94* ^ Ten Years of my Life. 



beaten Hood, on the 15th and i6lh, in two great battles near 

 Nashville, and captured fift}^ guns and about five thousand 

 prisoners. At the same time, the 68th Regiment received 

 orders to march to Stevenson, and wait their for their colonel 

 and General Steedman. This order of course produced great 

 excitement, fot the regiment had been on the island about nine 

 months, and everything the soldiers had arranged for their 

 comfort had to be left behind, but General Steedman promised 

 to remove all necessary things to Whiteside, where the regi- 

 ment was to be stationed afterwards. 



The detachments from Fort Prince Salm, Whiteside, and 

 Shellmound had to be recalled, and it was rather late in the 

 afternoon before all was read} . We prepared a farewell colla- 

 tion for our officers, and saw them off with regret, and not 

 without apprehension, for in Bridgeport remained only a very 

 small force, and on our island, except the sick, not more than 

 twenty men as a guard for the stores. The gunboats had dis- 

 appeared also, and we were indeed at the mercy of any strag- 

 gling rebel party that might take it into their heads to pay us 

 a visit. 



The empty camp offered a very cheerless aspect the day 

 afterwards, and the more so on account of the rain which 

 poured down in torrents. Masterless dogs and cats prowled 

 about the empty shanties, and we felt extremely miserable in 

 our quarters. The rain extinguished the fire in the chimney, 

 filling with smoke the house, in which wet clothes were hang- 

 ing, for I had ordered a great washing. The night was pitch 

 dark, and the rain still streaming down. Hearing some noise 

 close to the house, I went out to listen on the verandah, when 

 I saw the shadow-like figures of some men on horseback right 

 before me. One of them asked with a deep voice whether 

 that was a forsaken camp ? — a rather suspicious question, 

 which did not fail to give us some alarm. Colonel Corvin put 

 on his india-rubber coat, and dived, revolver in hand, into the 

 darkness to reconnoitre. The horsemen were no rebels, as we 

 feared, but belonged to the Union army, and were on the look- 

 out for some shelter for their sick officer. They had established 

 themselves in a shanty belonging to our lieutenant-colonel. 



The rains ceased, and with their disappearance returned our 

 cheerfulness. The Vv^eather was indeed delightful. When we 

 received the news that General Steedman with fifteen trains 



