" I never appreciated it fully until I came into
the country of the katydids.

Two trains, laden with forage, commissary, and quartermaster stores, are
puffing away at the depot.

General Rosecrans will move to Winchester, two miles from us, to-morrow.

No one ever more desired to look again on his wife and babies than I;
but, alack and alas! I am bound with a chain which seems to tighten more
and more each day, and draw me further and further from where I desire
to be. But I trust the time will soon come when I shall b