15 - WAR AGAIN - THE BATTLE OF NASHVILLE
I had only thirty days leave of absence after which I was to report to parole camp at Chicago, but this I would not do, so I soon set about to raise as many volunteers as I could to take back with me to our Regiment. The Colonel had said "get twenty men if possible, and just as many more as you can. Company H can take all that our Company doesn't need". The first thing I did was to go to the office of the Sentinel and engage it there to get out allot of handbills to advertise for men. There was considerable talk of a draft to be made, so the consequence was a good many of the men were substitutes. They received from $250 to $1,000 dollars.
Many farmers were generous in giving farm products in addition to the cash bounty. One farmer gave two fine big loads of wood. All farm products were high in price. Wheat was two and one half dollars per bushel; corn was from twenty to thirty cents per bushel. The women could care for that grain better than any other crops. Many a women cared for a forty acre field of corn. They were surely as brave in the battle of life as were there son's and husband's in the battles of the war.
To return to our preparations for going to the front, we boarded a train for Chicago. I presented my pass to the Conductor in question and explained that my forty men were bound for Nashville, as was myself. Upon arriving at Indianapolis we went to the Provost Marshal and explained the situation, whereupon he provided us with transportation to Louisville Kentucky, and also requisitions for rations. At Louisville we were taken care of at the barracks where we stayed three nights and two days.
While here we enjoyed an occasion of the most enjoyable entertainment, the lack of which most of us had never before experienced. It was Romeo And Juliet, played by Kate Claxton, and a very capable actor, but who's name I cannot remember now. We were introduced to Miss Claxton, and she received us very differentially. We
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LETTERS & DIARIES
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