While at Nashville the pay master came, and gave us six months pay. This was very welcome, for the regiment was about cleaned out of money. We were, all of us, more or less in debt to one another, and some of the debts were contracted for very singular purposes. Card playing was a great pastime with many; poker being the game most in vogue. But poker playing without money, was considered rather dry fun. So some ingenious chap hit upon the plan of each fellow giving his note for his losses, payable at pay day. There was a good many of these notes in camp, and now that pay day had come, the holders of them were clamorous for their money. We do not know how they ever settled it, as we were not given to card playing ourself, and consequently had no interest in the matter, but we heard considerable fuss made, and several fights occurred over the trouble, which generally was wound up by the participators being ordered to stand on a barrel, or carry a rail for a certain length of time. But now that we had money once more, things began to look a little different in the dress of the men. Paper collars made their appearance, fine boots, hats purchased in the stores of Nashville, and clothing of the regulation style and color, but of finer material, were sported every day on the persons of the warriors. Many sent their money home by express, others opened up "chuck-a-luck" banks, and in some cases won a good deal of money, while some lost all they had. At Nashville, too, we received, officially, the President's Emancipation Proclamation. It caused a great stir. There were many who were opposed to it (we have reference to the army of course), and several officers resigned their positions and went home. The army was better off without them. The proclamation was a matter of earnest and grave debate with us all, and strong and stubborn arguments were urged on both sides. It will be as well to remark here that when the regiment was organized its political complection was of a decided democratic tinge. We had faith in Douglas' doctrine, and many of us thought it a cruel and outrageous piece of business to deprive the South of its slavery in this way. But how different the subject looks to us now. Douglas sleeps in his quiet tomb on the shores of Lake Michigan, while the remains of the mighty Lincoln, the promulgator of the immortal proclamation, the wise and good ruler, "with malice toward none, and with charity for all," quietly rests in the mausoleum at Springfield, the capitol of the state he loved so well. President Lincoln followed the logical course of events in issuing this proclamation. He was neither too soon nor too late with it. He had a host of interests to consult, all of which involved the social, commercial and political happiness of the country. He found the institution of slavery sustaining a great agricultural interest in many states of the Union. Cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco, and other staples, seemed to live upon its labor, and vast European and American enterprises depended on its preservation. The villages of Lancashire, the counting rooms of New York, the mills of Massachusetts, the looms of France; to the uttermost ends of the earth, in India and Australia, the safety of the cotton crop, and the protection of cotton labor, were matters of comfort, necessity and bread. It was not an easy matter to proclaim a decree, so universal in its application, and so radical in its operation, and to the wisdom and sagacity of our martyred President let us record it, that he did not issue the proclamation until justified by the treason and violence of the promoters of the cotton interest, and masters of cotton labor.

But our stay at Nashville was drawing to a close. We had been here so long that it seemed to many of us when marching orders at length came, like leaving home. We had formed acquaintance with a good many of the citizens, and had established very social terms with them, and, in fact, were enjoying ourselves very pleasantly. But the life of a soldier is always uncertain, and his abiding place transitory, here to day and gone to morrow. We had been in Nashville at this time about six months, and it was now June. Shortly after our arrival here, the "weeding out" of the regiment, as it might be called, took place. Many officers, finding themselves unfit, physically, for the arduous labors of the field, resigned. The men whom sickness and disease had rendered unfit for further service, were discharged and sent home, and the effective force of the regiment was thoroughly cleared of all incumbrances, and brought up to the highest military standard. The time had not been wasted, but every day drilling, and manoeuvering had been practiced. The regiment had been relieved of its worthless Austrian rifles, and given the Enfield, a splendid weapon. We all had good clothing, and good health. The first rough edge of our soldier life, had been taken off, and we were now inured to anything reasonable in the shape of hardship and exposure.

So at last one bright June morning in 1863, the orders came for us to "strike tents." We had also received, while here at Nashville, our shelter, or as the boys called them, our "dog tents," and as it may be interesting to some who read these pages, we will describe what the "dog tent" was like. It consisted of two pieces of canvas about four feet in length and three in width. One end of these pieces had button holes worked in it, and the other buttons. Two men occupied each tent, and of course each fellow selected his own tent mate, or "partner," as we used to call him. Each man carried, when on the march, one-half of the tent, in other words each man carried the half of his house roof, and it was a very particular matter that no disturbance should arise between these "dog tent" dwellers, for if there did one fellow would walk off with his half of the house, leaving the other one to make the best of the situation. But happily for us good feeling prevailed throughout the entire regiment amongst the men. Of course there were a few who were naturally inclined to be peevish and irritable, but they soon got over it when they found the majority were opposed to such exhibitions of ill nature. These "dog tents" were about three feet high, and in consequence whenever we wanted to get into them, we had to come down on our knees and crawl in, hence their name. They answered very well for us short fellows, but the long legged chaps found it difficult to keep their feet inside of the house. When we arrived in camp at night it was a simple matter to pitch them; every other man, nearly, was supplied with a neat little hand-ax, and all the labor required in erecting our tents was to cut two forked sticks, sharpen the ends and drive them into the ground, a long straight stick for the ridge pole, the ends of the tent buttoned together and thrown over it and staked down to the ground, and the house was ready for occupation. They answered the purpose very well for life in the field, and were tolerably comfortable.