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

CAMPAIGNING. IN TENNESSEE.

The following is a letter dated Cam, near Win-
chester, Tennessee, Franklin county, N.A., 22d Re-
giment Indiana Volunteers, Department of the Cum-
berland, July 18 : _

" My dearest, ---,—Four days since I received your
long-looked for letter of the 21st tilt., and indeed did it take
a heavy load off mymind, for I got not a letter since the 26th
February, and none in answer to my sketch of Stone River
(Murfreesborough) battle. However, you did write, I see
by your note, but unfortunately it went astray. I have had
hard work. 1 had to learn the manifold duties, details, and
business connected with the position ; yet I've overcome
them all, and am now nearly au fait with everything con-
nected with it; application, system, and tact are the three
great requirements, and these I employ diligently, having
a thorough confidence in myself and my abilities, which an
American author whose wsrks I was lately reading says,
Irishmen are apt, too apt, to underrate themselves,' I
have done so, but, judging by the standard around me, I
shall never again be so confoundedly silly.
" You see by my address, as you have before this in the
papers, that our army has made a grand movement, sudden
and unexpected to us as to the enemy, and in the course of
a short time forced strong Positions, taking some of them
by surprise and superior tactics, passed rapidly where we
anticipated a siege, viz,, Tullahoma, and now occupy the
rebel capital of this State, after traversing a country for miles
upon miles, wild, barren, mountainous, full of defiles, and
such roads as man never saw. Yes, dear —, by the superior
skill and generalship of our commander, Gen. Rosecrans,
many a life has been saved, to, I trust, return and gladden
the anxious hearts of those loved ones at home. But to recount
a little of my own regiment's doings. On the 17th ult. our
brigade went out on ten days' grand picket, five miles from
camp, and south on the Shelbyville pike; on the 23d got
orders to march next morning, 5 o'clock, with three days'
rations, &c. Weather really beautiful for weeks previous
but rather too hot at times. Next morning up and ready
but detained waiting on General Sheridan's and Johnstone's
divisions, which marched Past; we followed, the former
kept straight on towards Shelbyville, but Johnstone's and
Davis's (ours) filed left, and marched over wretched roads,
through ploughed fields, mid tot rents of rain, to Liberty Gap
(one of the passes to be forced to go south), where John-
stone's men surprised the rebels harvesting, pitched into
them, and by evening they were fighting hard, our men still
awaiting them. We stopped and had dinner while the can-
nonading, &c., was going on in front, but we never heeded
it, nor did it disturb our appetites, for our turn had not yet
come—o does war blunt the finer feelings of man I Towards
dark we pushed two miles further, and camped, and all was
again silent. The rain deluged us out that night. The fol-
lowing morning we marched through the neck of the gap,
two miles, and again halted to draw rations, dry cartridges,
Sec., and dine. At 2 o'clock moved forward, the roads
crowded with troops, artillery waggons, ammunition, and
commissary. Sharp, heavy, and fierce fighting going on
upon our left all day, and increasing as evening advanced.
We, to gain our old position on the extreme right, laboured
up steeps hills crowned with trees in full foliage, and, filling
our canteens at a beautiful spring gushing out of the moun-
tain side, we crested the steep incline, and, concealing our-
selves behind logs and trees, the hills soon took up the echoes
of the spang of the rifles as we shot at one another—we and
the Secesh—across a deep valley, from one high summit to
another—we putting double charges of powder in our long-
range Enfields to throw and hit further and harder. Mind,
'tis regulation contract powder we use ! You'd scarcely
credit it, but to it was, while we kept up a running fire of
skirmishing with the rebels, so did we and they a running
fire of fun and with what is denominated chaff. Go home,
you Yank ; you're no account. You shoot a mile too high.'
Curse you, Secesh, give me a fair show, and I'll bring
you,' Of course, I will, if you do the same; eh I Yank,
honour mind I' `On honour, I will, old fellow.' 'All right,
then, Yank, here you are Secesh shows himself a little
from behind a tree, when spang, spang, go half a dozen
rifles; but ' reb' is too fast—dodges back. Missed, you
fools, you! now give me a show;' and so on; but 'twas
next day all the fun was. We having orders to hold the
position did so, but did not push on ; which 'twould be
sheer madness to do so, as we would have no way of pro-
tecting ourselves, there being no trees on the steep incline.
There we remained cautiously watching one another, and
when the puff of smoke showed where a rifle was fired our
bullets flew in and round them thick and heavy. The sun
sets, dusk, and then darkness, and shouldering our rifles
we hunt our regiment UP, and not being permitted to light
fires, we rolled in blankets supperless, and there being no
rain slept soundly till reveille. Morning bright and watery,
sun hot, close, and very sultry; marched a mile or so;
there was sharp musketry firing, heavy cannonading, which,
with the crash of bursting shells, resounded and rebounded
in deep hollow echoing s from hill to hill, which added to the
grand and solemn sublimity of the beautiful scenery around,
and caused feelings to Permeate through your bosom inde-
scribable—so awful, so awe-inspiring, God help us all I but
a battle scene is terrible, horribly beautiful in its excitings,
of charges made and repulsed, the wavering lines, the re-
charge,cheers—maddening, furious,the tearing and bursting
of grape:and shells through living masses, and the pursuit
and horrible carnage, where all is forgotten in the one sole
thought of revenge and slaughter. Our time has come ; we
pass several regimenta camped who have had their two days'
bloody work performed. That little yellow flag over the tents
yonder show you where the wounded lie ; that detail of men
with picks and spades bespeak the solemn duty of the burial
of the dead ; the saddened faces of those groups of men tell
of friends and :comrades lost, but all is soon forgotten
in the stern duty that is now before you. Men, fill
your canteens (if wounded) thirst is agonising, and, mind,
any man found straggling from his company without suffi-
cient reason shall be shot down,' Such were our orders, and
proper too. We filed again to the right, again up steep, high
hills, the men smothering under knapsacks, dog-tents,
blankets, and our three days' rations; but soon these were
thrown away (not rations), save what little mementos of
home and dear friends which each one took from his knap-
sack. At length we reached the tap, and, marching down
by rail or worm fence (of which more anon). We halted on
the hill-side, and two companies at a time were thrown out
as skirmishers (two hours at a time) ; we hid ourselves as
well as we could by an open rail fence from the rebel bullets,
which flow over and into our company and companies, C,
F, and A, our flanking ones that is, when the rebels shot
too high at our skirmishers, who were treed below us, while
the rebels were thickly concealed in a wood, which topped
a very high and steep hill right in front, and partly on our
right flank, over us. Thus were wo exposed to what is
termed a plunging fire, while 50 or 80 yards further back
we'd have been comparatively safe. Firing seen began
pretty sharp, when one of our fellows called, ' llalloa ?
seise 1, Yes ;we knew ye.' They were the men we fought
in every battle we've been in, and, strange to say, here
were we now opposed to one another again. Glad to see
you, 22d ; how the -- did ye hang together so long ?'
Go to —; there's enough of us left to whip ye again,
you Secesh.' Don't lose your temper, Yank; how's
Mike Gooding (our Colonel, taken prisoner by these same
fellows at Perryville fight last October); is he with you yet?'
' Yes, he's here.' Tell him to come up and see us; there
are some old friends of his who'd like to have him again.' At
this taunt crack, crack, go a lot of rifles, which are quickly
answered. Then silence for some time, save the echoing
report of the rifle and the distant cannonading, heard now
and then far away to our right, which creates many surmises
as to whose corps or division isfighting off there (then 'Posey'
was pushin3 through Hoovey'r; Gap); or the furious burst of