“As soon as the news reached Forrest, his command started across from Murfreesboro’ to join the main column at Columbia.  There was no turnpike, the roads were in awful condition, the horses reduced and broken down, and a continuous rain pouring down.  Two of the guns reached Columbia in safety; the other two would have been brought through but for the swelling of a creek by the rain, which it was impossible to cross,—­the only guns the battery ever lost.  The men remained by them alone till Columbia was evacuated by our forces and the enemy within a mile of them, when they destroyed their pieces, swam Duck River, and started after the army.  The terrors of the retreat from Tennessee in midwinter, the men shoeless, without blankets, and almost without clothes, need not be recounted here.

“January 10.  The battery reached Columbus, Mississippi.

“January 31.  Ordered to Mobile.  Remained there as heavy artillery till 11th of April, when it was evacuated; go up the river to Demopolis; from there to Cuba Station, Meridian, where, on the 10th of May, arms are laid down and the battery with the rest of General Taylor’s army.”

A member of the battery, who was an exceptional soldier, and who still cherishes and venerates everything that reminds him of the glorious past, has kindly placed in my hands some letters which I am permitted to copy and here subjoin, feeling sure that they will prove quite as interesting as the numerous documents of the kind published in the “lives” of those high in authority, although they contain only the experience of a young private soldier, conveyed in dutiful letters to his mother.  Some of these will suggest the changes which befell the soldiers who gave the house-warming in Virginia, and the difference between the first and last years of the war.

  “NEAR NEW HOPE CHURCH, GEORGIA,

  “May 26, 1864.

“MY DEAR,—­Knowing that you will be anxious to hear from me and the company after the late fight, I avail myself of the first opportunity to write.  Stewart’s Division of Hood’s Corps arrived in the vicinity of the Church yesterday morning.  Soon after skirmishes commenced, moving a mile off, and gradually approached us.  By 3 p.m. it commenced to near us, and 5 p.m. found us galloping into position.  Clayton’s Brigade supported us behind log works, which served as an excellent shelter for us from the minies.  The Yankees approached under cover of the woods to within two or three hundred yards, where they made their lines.  As soon as we could see where they were we commenced firing into them, and kept it up until the ammunition of the limber was expended.  They made several charges, but were repulsed by the infantry and artillery each time.  Our loss was heavy (artillery), the infantry not being as much exposed as we were; their casualties were slight.  At our howitzer Willie Brunet was killed after firing some fifteen rounds.  He was killed in the act