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LETTERS & DIARIES

When we were all assembled we numbered about forty five thousand men. We hadn't any apprehension as we knew how thoroughly Lee was hemmed in. We had regular communication with home which made life altogether different to what it had been before I had been home from Andersonville. We had taken all the railroads in Kentucky and Tennessee and manned the trains with northern men as Engineers and Conductors, the Firemen and other trainmen being Negroes, with the exception of some crippled soldiers who could serve as train guards.

Nothing of special note happened while we waited for action until the joyful news of Lee's surrender was brought to us by courier. Although we had expected such to happen for some time, there were wild demonstrations of joy when the news came to us at last. For the awful struggle was ended and the nation was saved, and home-sweet-home, with glorious peace throughout the land after four years of hell. as Sherman described war.

We remained here for about ten days, then the Division was scattered. Our Brigade was sent down the road toward Rossville on the Big Holston River in the very eastern part of Tennessee. Where we were instructed to clean up the bushwhackers which infested that part of the state and the surrounding country. To go back a little- before we broke camp the awful news of Abraham Lincoln's death was communicated to us by telegram - a mounted officer carrying the message. The sad news almost overwhelmed the army with grief. There was only one man in our Division that was not grieved by this sad and depressing message. He must have been hot-headed and misguided wretch; he shouted "God be praised, it's a good thing". He could say no more for as many as could get there hands upon him, had him in their clutches in an instant. The treatment he received in the ensuing few minutes can better be imagined than described here. He was soon tied to a tree and placard pinned upon his breast with the word printed in large letters- TRAITOR. Then many in passing him spat upon him and heaped curses upon him until the officers removed

LETTERS & DIARIES

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