a picture.  I was about on a par with two-thirds of the others, and we made as merry as possible under the circumstances.  We had no rations, and lived entirely on the people:  they treated us splendidly, gave us more than we could eat, and left us duly indebted to them for their many kindnesses.  I for one will never forget the hospitality received in Tennessee.  We recrossed the Tennessee on the 26th of December.  Christmas day was quite an event to us.  We were then out of Tennessee, in a poor country, and could get very little to eat.  All day myself 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 was a crucial test of their devotion and patriotism.