their homes, turning their backs on master and
mistress, many bearing their bedding, clothing, and other effects
on their heads and backs, and came to the roadsides, shouting and
singing a medley of songs of freedom and religion, confidently
expecting to follow the army to immediate liberty. Their number
were so great we marched for a good part of a day between almost
continuous lines of them. Their disappointment was sincere and
deep when told they must return to their homes: that the Union Army
could not take them. Of course some never returned, but the mass
of them did, and remained until the final decree of the war was
entered and their chains fell off, never to be welded in America
on their race again. They shouted "_Glory_" on seeing the _Stars
and Stripes_, as though it had been a banner of protection and
liberty, instead of the emblem of a power which hitherto had kept
them and their ancestors in bondage. The "_old flag_" has a peculiar
charm for those who have served under it. It was noticeable that
wherever we marched in the South, particularly in Kentucky, Tennessee,
and Virginia, we found men at the roadside who had fought in the
Mexican War, often with tears streaming down their cheeks, who
professed sincere loyalty to the flag and the Union.

We reached Murfreesboro on the 20th without a fight, the small
Confederate force retiring and destroying bridges as we advanced.

The division was kept busy in repairing the railroad, and especially
in rebuilding the recently destroyed railroad bridge near Murfreesboro
across Stone's River. I worked industriously in charge of a detail
of soldiers on this bridge. In ten days it was rebuilt, though
the heavy timbers had to be cut and hewed from green timber in the
nearby woods. The Union Army never called in vain for expert
mechanics, civil or locomotive engineers.

I took a train of ninety wagons, starting to Nashville on the 31st,
for quartermaster, commissary, and ordnance supplies, with instructions
to repair, while on the way, broken places in the railroad. In
consequence of the destruction of bridges the train and guard had
to travel a longer route than the direct one, making the distance
above forty miles. We repaired the railroad, and reached Nashville
and loaded my wagons by the evening of the second day. The city
was a demoralizing place for soldiers. A few of my men of the 10th
Ohio became drunk, and while I was engaged in the night trying to