d safely crossed the river on the only bridge
half a mile in the rear.

"As soon as the news reached Forrest, his command started across from
Murfreesboro' to join the main column at Columbia. There was no
turnpike, the roads were in awful condition, the horses reduced and
broken down, and a continuous rain pouring down. Two of the guns
reached Columbia in safety; the other two would have been brought
through but for the swelling of a creek by the rain, which it was
impossible to cross,--the only guns the battery ever lost. The men
remained by them alone till Columbia was evacuated by our forces and
the enemy within a mile of them, when they destroyed their pieces,
swam Duck River, and started after the army. The terrors of the
retreat from Tennessee in midwinter, the men shoeless, without
blankets, and almost without clothes, need not be recounted here.

"January 10. The battery reached Columbus, Mississippi.

"January 31. Ordered to Mobile. Remained there as heavy artillery till
11th of April, when it was evacuated; go up the river to Demopolis;
from there to Cuba Station, Meridian, where, on the 10th of May, arms
are laid down and the battery with the rest of General Taylor's army."

A member of the battery, who was an exceptional soldier, and who still
cherishes and venerates everything that reminds him of the glorious
past, has kindly placed in my hands some letters which I am permitted
to copy and here subjoin, feeling sure that they will prove quite as
interesting as the numerous documents of the kind published in the
"lives" of those high in authority, although they contain only the
experience of a young private soldier, conveyed in dutiful letters to
his mother. Some of these will suggest the changes which befell the
soldiers who gave the house-warming in Virginia, and the difference
between the first and last years of the war.

"NEAR NEW HOPE CHURCH, GEORGIA,

"May 26, 1864.

"MY DEAR,--Knowing that you will be anxious to hear from me and the
company after the late fight, I avail myself of the first
opportunity to write. Stewart's Division of Hood's Corps arrived in
the vicinity of the Church yesterday morning. Soon after skirmishes
commenced, moving a mile off, and gradually approached us. By 3
p.m. it commenced to near us, and 5 p.m. found us galloping into
position. Clayton's Brigade supported us behind log works, which
served as an excellent shelter for us from the minies. The Y