e was but the commencement of a series of blunders on the
part of our war department that culminated eventually in the South's
downfall. But it is not our province to speculate in the rosy fields
of "might-have-been," but to record facts.

General Longstreet had of all arms fifteen thousand men, including
teamsters, guards, medical and ambulance corps. General Burnside
had an army of twenty-five thousand men and one hundred pieces of
artillery, and this was the army Longstreet was expected to capture or
destroy.

General Grant was marching from Mississippi with a large portion
of his victorious troops of the Vicksburg campaign to reinforce
Rosecrans, Sherman coming down through Tennessee, and Meade was
sending reinforcements from the East, all to swell the defeated ranks
of Rosecrans. With the knowledge of all these facts, the department
was preparing to further reduce the forces of Bragg by sending
Longstreet up in East Tennessee, with soldiers badly clad, worse
equipped, and with the poorest apology of camp equipage, for an active
and progressive campaign.

Both governments were greatly displeased with the results of the
battle of Chickamauga--the Federals at their army failing to come up
to their expectations and gaining a victory, instead of a disastrous
defeat; the Confederates at their commanders in not following up their
success and reaping greater results. Under such circumstances,
there must be some one on whom to place the blame. General Rosecrans
censured General McCook and General Crittenden, commanders of the
Twentieth and Twenty-first Corps, and these two able soldiers were
relieved of their commands, while General Rosecrans himself was
severely censured by the department in Washington, and soon afterwards
relieved of his command.

The regiments of the brigade were now all short of field officers--the
Seventh and Battalion with none, and the Eighth and Fifteenth in
charge of Majors. However, Colonel W.G. Rice joined us on the way to
East Tennessee and took command of his battalion.

After a stay of a week in the beautiful Valley of Sweetwater, we were
moved to Loudon, the railroad crossing of the Tennessee River, the
railroad bridge having been burned by the enemy. The country in East
Tennessee was greatly divided in sentiment, some for the Union cause
and some for the Confederate cause. Rumors of outrages and doings of
desperadoes were rife, and the soldiers were somewhat dubious in going
far into