soon as our forces retreated down the road under cover of our works, the rebels immediately took possession of the house. Lieutenant Benjamin then made a beautiful shot, sending at the first trial a 20-pound shell into the house, setting it on fire. Had the rebels not extinguished the fire the house would have been burned down. On the 20th we erected a flagstaff and sent up a flag in the fort. This created much enthusiasm all along our line. Our fortifications were greatly strengthened by bales of cotton, covered with green cattle hides. We felt by this time that we could easily hold our own against the enemy.

A house on the north side of the Loudon road, from which its owners had fled, was taken possession of by the enemy's sharpshooters. It was outside of our lines, but was near enough to our fort to cause us much annoyance. General Ferrero, who commanded this portion of the line, decided to capture the house in a night attack. This was made in the evening at 8 o'clock, so quietly and quickly that the enemy were surprised, and some surrendered and some ran away. The house was destroyed.

A little incident occurred in the fort at this time that I have never forgotten. I had held the view, with most others, that it is a matter of instinct for a person to jump or dodge if anything unexpected comes upon him through any one of the senses. Lieutenant S. N. Benjamin, the chief of artillery of the army, often reprimanded his men for dodging, and so did General Ferrero, and General Ferrero told a story how a soldier was hit when he dodged; had he gone right along the bullet would have missed him. I had noticed Lieutenant Benjamin on several occasions under a warm fire, and he paid no attention to the whistling balls. On the night in question General Ferrero and staff and about every commissioned officer in the fort were standing inside Fort Saunders awaiting the advance of our Seventeenth Michigan regiment upon the house. We had waited several minutes after 8 o'clock, and began to wonder why the attack had not been made. Suddenly there came right at us a heavy volley from the house. This was so unexpected that down went General Ferrero, and Lieutenant Benjamin was almost prone upon the ground. My opinion is that all present dodged more or less, but none so low as the officers named.

On the 21st, Saturday, the work upon the fortifications still went steadily on. The garrison of Fort Saunders consisted principally of the Seventy-ninth New York Highlanders and Benjamin's and Buckley's batteries. Other infantry was close at hand, which could be called upon in an emergency. From the 21st to the 28th nothing unusual occurred. The enemy seemed to be busy on the south side of the Holston occupying a high knob with artillery, but so far off that we gave it but little attention. With 24-pound howitzers they could nearly reach our own main line. Had he been able to capture the knob which our people had strongly fortified, it would have been very disastrous to us.

Nov. 28, 1863, opened cold and rainy. The outside of the parapet of Fort Saunders was coated with ice. From indications that all observed, it seemed that the assault upon our line was near at hand. The enemy seemed to be pushing troops toward the right of Fort Saunders, and were constantly attempting to force back our pickets in that locality. The location of the several guns of Battery D at 10 P. M., on the 28th, was as follows: the second and sixth pieces were in Battery Galpin, on second creek, enfilading the creek and railroad; the third, fourth and fifth in Fort Saunders, and the first in Battery Noble, on the left of the Loudon road. At 11 P. M., the rebels made a determined attack upon our lines from Battery Galpin to the river, and our battery did considerable firing. This movement of the enemy was to drive in our pickets and to get as near our main line as possible.

We all knew that by daylight we should be attacked with all the fury which General Longstreet could command. Ammunition was brought up in extra rounds, ready for use. Nobody slept. General Burnside was visiting his troops, especially those in Fort Saunders. Two companies of the Twenty-ninth Massachusetts had been added to the infantry. His staff were all busy directing and encouraging the men. It was not until half past six o'clock on Sunday morning, Nov. 29, 1863, that a signal gun was fired from the enemy's battery on Armstrong's Hill. There was then a lively artillery fire opened from all the enemy's guns in position on both sides of the river. Our artillery made no reply. When the rebel artillery stopped firing we all knew that the assault would promptly follow. We were peering through the fog and smoke and darkness to see the advancing gray lines of the rebel infantry. We well knew that in a minute they might be upon us, as they had crowded up to within 200 yards of Fort Saunders.

In front of the fort telegraph wires had been wound round the stumps of trees lately cut down, and this wire, not being known to the enemy, threw them into much confusion. Lieutenant Benjamin's 20-pounders were not well adapted to the short range required to repel the assault, although they were as well served as any men could serve them, so that it devolved upon the three brass Napoleons of Battery D to do the effective work. As soon as the charging "columns by division closed en masse" of the enemy appeared, Battery D sent in to the columns double rounds of canister at fifty yards. The veterans of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Chickamauga began to quail. It was not possible for them to stand such an onslaught from big guns and rifles. Many fell from the deadly fire and others on account of contact with the entangling wire, but then in the fog and smoke, it was not possible to tell why it was that nearly every man in the first rank fell.

To those brave men it seemed death to advance or retreat, and by force of numbers they pushed on, and some got into the ditch in front of the fort, it being some eight feet deep and twelve feet wide; to the top of the parapet was at least twenty feet, and the outside of the parapet was covered with smooth ice. When they gained the ditch they were sheltered from our fire. It was not an agreeable duty for our infantry to peer over the top of the parapet to shoot the rebels below, so Lieutenant Benjamin took a number of his shells, lighted the fuses and rolled them over the parapet into the ditch among the enemy. A half dozen explosions of these shells brought them to terms, and soon something as white as anything they had, was raised upon a ramrod. They were told to enter by a certain embrasure, leaving their arms in the ditch. They came along rapidly, about 300 of them, and were marched into Knoxville. The rest of the charging columns fell back, and the battle was at an end. Four brigades, consisting of nineteen regiments, from 4,000 to 6,000 men, were sent forward against Fort Saunders.

News soon came that General Grant had won a decisive victory at Chattanooga, and that General Sherman was rapidly coming to our relief. Joy reigned in Knoxville, and in all the hearts of the thousands of loyal people in East Tennessee.

APPENDIX.

Incidents (Personal).

At Campbell's Station Sergeant Gideon Spencer, of the fourth piece, had a close call. He was taking his piece from its position and passing along the Knoxville road. A high worm fence was standing by the side of the road and one of the slanting stakes in it hung out over the road so that the