ests in the immediate vicinity of Murfreesboro, and we had no
difficulty whatever in getting the material. And we had plenty of nice,
fragrant cedar wood to burn in our fire-places, which was much better
than soggy Arkansas pine. And I remember with pleasure a matter
connected with the rations we had in the fore part of the winter. For
some reason or other the supply of hardtack became practically
exhausted, and we had but little in the line of flour bread, even for
some weeks after Hood retreated from Nashville. But in the country
north of Murfreesboro was an abundance of corn, and there were plenty
of water-mills, so Gen. Rousseau sent out foraging parties in that
region and appropriated the corn, and set the mills to grinding it, and
oh, what fine cornbread we had! We used to make "ash-cakes," and they
were splendid. The method of making and cooking an ash-cake was to mix
a quantity of meal with proper proportions of water, grease, and salt,
wrap the meal dough in some dampened paper, or a clean, wet cloth, then
put it in the fire and cover it with hot ashes and coals. By testing
with a sharp stick we could tell when the cake was done, then we would
yank it from the fire, scrape off the fragments of the covering and the
adhering ashes,--and then, with bacon broiled on the cedar coals, and
plenty of good strong coffee, we would have a dinner better than any
(from my standpoint) that Delmonico's ever served up in its palmiest
days.

On February 4th, 1865, the non-veterans and recruits of the regiment
came to us from Arkansas, and so we were once more all together, except
a few that were in the Confederate prisons down South. We were all glad
to see each other once more, and had many tales to "swap," about our
respective experiences during our separation.

On February 10th, Lieutenant Wallace resigned, and returned to his home
in Illinois. The chief reason for his resignation was on account of
some private matter at home, which was giving him much anxiety and
trouble. Further, the war in the region where we were was practically
over, and there was nothing doing, with no prospect, so far as we knew,
of any military activity for the regiment in the future. Wallace's
resignation left Co. D without a second lieutenant, as we then did not
have enough enlisted men in the company to entitle us to a full
complement of commissioned officers, and the place remained vacant for
some months.

On March 21st, we left Murfreesboro b