blance of subsistence
transportation barely sufficient to gather in the supplies. It was
here that the abilities of our chiefs of quartermaster and commissary
departments were tested to the utmost. Captains Peck and Shell, of
our brigade, showed themselves equal to the occasion, and Captain
Lowrance, of the Subsistence Department, could always be able to
furnish us with plenty of corn meal from the surrounding country.

The sun, on the morning of the 20th, rose in unusual splendor, and
cast its rays and shadows in sparkling brilliancy over the mountains
and plains of North Georgia. The leaves of the trees and shrubbery, in
their golden garb of yellow, shown out bright and beautiful in their
early autumnal dress--quite in contrast with the bloody scenes to be
enacted before the close of day. My older brother, a private in my
company, spoke warmly of the beautiful Indian summer morning and the
sublime scenery round about, and wondered if all of us would ever see
the golden orb of day rise again in its magnificence. Little did he
think that even then the hour hand on the dial plate of destiny was
pointing to the minute of "high noon," when fate was to take him by
the hand and lead him away. It was his turn in the detail to go to the
rear during the night to cook rations for the company, and had he done
so, he would have missed the battle, as the details did not return in
time to become participants in the engagement that commenced early
in the morning. He had asked permission to exchange duties with a
comrade, as he wished to be near me should a battle ensue during the
time. Contrary to regulations, I granted the request. Now the
question naturally arises, had he gone on his regular duties would the
circumstances have been different? The soldier is generally a believer
in the doctrine of predestination in the abstract, and it is well he
is so, for otherwise many soldiers would run away from battle. But
as it is, he consoles himself with the theories of the old doggerel
quartet, which reads something like this:--

"He who fights and runs away,
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain,
Will ne'er live to fight again."

Longstreet's troops had recently been newly uniformed, consisting of
a dark-blue round jacket, closely fitting, with light-blue trousers,
which made a line of Confederates resemble that of the enemy, the only
difference being the "cut" of the garments--the Federals wearing a
lo