As it has been some time since I wrote you I will indeavor to write you a few lines We have mooved Camp some what since I last wrote We marched for five days and as hard marching as I have done since I have been in the service One day we started on the march and had got to be 4 oclock in the afternoon and we began to cross streams

And we kept on doing so untill 10 we would only go a few rods before into an other and you would not be out 15 minutes before your cloths would be frose stiff Sometimes as deep I feet And I suppose you know that at this time of the year the water is quite cold to be in We are laying here on the Tenn river waiting for transports to take us some place I do not know where One thing is quite certain that we shall not have much more trouble from Hood & Co with out he gets heavy reinforcements from some other quarter All that served his army

From annihilation was Forests [i.e., General Nathan B. Forrest] Cav he could not have crossed the river if it had not been that he came in time to save I have got no where I cannot get mail or paper or have not had any since I came here I suppose it will come down the river soon we just got a boat load of hard tack in time to save robbing the citisens but we draw more or less from them all of the time we are quite comfortable for clothing so far I marched 2 days with my toes on the ground because I could not draw them from the goverment I tell you it was tough

You do not know how much a soldier has to indure in the field all of the time persueing or persued by the enemy but if I was there I could give you a few illustrations if I was at home I suppose H. I tell some pretty hard stories about soldiering but I do not think he has seem more than the first camp of a new Regt to what I have but my time drawing closer & closer when I shall be at home
I will close good by write soon and the news

H E Randall