The National tribune., 1900-11-15
By THE LATE ]. NJ. BRANUM.
Contemporaneous Accounts of

Camp near Louisville, Ky, Friday even
ing, Sept s. 1857 take the present op-
portunity to let you hear from me, the
first chance | have had for week 1t Is
8 o'clock at night, and l am lying on the
ground, TRYING TO write by the light of n
b candle although | ought TO be asleep. as
we have Just closed the most severe march
that green troops were ever subjected to.
We have been marching nearly day and
night since last Saturday night, hut the
present finds me nearly all right. with the
rest of the boys in good health and spirits.
although there has been Il great falling of
in the latter. | wrote the last few lines
from Lexington. and will continue my
story since then. Arriving at Lexington
on Friday. our camp was deHghtful
place for the time. On Saturday we re-
Ccived orders to march at o'clock In the
evening and join the forces that were then
fighting the enemy at Richmond, lay.
When evening came ii was generally I'M
derstOod we were not to go, in consequence
of the reported defeat of our forces. L
therefore lay down in ny new blanket.
with everything close to me, and watched
the stars-the same ones you might see
from our porch at home. | was thinking
of home affairs, and feeling thankful that
| was permitted to enjoy events taking
place around us. Thus far everything had
been easy and pleasant TO me, but was
soon to take some of the thorns belonging
TO the roses L had been handling.
ON THE MARCH.
At s o'clock the long roll sounded, and
eve were called on TO fall in with guns,
haversacks and blankets. | arose at once,
packed my knapsack, to be taken care of
by guards. We marched out of camp in
ranks of four through the gas-lit streets
of Lexington, which showed up as fine
and contained finer houses than are to be
seen in Wheeling. Marching through the
town, we continued out the pike heading
east to Richmond, NY. The dust was two
inches deep, and we could not see 10 feet
ahead of us, and were soon covered as
white as millers a few miles farther on
we met stragglers coming in on mules
from the battle, who said our forces had
been cut TO pieces, and they seemed only
bent on getting back to the city. Strag-
glerS grew very numerous, end we soon ,
met the wagons-large covered ones, |
drawn by six mules-rumbling along in
the greatest confusion and interruptlng our
march greatly.
As we marched on teamsters would tell
us it was no use for Us to go; that the |
enemy largely outnumbered US. We toiled
on. suffering from the dust and want of
water as we could not see the houses or
springs owing to the darkness. At day
light we stopped at a little spring to water
the regiment, it having already given its
it came my turn TO drink I passed on, it |
being nothing but mud. While the regi-
ment stopped here the men all lay down
in the middle of the pike, myself among
the number, being too tired to care for the
dirt. As daylight came on the country |
showed up nearly level, with the pike ex-
tending straight ahead. The farm fences
were of stone, the finest kind of corn
abounded, and fields of fax or hemp. The
houses were two or three miles apart, the |
owners being rich slave-owners, each ap- |
parently having three or four thousand
acres and living in fine houses, with white |
fences around them, evergreen yards, ne |
gro quarters, etc.
About 10 o'clock the hot sun began to |
tell on our ranks, and fence corners were
filed with tired out soldiers from our own
regiments and those of the retreahng |
army. We saw many wounded coming |
along, and the whole road, filed as it was
with wagons, mules and stragglers, must
have looked something like Bull Run.
At IL o'clock we turned off into a de-
preston to get water, the whole force be
ing nearly "gone up" Many were bleeding
at the nose, myself among the number,