were repairing an accident to one of the truck-wheels of a car. They
had it "jacked up,"' and had all the lights available, including the
one from the rear of the train, to aid in their repairs. When we
struck them they were driven ahead some thirty feet, and of course
their disabled car was still more damaged. Our men were all suddenly
waked up, and some of them slightly bruised. The colonel himself was
thrown down by the shock, but fortunately did not roll off the car,
and was but little injured; and there were no lives lost, except of
three of the horses. But we had a toilsome night of it. The
_débris_ of the three cars which had been smashed up was carried
back through the cut, between the train and the steep sides, and
thrown down into the gorge, off the trestlework. The dead horses
were drawn up the bank with ropes, and the front train put in
running order, after six hours of hard work by as many men as could
be employed in such narrow quarters. As the day broke, the forward
train moved off; in a few minutes more we followed, and reached
Paris by seven o'clock, A.M., December 18, 1861. Thus began and
ended my railroad-engineering in Rebeldom. At Paris they found a
professional runner, and I resumed my uniform, very thankful to get
out of the profession so creditably. Reader, the next time I run a
railroad train in such circumstances, may you be there to see it.

On the 19th of December I reached Bowling Green, and found there a
larger army than I had before seen,--65,000 men at least,--under
General Albert Sidney Johnson as commander-in-chief, with Generals
Buckner, Hardee, Hindman, and Breckenridge on the ground. Floyd
came within a few days, bringing about 7000 more. Others were soon
added, for on the 25th of December the commissary-general issued
96,000 rations, and by January 1, 1862, 120,000 rations a day. The
number of rations shows the whole number attached to the army in