.

When the dispute was settled it again became necessary to find some
means of warming my hut. With regrets for having been so good-natured, I
set about devising another substitute for a stove. More scraps of bricks
could not be found, and stones were as scarce. Finally, an old piece of
machinery was discovered, which gave some hopes of success. It was a
hollow tube, about two feet long and ten inches in diameter, with a
small hole quite close to one of the open ends, and this was planted
upright upon the earthen floor of my cabin. We procured an old soup
kettle, cut a hole in the bottom for a pipe and capped the cylinder with
it; but the question of a stove-pipe was a more serious matter. Not a
piece was to be found. The next morning my stove had a pipe, and a fire
was merrily burning within the old tube, sending out a heat which made
me glad that the stove had been given up. The only trouble with the new
arrangement was that one had to lift the pipe and top in order to build
or replenish a fire. Sometimes I have a vague impression of someone's
having climbed to the top of a distant cabin in the gloom of the night,
and when this thought comes to me I seem to see a man standing, in bare
feet and scanty clothing, upon the top of that cabin, with the moon
trying in vain to secure a good look at him through the thick clouds,
and tremble with the fear that he may awaken the sleepers within as he
cautiously uplifts their stove-pipe through its hole in the roof. The
vision comes like a recollection of a dream, and I often wonder whether
the man who secured my stove-pipe for me did not tell me where he got
it, and that in so vivid a manner as to leave me with a memory of it
like unto that of one who was present.

In February our regiment went with a boat expedition. The object of the
trip was unknown to us, but we were stopped by a fort at the head waters
of the Yazoo, and returned to camp at Helena after an absence of about
forty days. During this time my company was detailed for boat duty up
the river, and we had a sharp fight with some rebels on shore, till we
landed, drove them off and burned some cabins. No one was seriously
hurt. The casualties of the expedition were not large, and the most
serious resulted from the guerilla warfare of the rebels along the banks
of the rivers, which was finally stopped by landing and burning a few
buildings.

We were assigned to provost duty when we returned, and this continued
until