y sergeant, for weeks at a time, and so possessed a fair amount
of experience when I entered on the duties of the position under a
permanent appointment. But my long, solitary rambles out in the woods,
beyond the lines, were at an end, and that was a matter of more regret
to me than anything else connected with the office of orderly sergeant.
While on this topic I will remark that it always seemed to me that the
men who had the "softest snaps" of any in a regiment of infantry were
the lieutenants of the respective companies. The first lieutenant had
no company cares or responsibilities whatever, unless the captain was
absent, or sick in quarters, and the second lieutenant was likewise
exempt, unless the captain and first lieutenant were both absent, or
sick. Of course there were duties that devolved on the lieutenants from
time to time, such as drilling the men, serving as officer of the
guard, and other matters, but when those jobs were done, they could
just "go and play," without a particle of care or anxiety about the
services of the morrow.

CHAPTER XIV.

LITTLE ROCK. WINTER OF 1863-4. RE-ENLIST FOR THREE YEARS MORE.

When I returned to Little Rock from my absence on furlough, the
regiment was found installed in cosy, comfortable quarters of pine log
cabins. There were extensive pine forests near Little Rock, the boys
were furnished teams and axes to facilitate the work, and cut and
shaped the logs for the cabin walls, and roofed them with lumber,
boards or shingles, which they procured in various ways. The walls were
chinked and daubed with mud, and each cabin was provided with an ample,
old-fashioned fire-place, with a rock or stick chimney. As wood was
close at hand, and in abundance, there was no difficulty whatever in
keeping the cabins warm. But I will remark here that of all the mean
wood to burn, a green pine log is about the worst. It is fully as bad
as green elm, or sycamore. But there was no lack of dry wood to mix
with the green, and the green logs had this virtue: that after the fire
had once taken hold of them they would last a whole night. The winter
of 1863-4 was remarkably cold, and to this day is remembered by the old
soldiers as "the cold winter." On the last day of 1863 a heavy fall of
snow occurred at Little Rock, and the first day of the new year, and
several days thereafter, were bitterly cold. But the weather did not
cause the troops in our immediate locality any special suffering,