and mess
were without food; late in the evening we saw a butcher-pen and
made for it; all we could get was oxtails and a little tallow
procured by a good deal of industry from certain portions of the
beef. One of the boys procured a lot of bran and unbolted flour and
at twelve o'clock at night we sat down at our Christmas dinner
(oxtail soup and biscuit), and if I ever enjoyed a meal I enjoyed
that one. The army is retiring to Okolona and the artillery to
Columbus, Mississippi. The barefooted men were left here to go by
rail. When we get away I cannot say. We had to leave two of our
pieces stuck in the mud, the other side of Columbus; the third
piece was thrown in the river; the fourth piece, the one I am
interested in, was saved and represents the battery."

And here is the _last_, written from Demopolis, Alabama, April 15,
1865:

"DEAR MOTHER,--You have heard ere this of the evacuation of Mobile,
which happened on the day of the eleventh. After the fall of
Spanish Fort and Blakely, all hope of holding Mobile was given up.
The works around the city were made to be manned by eight thousand,
but, after the capture of the garrison at Blakely, our forces were
too much reduced to hold the place. When evacuated, the place was
not threatened, but might have been completely invested in a week's
time. All the heavy guns were destroyed: we destroyed seven
twenty-four pounders. The total loss of guns must have amounted to
three hundred. We left Mobile by boat, and each man with a musket.
It is a heavy fall for us who have been in artillery for three
years, and now find ourselves as infantrymen, much to our displeasure.
As much as I dislike it, I shall keep my musket until something
better turns up...."

The history of the battery, from first to last, is that of thorough
soldiers, brave in battle, uncomplaining, cheerful, even _jolly_,
under the most trying circumstances, bearing with equanimity the
lesser ills of a soldier's life, with unshaken fortitude and
undiminished devotion to "The Cause," indescribable hardships and
discouragements.

Proud as I am of their whole record, I must admire the noble spirit
which animated these patriots, when, at Mobile, having been deprived
of their cannon, they _cheerfully_ shouldered the muskets assigned to
them, and were prepared to use them, never dreaming that the bitter
end was so near. All soldiers will well understand that this