THE OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA—APPENDIX. 
257 
Suffering of Troops in East Tennessee (Winter 1864).— 
Until the beginning of March the forces in East Tennessee suffered the 
extremest want. A considerable drove of live cattle had been collected 
at Knoxville before the siege, but they grew thin for lack of forage. 
The country was stripped bare, and during the month of January the 
cattle that were turned over to the troops for beef were so poor they 
could hardly stand up. It is literally true that it was the custom of the 
commissaries to drive the cattle over a little ditch in the field where 
they were corralled, and those only were killed which could not get 
over their weakness, proving that it would not do to keep them longer, 
whilst the others might still last for future use. Indian corn was 
ground up, cobs and all, for bread. Bran and shorts were diligently 
hunted and used for the same purpose. The country was scoured for 
subsistence stores, and nothing but a patriotism equal to that of the 
troops made the country people patient under their losses and privations. 
The new year opened with a furious gale and icy storm, which came as 
a cyclone from the northwest, reducing the temperature suddenly below 
zero. The half-naked soldiers hovered around their camp fires, some 
without coats, some without pantaloons, some with tattered blankets 
tied like petticoats about their waists. An officer passing among them 
with words of sympathy and encouragement was greeted with the 
cheery response, “ It’s pretty rough, General, but we’ll see it through ! ” 
Even during that fearful time cheers were heard ringing out from one 
and another of the regimental camps, indicating that the regiment had 
i( veteranized,” as it was called when a majority of the rank and file had 
re-enlisted for another three years, or during the war.—“ Atlanta ,” 
Jacob D. Cox, ch. ii., p. 15-16. 
Ravaging Georgia. —The great mass of the officers and soldiers of 
the line worked hard and continuously, day by day, in marching, in 
bridging streams, in making corduroy roads through the swamps, in 
lifting the wagons and cannon from mud-holes, and in tearing up the 
railways. They saw little or nothing of the people of the country, and 
knew comparatively little of the foragers’ work, except to enjoy the 
fruits of it and the unspeakable ludicrousness of the cavalcade as it came 
in at night. The foragers turned into beasts of burden, oxen and cows 
as well as horses and mules. Here would be a silver-mounted family 
carriage drawn by a jackass and a cow, loaded inside and out with 
everything the country produced, vegetable and animal, dead and alive. 
There would be an ox-cart, similarly loaded, and drawn by a nondescript 
tandem team, equally incongruous. Perched upon the top would be a 
ragged forager, rigged out in a fur hat of a fashion worn by dandies of 
a century ago, or a dress coat which had done service at stylish balls of 
a former generation. The jibes and jeers, the fun and the practical 
jokes, ran down the whole line as the cortege came in, and no 
masquerade in carnival could compare with it for original humour and 
rollicking enjoyment. 
The weather had generally been perfect. A flurry of snow and a 
sharp cold wind had lasted for a day or two about November 23rd, but 
the Indian summer set in after that, and, on December 8th, the heat was 
even sultry. The camps in the open pine woods, the bonfires along the 
railways, the occasional sham-battles at night, with blazing pine knots 
for weapons whirling in the darkness, all combined to leave upon the 
