The following day after the snow, the weather turned very cold and we had to hustle for some kind of bedding. We had nothing but pup tents to shelter us from the weather, and three of us had to croud into one of these little tents. The "middle man" of course faired reasonably well, but the outside man had to take the cold on one side. The space was so small that when we turned over, all had to turn at once, in this way the outside man was able to warm a side at a time. The first day of Jan 1864 was said to be the coldest that had occured in the knowledge of the oldest inhabitant. our people at home shivered all day around their fires, and could do nothing but replenish the fires, and feed the stock, and thought that they had a very hard time, but us poor fellows had no way of warming our bodies, but to stand around a green wood fire, and to make the situation all the worst was the fact that many of our men had no overcoats, and no tents. Some were without shoes, and others had worn their pants so long that they were practicaly reduced to rags. We were finaly removed to a wooded hollow, neare "mossey creek", where we wer better protectd from the cold wind. The cold continued all throgh Jan. For those who were without shoes, or tents we kept great logheaps burning, around which they would huddle to keep warm. Some of them got so close that they burned their clothing, and it was not uncommon to see a soldier with his coatial burned off. The government could not furnish us with anything more that sugar and coffee, and occasionaly a few hardtac. For bread we had to get flower and meal from the mill, out of which we made a stiff dough, which we impaled on a sharpened stick, or upon a ramrod, and held it to the fire till it browned. The cornmeal we made into a dough, and baked it in a frying pan, if we had one otherwise on a stone or in the ashes. There was one man in my company, who had no shoes the most of the winter, and yet he never missed a fight, a scout, or a foraging squad. He managed in some way to protect his feet with old peices of army blankets. The commanding officer of the army sent a regular army maj to our camp to inspect us, whom we were very carefull to stear to the logheap loafers. He was a very careful inspector, and wanted to see with his own eyes every condition. He was quite inquisitive with the boys, asking them about their clothing, and their food. Fortunately it was neare the dinner hour, and some of the boys were parching corn, while others were roasting their dough. He wanted to know what they are going to have for supper, to which they answered if there is anything left over we will probably eat it, but if there is not we will do without. The commander of the regiment invited him to stay for dinner, and set before him hardtac and coffee. The maj thought that was pretty hard grub for the commander of a regiment to subsist upon, to which the col answered that he was fortunate to have that much. That it was much better than the food that his men had to live upon. With all of these privations, and hardships. I do not recall that I ever heard a serious complaint. At the close of the month, the weather warmed up, and Feb brought us very mild weather, and of course things commenced to move, and it wasent long till we had orders to march. The bridge at Strawberry Plains was completed, and our hearts were gladened by the news that a train load of comissary suplies had arrived at Newmarket, and we got something to eat for about a day, when we were moved over to a little town in the "Frenchbroad valley" where we could get forage for our horses, but unfortunately for us Longstreet did the same thing. He also wanted forage, and lots of it, and of course it was not possible for both armies to indulge in amicable relations very long. We ocupied the town, which was called Dandrige. We had not been here but a few days, when our commanding officer ordered us to make a reconoisance in force to see what our neighbors were doing. We found them ready to receive us and did it in a very hostile manner; In fact, our regiment ran a very close call and it was seriously feared that we were candidates for Andersonville. Under the leadership of a rash officer, we came very nearly running into an ambush; and it was onley by the shrewdest management that we were able to withdraw our forces. It was Sunday morning. The weather had the balm of spring. Of course we kept no account of time; but the weather was so calm, and the sun shone so brightly, that that a sabath day presence was evrywhere. If a church bell had rung out its chimes many would have moved their heads in reverential thankfullness. There had been a pile of corn thrown down on the ground for use, as needed; passing by it I stopped to think, and the more I thought, the more convinced I became, that that corn would be baddly needed at some future time. I got busy at once, and soon had a peck of it shelled in a piece of tent, and strapped to my saddle. I did not think that I was doing anything extraordinary; til heard one of my company declare that there would be a battle before night, and when asked for his authority, said that Lieut Carter was putting up corn for his horse. I remember that it was nearly dinner time when the regimental orderly passed along the company lines with orders to the officer to prepare for immediate action, and a few minuts afterwards the bugle call for boots and saddles was sounded; and in less than 30 minuts we strood at our horses heads ready to mount, which we did in short order, and moved out to the suposed battle line, without our dinner, which was unfortunate, as we got little to eat that and less the next morning. We did not have to wait long for the enimy to appeare. The fight was on on th eright before we left camp. We were placed in line on the south side of a deep gorge, about a mile from town; on the other side of which the enimy soon put in an appearance. We finaly crossed this gorge, and confronted the enimy, and charged his line of battle, before which the rebel forces gave way, and was soon in full retreat, but halted about a mile to the rear, and formed his line of battle, and came at us with such vigor that we had to retreat in some disorder, to our original line. The afternoon was spent in charges and counter charges; without any great loss on either side. In this fight there were four Ind regiments in a continuous line of battle, all of which were mounted. When night came on we held our original position. While the enimy lined up on the other side of the chasm. In forming their lines the rebels got into a fight -- by mistake -- among themselves, to which we listened with much amusement. We knew that there was a large force of infantry behind us, and we felt assured that on the morrow the infantry would take our place, and we would go into the flank. We argued that Longstreet had ordered us around about long enough; and that we thought we were able to fight him, that job should be attended to right here. We were ordered to build extra fires; which which we construed was for the purpose of deceiving the enimy, as to our movement to the flank; but when our column was moved to the rear, leaving onley a skirmish line, matters began to look a little shakey; but when we got into the town, and saw the infantry headed for Knoxville, we were badly demoralized. We marched all night by the way of Newmarket; while the infantry took the direct road to Strawberry Plains. At Newmarket we found a large supply of pork, of which we were ordered to take freely; and as we were mounted, our suplies were abundent. We reached Strawberry Plains in the afternoon; and crossed the bridge before dark, and went into camp, in the woods nearby. The rear guard came in late in the evening; and work was commenced at once to wreck the bridge, which had been completed but a few days. When we awoke in the morning we found that a few inches of snow had fallen during the night, and the whole outlook was most dreary. Our horses had had but little to eat since the morning of the day before, and of course were now ravenously hungry. I went out to my little mare, who never failed to greet me with a glad whinny; and undid my peck of corn, and gave her a quart or so of it. The other horses saw that she was eating, and set up a great racket of pawing and nahing. Mine was the onley horse that had anything to eat that morning, and I felt quite proud of my thoughtfulnes in saving the corn for her. We did not tarry long here, but marched directly to Knoxville, where we arrived in the earley afternoon, and went and went into camp for the night; but the next day crossed the river, and went into camp in a heavy layer of timber. In about three days we made a forced march into Marysville; to relieve Col Wolford of the first K Y, who was commanding a small brigade, which the rebels had surrounded, and thought to bag him this time;It was a leading characteristic of Wolford and then cut his way out, as he had done this time, before we could reach him. We could do nothing more than march back to our camp. In our hurry to secure Wolford, we had not made any arrangements for commisary suplies, and we were almost starved. A lot of us went into a building, where comisary suplies had been kept; and the floor was covered two feet deep with spoiled hardtac, and then tramped over with mudy feet. We dug down into this mouldy heap, and picked pieces of hardtac, which we ate greadily; and I do not think that I ever ate anything that tasted so good. In a short time we were ordered to turn over our "crobates" of horses to the quarter master. To be continued next week. 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