The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-08-08

6 RAAAa bacon on the coals, and make the corn meal into dough, which they would wrap around the ends of their ramrods and toast in the fire. When the Tations were drawn they consisted of only seven ounces ot bacon and one pint of corn meal to the man per day and on several occasions even these could not be had, and the men went to sleep sup peEless, and nothing to eat during the next day. The commissary department of the corps seemed to be unequal to the occasion, but this fact is not surprising when the rapidity of the march and deso- lation of the country are considered. Nevertheless, on several occasions the writer's command passed forty hours without receiving any rations, and once sixty hours, so that we were glad os an opportunity to beg at any farmhouse for an ear of corn with which to alleviate our hunger.
 All along the line of march large num- bers of men were constantly deserting.
 Nightly, under cover of darkness, many would sneak from their bivouacs and go of, not to the enemy, but to their homes
 They had lost heart and hope, and had become tired of the war the distressing accounts that reached them of the suffer ings of their families were to them ire sistible impulses to desert the cause.
 Many companies that contained perhaps seventy men each when they lett the coast were within few weeks reduced to less than half this number by this one cause ; so that by the time Hardee's corps reached well into North Carolina only those men remained with their commands who were actuated, not by any "vindic- tive feeling" as Sherman asserts, but by a sense of duty as sternly conscientious as ever animated soldier.
 About the Ist of March our corps reached Cheraw, South Carolina, which we left two days later. Here Sherman, who had crossed the state from Columbia, pressed us closely, and while we were evacuating the town there was sharp cavalry skirmish near the bridge over the Pee Dee, in which General Wade H lamp ton, in his knightly way, with only his staff, charged so impetuously directly into the Federal forces that he drove them back for sufficient length of time to en- able the last one of our men to get safely across the bridge, which we were at the moment in the act of burning. The line of march was then directed through Rockingham, North Carolina, to Fayette- vile, where there was again sharp skir- mish with the enemy, and the bridge over the Cape Fear river burned by our troops. Here the South Carolina state troops old men and boys, who were taken from the cradle and the grave-were recalled by Governor Magrath, and marched westward back to their own state. Hardee was so closely pressed by Sherman that on the 18th of March he to make stand in a strong position between the Cape Fear and Black rivers, near Averysboro, North Carolina, and at early dawn of the morn ing of the 10th was attacked full in his front (for his corps had now faced about) by the Fourteenth and Twentieth corps of the Federal army and portion of Kill patriCk's cavalry, aggregating about 20 900 men. Some of the troops from around Wilmington had joined Hardee's force just the day before, so that the Confederates numbered 4 500. The fight ing was very stubborn, and at first prin. eipally sustained by the right and middle of our line; but soon the entire line be- came engaged. Although we had only a little over one-fifth as many men as the Federals, we held our positions and re- pulsed repeated assaults until our left was turned by an adroit flank movement of the enemy. Our men then fell back about five hundred yards to a line of breastworks, where we were again, later in the day, unnecessarily assaulted. A sharp picket firing was kept up between the opposing forces until about midnight, when we abandoned our position and fell back toward Elevation. h thi. battle the Confederate loss in killed, wounded, and captured was about 800; and the writer was informed the next day by some c: kilpatrick's cavalrymen, who had only few moments before been cap- tured, that the Federal loss was about ? 800.
 Our men were allowed days rest near Elevation, and little before day light on the morning of the Ioth were aroused and forced forward by rapid march to Bentonville, where we arrived early in the afternoon, a short time after the engagement there had begun Tal. liafero's division halted for few moments upon ground that had just been the scene of a fight, and from which the Confed- crate troops had repulsed the Federals. A number of the dead and wounded were still lying about but the surgeons were busy with the latter, as the bloody, rough tables that we had just passed alongside of the road amply testified. Twelve or fifteen wounded Federals had been gath. cred in from the immediate front, and they entreated our men for water, which some of us gladly supplied, even to the emptying of several canteens, at what we knew was an important time. One of our men-a thrifty fellow, who always manages to have things-produced a little flask of whisky, and gave a good drink to Federal who had his leg badly crushed. The blue-coat raised his eyes to Heaven with, Thank God, Johnnie it may come around that may be able 10 do you kindness, and I'll never for get this drink of liquor" We were not allowed to remain long relieving the xut-