sow belly" dessert. No mail to-day
again. No news. Reading matter very limited, the effect of which is very
apparent. Three or four squads to be seen gambling at one time in camp,
notwithstanding it is the Sabbath day. I have never known more open
gambling in the Battery. The only checking influence is withdrawn when
the letters cease to come from home, parents, sisters and brothers.

[Sidenote: 1864 Letters From Home]

Kingston, Monday, July 11. Evie took my team out to graze. Spencer and I
built, lower in park, shebang with table, etc. Boys hard at work putting
up houses, sheds. 4 P. M. on detail hauling brush for sheds. Orders
received to march 3 A. M. in the morning. All work on quarters ceased in
an instant, our dreams of cool shade and easy time gone in a moment.
Hurriedly washed dirty shirt in the stream, and prepared for the moving.
Received a letter this evening. Health good. Expect to go to the front.

Cartersville, Ga., Tuesday, July 12. Reveille sounded in the small hours
of the night, and with the first rays of the morn we descended the hill
and were on the way. After more delay we started, seven regiments, two
batteries and division train. Most of the 2nd and 3rd Brigades left
behind on the roads. Marched steady and fast. Passed through Cassville
at 10 A. M., a very pretty country town hid away among the hills. Four
mills on the road. A large college used as general hospital by rebs
here. Ascended to the observatory, had a splendid view. A large library
filled with books going to waste. As we marched, country improved. Land
more arable, much less stony. Passed most excellent corn fields,
although they received no care or protection. Marched through
Cartersville 3 P. M., a place of some pretensions in time of peace,
occupied by the cavalrymen relieved at Kingston. Camped a mile below in
a pretty grove, a good ways from water. Slept in an old house that
threatened to demolish us by tumbling over.

Etowah Bridge, Ga., Wednesday, July 13. Up early. Moved 6 A. M. 4th
Minnesota, 18th Wisconsin, 80th Ohio and 12th Battery moved on to
Allatoona, four miles further on. We went into a fort on a steep cliff
or point on the Etowah River and commanding the railroad bridge seventy
feet high, erected by Sherman's Construction Corps. Found everything
ready for us, a luck we never before met with, strong fortifications
already built, good and neat shebangs, horse-sheds for most of the
horses made of lumber, stalls