Newton County GaArchives News.....MR. MOSS'S DIARY AS KEPT DURING SIXTIES August 30 1917 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Phyllis Thompson mandpthompson@bellsouth.net February 13, 2004, 12:39 pm The Covington News "This Is As I Saw It. It May Be Different As Others Saw It, He Says of 3d Regiment, Company H. BEGINNING WITH THE YEAR 1861 APRIL, 1864 16....I went and go transportation to Bristol, Tennessee, and then went back to market house and got a plate of shad, had to pay $5.00 for it. At 4 o'clock we left for Lynchburg and got there next morning at 6:30. 17....Sunday, Left Lynchburg at 7 o'clock. Went through 3 tunnels and 2 showers of snow, all the tops of mountains covered with snow. Met lots of soldiers going to Charlotte, N. C. and a good many prisoners got to Bristol at 12 o'clock at night. Went to the Lancaster House. Jim Horton was there and had a room and bed. I staid with him until morning. 18....Staid in Bristol until late in the evening. Heard the 16th Ga., was at Hickory Station, in N. C., 125 miles from Bristol. I went with Dr. SNEED to the detachment of the 16th. They were with Gen. ____ JOHNSON and Gen. GRACIE, of Cumberland Gap fame. The detachment was in a stew, no privilege. Lieut HODGE was there, nothing hardly to eat, and could not get away from there. They gave us guns and had us to drill. 19....I made out a roll of the detachment in 2 companies. We had 82 men. 20....I wrote a letter home. C. M. FRACIER got his horse that was stolen from him when he was left in Bristol to attend to some quarter-master stores. 21....Got orders to go to Abingdon, Va. Heard the Yanks were on a raid, coming through Pound Gap. We went as far as Bristol and camped one mile from town. 22....I went with HODGE and MIC THOMPSON to Bristol. We staid a while there. I went out near the Blue Spring to a brush-heap after a canteen of stagger juice that had been there over three months. I got it all right, but the stopper was nearly eat out by mice or something. We then went on and overtook the command near Abingdon, one mile this side on a high hill. 23....Me and MIC THOMPSON went to Abingdon to see Gen JOHNSON. He ordered us to report to the detachment. 24....Col. WYNN came to our detachment. We had drawn guns and were to drill morning and evening. Col. WYNN got the detachment off home after horses, all but me and DUKE PATTERSON and SKINNER. I went back to Bristol and staid all night at the LANCASTER house. 25....Me and HARDY DUKE, of Co. C, and SKINNER and PATTERSON, of Co. B, went and crossed the Holston and camped where some of Ashby Cavalry were. It rained in the night and we moved to a house close by. It was a kitchen. There about , and in the night a dog gave us a scare. DUKE had an axe, me and PATTERSON a board apiece, and SKINNER depended on his fists. We thought it was a bushwhacker trying to get in, but it was a dog after a beef hide under the bed we supposed. After smelling it right smart we run the dog off. 26....DUKE managed to get a horse from Ashby and rigged him up a saddle, made out of rope and bed quilts. He went on with the Ashby crowd and me and SKINNER and PATTERSON took out a foot after them. We passed through Taylorsville, Johnson county, Tennessee,and camped three miles from Taylorsville. 27....We went on and camped near Boonsville, Watauga County. 28....Powerful muddy road through the shady road about fifteen miles, the mountain laurel so thick you could hardly see anything 10 feet away. PATTERSON said I, a weak man, could not stick a long butcher knife up to the handle the first trial. It was a good road for bushwhacking and a lot of it was done on that road. When we got to the top to the Blue Ridge in the evening, it was powerful foggy, and the pheasants were drumming on all sides. We went down to the foot of the Ridge and stopped with some wagoners, and they gave us something to eaat. The scenery is beautiful along that Ridge; laurel, ivy, and moss covered trees, creeks and branches, beautiful fall of clear, pure water. 29....We put our baggage in their wagons and they gave us some flour and meat, and we went on to have it cooked for them and us. We found a house and had it cooked and we got breadfast. When the wagons came on we got in and rode to PATTERSON'S Factory on the Yadkin River, 8 miles from Leonora, county seat of Caldwell county. We bought some thread and needles from them for their kindness to us. To Be Continued This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/ File size: 4.8 Kb