first intercourse with Eastern troops. They had odd ways,
peculiar to themselves, which the Western boys were unused to, and in
consequence, many taunting words were passed, for either party was loth
to take the jaw of the other. The Eighty-sixth and Fifty-second,
remained in front of Lookout mountain five days, when they were
relieved and sent back to North Chickamauga, arriving there on the
evening of the 5th of November, after an absence of seven days.

Again the boys set themselves to refitting their shanties, for it now
seemed probable there would be no more moving for a long time. The
weather was then disagreeably cold, and they must work or freeze--they
worked.

Most every mess soon had comfortable habitations, and some of them very
neat ones indeed. But after all their pains, it became evident they
would not remain long at this camp. Our army was beginning to
strengthen, and everything indicated a move.

About the 20th of November, pontoons were placed in the mouth of the
North Chickamauga for some purpose, then unknown, but afterwards
revealed. There were one hundred and sixteen pontoon boats in number,
in which Giles A. Smith's brigade of the Fifteenth Corps embarked on
the night of the 23rd, and entering the Tennessee, moved swiftly down
three miles, closely hugging the right bank; then crossed, and landed a
small force above the West Chickamauga, and the remainder just below
it. Landing this force, the boats were dispatched to the opposite side
for reinforcements. Two divisions were ferried over, and by noon, a
pontoon bridge across the Tennessee, fourteen hundred feet long, and
another across the West Chickamauga, two hundred feet long, were
completed.

Long before daylight on the morning of the 24th, our division under
command of Jefferson C. Davis, was marched down the right bank of the
Tennessee to a point opposite the mouth of the West Chickamauga, where
the pontoon bridge was being constructed. At one P.M., the Fifteenth
Corps, on the left bank of the river, advanced in three columns, and at
half-past three were in possession of the Missionary Hills without
loss. Our division crossed the pontoons late in the afternoon of the
24th, in a drizzling rain, and after much maneuvering took up a
position in a thick and swampy woods.

The night of the 24th passed off with some fighting, as the enemy made
an effort to regain his lost ground, but his effort proved abortive.
During the battle of the 25th, ou