strongest field fortifications
that I ever saw during the war. We dug away the crests, throwing the
dirt to the front, and made long lines of breastworks along our entire
front, facing, of course, the northeast. Then, at various places, on
commanding points, were erected strong redoubts for artillery, floored,
and revetted on the inner walls with thick and strong green lumber and
timbers. On the exterior slopes of the ridges were dug three lines of
trenches, or rifle pits, extending in a parallel form from near the
base of the ridges almost to the summit, with intervals between the
lines. All the trees and bushes in our front on the slopes of the
ridges were cut down, with their tops outwards, thus forming a tangled
abattis which looked as if a rabbit could hardly get through. And
finally, on the inner slope of the ridges, a little below their
summits, was constructed a "covered way;" that is, a road dug along the
sides of the ridges, and over which an army, with batteries of
artillery, could have marched with perfect safety. The purpose of these
covered ways was to have a safe and sheltered road right along our rear
by which any position on the line could be promptly reinforced, if
necessary.

Sometimes I would walk along the parapet of our works, looking off to
the northeast where the Confederates were supposed to be, and I
ardently wished that they would attack us. Our defenses were so strong
that in my opinion it would have been a physical impossibility for
flesh and blood to have carried them. Had Johnston tried, he simply
would have sacrificed thousands of his men without accomplishing
anything to his own advantage.

It will be said here that I have no recollection of having personally
taken part in the construction of the fortifications above mentioned.
In fact, I never did an hour's work in the trenches, with spade and
mattock, during all my time. I never "took" willingly to that kind of
soldiering. But there were plenty of the boys who preferred it to
standing picket, because when on fatigue duty, as it was called, they
would quit about sundown, and then get an unbroken night's sleep. So,
when it fell to my lot to be detailed for fatigue, I would swap with
someone who had been assigned to picket,--he would do my duty, and I
would perform his; we were both satisfied, and the fair inference is
that no harm was thereby done to the cause. And it was intensely
interesting to me, when on picket at night on the cre