s! Ambulance corps!" But the
laugh of the men soon convinced him his wound was more imaginary than
real so he turned over and commenced to burrow again like a mole.

Rosecrans having withdrawn his entire force within the fortifications
around Chattanooga, our troops were placed in camp, surrounding the
enemy in a semi-circle, and began to fortify. Kershaw's Brigade
was stationed around a large dwelling in a grove, just in front of
Chattanooga, and something over a mile distant from the city, but
in plain view. We had very pleasant quarters in the large grove
surrounding the house, and, in fact, some took possession of the
porches and outhouses. This, I think, is the point Grant stormed a few
months afterwards, and broke through the lines of Bragg. We had
built very substantial breastworks, and our troops would have thought
themselves safe and secure against the charge of Grant's whole army
behind such works.

If those who are unfamiliar with the life of the soldier imagines it
is one long funeral procession, without any breaks of humor, they
are away off from the real facts. The soldier is much the same as the
schoolboy. He must have some vent through which the ebullition of good
feelings can blow off, else the machinery bursts.

While encamped around this house, a cruel joke was played upon
Captain--well we will call him Jones; that was not his name, however,
but near enough to it to answer our purpose. Now this Captain Jones,
as we call him, was engaged to be married to one of the
fairest flowers in the Palmetto State, a perfect queen among
beauties--cultured, vivacious, and belonging to one of the oldest
families in that Commonwealth of Blue Bloods. The many moves and
changes during the last month or two considerably interrupted our
communications and mail facilities, and Jones had not received the
expected letters. He became restless, petulant, and cross, and to
use the homely phrase, "he was all torn up." Instead of the "human
sympathy" and the "one touch of nature," making the whole world akin,
that philosophers and sentimentalists talk about, it should be
"one sight of man's misery"--makes the whole world "wish him more
miserable." It was through such feelings that induced Captain I.N.
Martin, our commissary, with Mack Blair and others, to enter into a
conspiracy to torture Jones with all he could stand. Blair had a
lady cousin living near the home of Jones' fiancee, with whom he
corresponded, and it was thro