The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-30 00:00:00

EVENING, SEPTEMBER 30, 1863.

banished, never to find a home in any free country, never

to see the soil of this land agin, and that law and order
may peaceably rule the destinies of this nation. One day's
rations of everything amounts to a very great deal ; indeed,

a soldier could not consume it. Beef fresh, or ham or
shoulder, sugar, coffee, or tea (chiefly the former), potatoes,
rice, bread, hominy, grit, dried split peas, beans, compressed
vegetables, soap, candles, vinegar, salt, &c. One ration of

each of those for, say, 10 days (10 rations) amounts to a

very considerable item—in fact, while living in camp for

any time even on rations there is enormous wsste. A very
great deal depends on the cooking. Many of the above
articles would be uneatable unless properly cooked— such

as hominy, peas, beans, compressed vegetables, but when
you understand how you can make quite an extra dish out
of tbem— good, wholesome, and very palatable.
" I am not the big, s' out, heavy 121-stone fellow I was.
I'm moderately slender, square enough in the shoulders,

straight, and with flesh and muscle firm as a rock. I wear
no beard, but a moustache, which every one says becomes
the contour of my face wonderfully well. My hair is de-
cidedly more gray than black; sickness, mental trouble,
and hardships and sufferings attendant on the campaigning
life we lead have caused the change in me, as in very

many young:men here. In truth the saying has become
proverbial among us soldiers that when this war is over
there will be more gray young men in this country than
ever were knewn. Yet my health generally continues
right good. Lying in camp too long never does; it is
not beneficial to health. Men get lazy and unsettled ;
they lie about too much after meals, although 1 must
give the majority of them the credit of doing all they
possibly can to keep themselves and their clothes clean.
Go to the river after morning company or evening bat-
talion drill, mid it is crowded with men from all the
camps round here, washing off' as they term it, while the
-siluilelYanlos are tlneCwith fires covered-with camp kettles,
washing and boiling their clothes. Shirts, drawers, blue
(light) pants, blouses, blankets, everything goes to pot to
keep off the body-guards.' Then, with insects of various
kinds that prey on human flesh we're bothered ; nits (like
a bug) go head and shoulders into your flesh, and you can't
get them out without soaking them in tobacco juice; then
there's a big-sized knob on your flesh that keeps you up to
the scratch all the time. Then there's the chigger, about
the size of a pin's point, yellow, like ground mustard grain;
they eat under your akin too. Mosquitoes, tobacco smoke
and that of the camp fires beat off pretty well ; yet they
come with their noisy hum, and then what a slap you give
yourself; but Miss Kitty' slopes, and don't get hurt. Also
the villanous small black ant and poison-spiders as big as
hazel-nuts—aye, and larger. 'Tis scarcely a week since one
of our men had to come to camp off picket ; he was bit while
asleep by one of them under the eye, and his whole face
and neck swelled up, The doctor gave him a lotion which
reduced the swelling, but it was very painful, accompanied
with sickness and nausea. We see no snakes, which is very
strange; nor did we while on the march through a wild
rocky country, which places they do most congregate in.
Around Murfreesborough the woods were alive with squir-
rels, quite tame ; the brown and ground, also the fox and
gray squirrel (the latter being most scarce), also the flying
squirrel are extraordinary creatures. One night some three
months ago, about 10 o clock, I was in the outer post on
grand picket, in thick wood where some thick timber had
been cut down, underbrush and branches lying thickly
round, while the leaves were ankle deep. To our right that
day we heard cannonading, and when the officer of the
day came round at dusk with the countersign and rally-
ing call, he told usito be on the alert, expecting an attack.
I was not long on post, the night clear without moon,
when the whole wood seemed teeming with life ; the in-
sects in the leaves kept them in a rustle, the squirrels
kept jumping, running, and cutting up all sorts of devil-
ment, which made me feel anything but comfortable, for
I was trusting to my ears as much as to my eyes. Suddenly
such a caterwauling, such a mewing, never two old Toms
cut up; they were two polecats pitching into one another,
which alarmed me not a little, the cries came so suddenly.
Then they'd cease for a while, and in concert they'd make
the night horrible; at length one or the other skedaddled,
and when my nerves were getting settled, and I supposed
all the devilment was over, a loud chuckling laugh burst
out in front of me, answered by a softer and less loud one.
' The devil,' thought I, ' I'll stop your fun,' when suddenly
I thought of the big horned owls, who do indulge in the
most perfect imitation of a laugh—quiet chuckling one—
ever you heard. I could net help indulging in a quiet
laugh myself, as I listened to them, and thought of the cir-
cumstances which had occurred, for it seemed as if the brave
birds were laughing at the fight the chunks or polecats had.
Those matters, light and trifling as they may read, yet try
men's nerves. In the lone, silent old woods, silent save the
buzz and hum of animal life, on the qui vine for a footstep
sound, the breaking of a twig or a branch, the barking of a
dog or sudden flight of birds, anything to mark the coming
0.60111(3 sneaking hound who'll prowl round to shoot the
,yicicets down, has a certain effect...ono soldies,asho, has
tail& iokceptiten and rifle to save
him, which I could not well describe, 1,6 t
selt in the peculiar position you may have a tolerable clear
idea of it. It is now night, and in the solemn stillness I
try to finish my letter, writing in a—you would not guess
in a twelvemonth—graveyard, on a tombstone, alongside
of which we are encamped, and far from the noisy talk of
my comrades, who are all exulting in the daily arrival of
favourable news. Morgan's raid into Indiana gave most
of the Indiana boys intense satisfaction. Strange yet true,
for the Copperheads, or Northern traitors, suffered most
in loss of personal property, and the very fact of their
losing fine horses, their mills, steam and water power,
burnt down, corn, meat, and money being taken from
them, fully compensated the hoosiers here for any loss
they or their friends may have sustained at home, and by
all accounts Morgan and his men were more brutal and
harder on the Northern Southern sympathiser' than on the
Union men. They (Southern soldiers) despise them for
mean, low-flung, cowardly dogs, that would not come out
like men to fight. By telegram to-night we learn that
Morgan's, Bazil's, Duke's, and other of the guerilla leaders'
race is run; they're taken prisoners; I hope sincerely 'tis
true. Also that only 300 of from 5,000 to 6,000 which the
rebels took into Indiana with them escaped to Virginia, but
have not yet cleared our lines there. Little Rock,' the
capital city of Arkansas, has been captured by a Gen. Blunt,
and Price has been whipped at Helena while trying to get
troops to Vicksburg. The good cause is progressing; we
have had a favourable summer so far ; not extremely hot,
with plenty of rain to give men and animals water and keep
up what the Americans call a ' big river'—i.e., plenty of
water for the boats to run. We learn through a New York
paper that Louis Napoleon has acknowledged the Southern
Confederacy, and the same paper in a leading article
breathes war to the knife against France, with a big army
for Mexico to clear the Johnny Crapeauds out• It would
be very popular here—such a war would, surely, for the
Americans have been looking with a suspicious and angry
eye on France's interference with Mexico, and their talk
was, Wait awhile, we'll fix him one of these days.' They'll
do it if they go about it, for they're able. Candle's going
out—phew 1 look out for ghosts!"