"As soon as the news reached Forrest, his command started across from
Murfreesboro' to join the main column at Columbia. There was no
turnpike, the roads were in awful condition, the horses reduced and
broken down, and a continuous rain pouring down. Two of the guns
reached Columbia in safety; the other two would have been brought
through but for the swelling of a creek by the rain, which it was
impossible to cross,--the only guns the battery ever lost. The men
remained by them alone till Columbia was evacuated by our forces and
the enemy within a mile of them, when they destroyed their pieces,
swam Duck River, and started after the army. The terrors of the
retreat from Tennessee in midwinter, the men shoeless, without
blankets, and almost without clothes, need not be recounted here.
"January 10. The battery reached Columbus, Mississippi.
"January 31. Ordered to Mobile. Remained there as heavy artillery till
11th of April, when it was evacuated; go up the river to Demopolis;
from there to Cuba Station, Meridian, where, on the 10th of May, arms
are laid down and the battery with the rest of General Taylor's army.
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