ay expressed their willingness to re-enlist, if
allowed to return to the state and elect their own officers. At evening
roll-call Lieutenant Simpson called all those desiring to return to the
state under their old officers to step to the front. But none desired to
under those conditions, as they desire to choose their own officers.
Mail arrived. I received news of the 27th ult. from Brother John. Quite
ill, but true to his custom wrote on the last Sunday of the month,
having not missed one through the year.

Larkinsville, Tuesday, Jan. 5. Rain of yesterday ceased and it is a soft
sunny day, everything calm and quiet in camp, it being the last day
allowed for enlisting. But nobody goes forward. 12 M. assembly sounded
and a telegraphic dispatch from the war department stating
three-fourths of the actual number present would take the organization
home, etc. If Captain Dillon would express his determination to command
the Battery, a sufficient number would go in, to go home, as the boys
would rather have him with all his faults, than ----, incompetent to
command.

Larkinsville, Wednesday, Jan. 6. Cold and freezing. Everything quiet,
the theme of the last five days having been dropped since the time
expired. At evening roll call marching orders were read to us to leave
at 8 A. M. in the morning. All extra baggage, harness, etc. loaded on
cars and a detail of twenty men to accompany them. Camp was still at an
early hour. All felt bad at being obliged to leave their comfortable
quarters, so recently built by hard labor, and face the stern, hard
march. None of the quarters were to be destroyed as they were to be
occupied by troops coming in to occupy the place.

[Sidenote: 1864 "Merciless Drivers"]

Near Paint Rock River, Ala., Thursday, Jan. 7. Reveille woke us to
prepare for the march at 4 A. M. Breakfast cooked and eaten. Tents
struck and loaded in due time. I was detailed to stay with the wagons,
and did not start for half an hour after Battery left. The roads are
frozen and very rough, the weather extremely cold, the air damp and
filled with frozen mists, covering our clothes with ice and sleet. The
troops marched fast and kept warm, but the train moved slow and tedious,
wagons sticking in ruts, mules giving up, lying down in the road; to
receive beastly cruelty from merciless drivers, and horrid oaths from
impatient wagon masters. Often obliged to put our shoulders to the wheel
to get along. Suffered severely fr