cinity, and showed themselves at intervals, but made no
aggressive movement. Cold weather set in about this time, the ground
was covered with sleet, and our situation, cooped up in Fortress
Rosecrans, was unpleasant and disagreeable. We had long ago turned in
our big Sibley tents, and drawn in place of them what we called
"pup-tents." They were little, squatty things, composed of different
sections of canvas that could be unbuttoned and taken apart, and
carried by the men when on a march. They were large enough for only two
occupants, and there were no facilities for building fires in them, as
in the case of the Sibleys. Owing to the fact that the Confederates
were all around us, we were short of fire-wood too. Stone river ran
through the fortress, and there were some big logs in the river, which
I suppose had been there ever since the work was constructed, and we
dragged them out and used them to eke out our fires. They were all
water-soaked, and hardly did more than smoulder, but they helped some.
At night we would crowd into those little pup-tents, lie down with all
our clothes on, wrap up in our blankets and try to sleep, but with poor
success. I remember that usually about midnight I would "freeze out,"
and get up and stand around those sobbing, smouldering logs,--and
shiver. To make matters worse, we were put on half rations soon after
we came to Murfreesboro, and full rations were not issued again until
the Confederates retreated from Nashville after the battle of December
15-16.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE FIGHT ON THE RAILROAD NEAR MURFREESBORO, DECEMBER 15, 1864.

On the afternoon of December 12th the regiment fell in and we marched
to the railroad depot at Murfreesboro, climbed on a train of box cars,
and started for Stevenson, Alabama, about 80 miles southeast of
Murfreesboro. The number of the regiment who participated in this
movement, according to the official report of Maj. Nulton, was 150 men,
and we were accompanied by a detachment of about forty of the 1st
Michigan Engineers. (See Serial No. 93, Official Records of the War of
the Rebellion, p. 620.) We soon learned that the train was going to
Stevenson to obtain rations for the troops at Murfreesboro, and that
our province was to serve as guards for the train, to Stevenson and on
its return. We had not gone more than eight or ten miles from
Murfreesboro before we ran into the Confederate cavalry vedettes who
were scattered along at numerous points