3. Have requested General Mitchell to relieve me from duty as Provost Marshal; am now wholly unfit to do business.

We have heard of the evacuation of Corinth. The simple withdrawal of the enemy amounts to but little, if anything; he still lives, is organized and ready to do battle on some other field.

5. Go home on sick leave.

25. There were three little girls on the Louisville packet, about the age of my own children. They were great romps. I said to one, “what is your name?” She replied “Pudin’ an’ tame.” So I called her Pudin’, and she became very angry, so angry indeed that she cried. The other little girls laughed heartily, and called her Pudin’ also, and then asked my name. I answered John Smith; they insisted then that Pudin’ was my wife, and called her Pudin’ Smith. This made Pudin’ furious, and she abused her companions and me terribly; but John Smith invested a little money in cherries, and thus pacified Pudin’, and so got to Louisville without getting his hair pulled. I saw no more of Pudin’ until she got off the cars at Elizabethtown. Going up to her, we shook hands, and I said, “Good-by, Pudin’.” She hung her head for a moment, and tried to look angry, but finally breaking into a laugh she said, “I don’t like you at all any way, good-by.”

27. Reached Huntsville. The regiment in good condition, boys well; weather hot. General Buell arrived last night. McCook’s Division is here; Nelson, Crittenden, and Wood on the road hither.