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384 Norra Carotina Troops, 1861-65.

between the lines. Thus a blue coat calls over to know if
Johnny has “any corn dodgers for supper,” and is answered :
“We have something very good with them.” “What’s that ?”
“Why, Hampton’s beef.”

It so happened that quite a number of. our recent
permanent visitors had been from drafted men assigned to
the Fifth New Hampshire. A call was made one night
to know if Johnny was awake, and answered in the affirma-
tive. Then: “What regiment is that over there,” and from
the Fifty-sixth was shouted back, as reliable war news:
“The Fifth New Hampshire.” The night was very still,
and voices could be heard at a long distance quite distinetly.
This sally was met with: the heaviest shout of laughter re-
membered to have been heard during the war, and as the
joke was passed down their line, it was taken up from point
to point, with merry peals until lost in the distance.

WINTER IN THE TRENCHES.

The winter in the trenches was one of great hardship,
though scarcely an assault was delivered from either side.
Fuel had to be brought in by hand, about a mile, as had been
the timber for the bomb-proofs in the summer. Our winter
quarters, as well as chimneys, were made of barrels, boxes,
or any material that could be had, and held in place with
daubs of mud.

The cases were not isolated through the regiment, of men
who had gone through every movement by day or night, and
had never missed a battle. Some had been wounded, on dif-
ferent occasions, but had managed to return in time for the
next, while others, always to the front, had been spared
from both wounds and disease. The following therefore
is given not as exceptional, but as of a class. At the
close of 1864, the Captain of Company D obtained leave of
absence on business. On the application was endorsed by the
regimental commander: “Approved. Has not missed a
march or a fight in which his company was engaged.” By
the Brigade Commander: “Approved, because deserved.”
By the Division Commander: “Approved, as by Brigade
Commander,” and so on to the headquarters.

Firry-SixtaH REGIMENT. 885

TALK OF PEACE.

Christmas, 1864. “Peace on earth, good will to men?’
No, not yet; but evidently a proposition in some shape is
about to be made from the Confederate side. Rumors have
been current of inducing General Longstreet, who is said to
be a personal friend of General Grant’s, to have an interview
with him, and submit a proposition that he can now take his
pick of the blue and the gray, and enforce the Monroe Doc-
trine against Napoleon III, now. occupying Mexico. The
above is given as recorded in my journal. The U. S. Official
Records show that General Longstreet that winter, at the re-
quest of General Ord, commanding the Army of the James,
finally met him in an interview, and was informed that there
might be a satisfactory adjustment through a military con-
vention, and if General Lee desired an interview, it would
not be declined. (See Mr. Davis’ message to Confederate
States Congress, 13 March, 1865.)

On our part of the line, while the officers were strict disci-
plinarians, knowing that the bravest mob counts for little on
a battlefield, they were ‘with the boys” off duty, and many
lifelong friendships were thus formed in the field. The
writer would thus be asked (in confidence) this winter if he
hadn’t really given up all hope. The most effective reply
was, that we all had the same opinion of General Lee; that he
was as humane as he was brave; that he would not uselessly
sacrifice the lives of men who always protested against his ex-
posing his own—the protest having been actually enforced at
Spottsylvania Court House—that he had often shown his
confidence in us, and that we must not prove unworthy of it;
that when all was over, he was great enough to say so.

On Christmas day, a dinner was distributed from the
ladies of Petersburg to the soldiers on the line, and highly
appreciated. But it was evident that at many a hearth-
stone there was now suffering for food. Home letters to
the soldiers were in many cases anything but cheerful. So
the year closed. Of this period, Captain L. Harrill says:

“During this long siege the men were on short rations,
seantily clothed, and lived under ground, in what was known
as bomb-proofs. They would eat anything. The writer was

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