Battlefields and Blessings

Sunk in the Mire

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
—PSALM 40:2

IN THE FIFTY-THIRD Indiana Regiment’s march to Corinth, Mississippi, the soldiers suffered many hardships, yet moved steadily forward through the rain, muck, and mire:

We were ordered to be ready at 8 o’clock Sunday morning with four days’ cooked rations in our haversacks. The time arrived and the Fiftythird was ready in line to march, but we were delayed by other divisions till nearly 11 o’clock, at which time it had commenced to rain. Such another day I never saw. The heavens seemed to have opened and the water descended in torrents. You can imagine what condition the roads in a swampy country would be in after thousands of wagons and horse and heavy artillery had passed over them. We tramped along all day. Sometimes the mud was so deep that my line would mire. I let the men select the best ground they could, but they were mostly in mud from half leg to knee deep.

We camped about dark . . . we bivouacked for the night, without tents or anything else, and took the rain. It rained incessantly all night, or more properly speaking, poured down all night. I took it for twenty hours without any covering, not even a gum blanket. I was just as wet as one could be made and continued so until my clothes dried on my back.

When I was a boy in southern Indiana, I hunted rabbits with my beagle dogs. One mild winter day, as I crossed a cornfield, I found that the further I went the heavier my feet became. The more I walked, the more the mud clung to my boots. This is so indicative of life. Sometimes our burdens pile up, and we become weary. But God is able to take us out of the mud and put us on the solid Rock of Jesus Christ.

For a personally signed copy of the book, please send 15.00 + 5.00 shipping & handling to:

Terry R. Tuley

1300 Paces Lane, apt 103

Woodstock, GA, 30189

Blessings: Stories of Faith and Courage from the Civil War, by Terry Tuley. Published by Living Ink Books (An imprint of AMG Publishers). middot; 2006. ISBN 13: 978-089957043-3.