"The Yankees are Coming".

Tuesday, December 15, 1863,

This is my last night here. Tomorrow, I must board the train to return to the regiment and see my pards. Elizabeth has put together a small basket of edibles for me to take along. Once I am out of sight tomorrow morning, I will take the contents of the basket and put them in my haversack. Soldiers do not carry baskets. In Big Lick, I will find some small girl and give it to her as a present.

There is not much in the basket and it is probably more than the Hofaugers can spare what with the winter coming on. The woolybears have broad stripes so this winter will be a hard one. I would like to take back a great deal for Duncan, Hancock and the rest. They would proclaim me a swell fellow if I could do that. Maybe there is something in Big Lick that can be purchased.

I am in George's room on the second floor. There's a fireplace here and it feels very good. Over the past few days, I have split a goodly amount of wood for the Hofaugers. Some of it is right in front of me. The mattress has fresh straw and I will spend my last good night to-night. If the trains do not break down, I should be back on Friday or Saturday next. As I have nothing more that a small freight wagon pulled by a horse that should have been buried before the war, I will have to leave before first light.

Elizabeth had made a shirt for George using some cloth that Miss Kimberly had spun but when George left, he forgot it. Samuel made some wooden buttons from some popular. She gave me the shirt and said she would make another for George. Elizabeth has been very good to me. All the holes in my jacket and trousers have been mended. With my new black slouch, My pards will think me quite the dandy when I return.

I have dismissed the whole idea of reporting Addy Stump as a deserter to the provost marshall. It has been too many days since he threatened to ventilate my chest. If I reported him now, the provost would want to know why I waited so long to do so. There are roving patrols looking for such folks. Addy might rejoin the army some day if he is not shot by a firing squad.

I must not write any more. It is too late and I must arise too early. This furlough has been a good rest but there is still a war to b                 A rider is coming hard. I can hear the horse's hard breathing. It is Miss Kimberly riding in an ungraceful manner. "Mister and Mrs. Hofauger. The Yankees are coming. They are coming down the Catawba road from New Castle".


I Send You These Few Lines:


The severity of a winter can be determined by the width of the dark center band of a woolybear caterpillar. The wider the band, the worse the winter will be.
 
An entry or two ago, Tooms had written that there was no war where he was. He was wrong. The Virginia and Tennessee Railroad had long been a objective of the Union. The railroad was a vital link in the east-west communications lines of the Confederacy. At one end of the several railroads that the V&T connected was the Army of Tennessee. At the other end was the Army of Northern Virginia. It was paramount to the Confederacy that the railroad remain intact. It was just as paramount to the Union that it be destroyed.

About two weeks after Tooms left on his furlough, a Union cavalry raiding party under Brigadier General William Averell left New Creek in present day West Virginia heading towards the railroad for the specific purpose of tearing it up.

It took the Confederate command a while to realize that a raid was underway and a longer time to determine its' route and ultimate objective. Averell managed to put out enough false probes to keep the Confederates guessing where they were going and by what route.

Actually, Averell knows that hostile forces are being gathered to beat him and some are quite close to him but his knowledge of their positive location is murky. General Lee's nephew, Fitzhugh is commanding some cavalry sent to stop Averell. Generals McCausland, Imboden and others, some from Tooms' own division, are after Averell.

Whom will get to the railroad first, the raiders, the defenders or Tooms?