I REJOIN MY COMMAND.
Recurring to the meeting of my comrades at Greenville, Tennessee, where
I found them camped in a deep snow, when they had me relate my prison
experience, etc.: They had just received orders to move to Dalton,
Georgia, where I, having no horse, proceeded by rail. On my arrival at
Dalton I found the largest, best equipped army I had ever seen in the
Confederacy, mostly quartered in tents. Our advance line occupied the
top of a range of mountains, presenting precipitous fronts towards the
enemy. This range of mountains was somewhat in the shape of a horseshoe,
largely surrounding Dalton with probably a half dozen gaps, which were
strongly fortified by our forces, except Snake Creek Gap on our left,
nearly on a line with Resacca, a railroad station immediately in our
rear on the only line entering Dalton and our only means of supplying
the army and enabling retreat. I found General Joseph E. Johnston in
command, with General Hardee, his second in command and General Hood,
commanding a corps, immediately in front of Dalton.
Not having any horse and unable to secure one, I met a friend, Captain
James Britton from Lebanon, Tennessee, who commanded Hood’s escort, who
told me that he had several horses in camp, doing nothing, the owners of
the horses being sick and confined at the hospital; if I would come and
stay with him that I could ride any of the horses. This I gratefully
accepted, telling him that I would only do so with the understanding
that I would be treated as a member of the company doing duty.
While on this duty, moving out with the escort one morning with General
Hood and staff, to his headquarters just in the rear of Railroad Gap, I
witnessed the meeting of General J. E. Johnston, W. J. Hardee, General
Cheatham, General Hindman, all with their respective staffs, at General
Hood’s headquarters, which were under an old workshed with a workbench
under it. General Johnston and staff were the last to arrive. After
dismounting and shaking hands with the different generals and members of
their staffs, as also General Hood, he handed General Hood his crutches.
General Hood, it will be remembered, lost his leg at Chickamauga and was
ever afterwards on crutches. Generals Johnston and Hood then moved up
the road about three hundred yards out of our hearing and were soon
engaged in a very animated discussion, which lasted perhaps
three-quarters of an hour. When they returned Generals Johnston and
Hardee mounted their horses with their respective staffs, returning to
town, and gradually the rest of the officers dispersed, going to their
respective stations.