to the top. Most of the soldiers who wished to visit
this beautiful and historic place passed up this road way, but there
was another route--just a foot-path--up its precipitous sides, which
had to be climbed hundreds of feet, perpendicularly, by means of
ladders fastened to its sides. After going up one ladder, say fifty
or seventy-five feet, we would come to a little offset in the mountain
side, just wide enough to get a foot-hold, before taking another
ladder. Some of the boldest climbers took this route to reach the
summit, but after climbing the first ladder and looking back towards
the gorge below, I concluded it was safer and more pleasant to take
the "longer way round." It certainly takes a man of stout heart and
strong nerves to climb those ladders up to the "lands of the sky."

The scenery in and around Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain is grand,
far beyond pen picturing. The surroundings had a kind of buoyancy even
to the spirits of the badly clad and badly fed soldiers, which caused
their stale bread and "cush" to be eaten with a relish. The mountain
homes seemed veritable "castles in the air." Looking from the top
of Lookout Mountain--its position, its surroundings, its natural
fortresses--this would have made an old Feudal lord die of envy.
Autumn is now at hand, with its glorious sunsets, its gorgeous
coloring of the leaves and bushes away to the right on Missionary
Ridge, the magnificent purple draperies along the river sides that
rise and fall to our right and left, its blue waters dwindling away
until they meet the deeper blue of the sky--are all beautiful beyond
description. Lovely though this scenery may be in autumn, and its
deeper coloring of green in the summer, how dazzled must be the looker
on in beholding it in its tender, blushing mantle of spring?

For quite a time rumors came of Burnside's advance through East
Tennessee and of Longstreet's detachment from the army to meet him.
The troops were kept in constant expectation, with the regulation
"four days" cooked rations on hand. It is not our purpose to criticise
the acts of Generals, or the schemes and plans of the Southern
Government, but future historical critics will not differ as to the
ultimate results of the East Tennessee move. That Longstreet's advance
to East Tennessee was without results, if not totally disastrous, all
will agree. To divide an army in the face of an enemy, is dangerous
at best, and, with few exceptions, has been av