A Visit to the 1st East Tennessee Cavalry -- A Proposed Sermon -- Its Interruption -- How ye Preacher is Bamboozled out of $15 and a Gold Watch -- Cavalry on the Brain -- Old Stonnicker Drummed out of Camp -- Now and Then. A VISIT TO THE 1st EAST TENNESSEE CAVALRY. The cavalry had been kept very busy during the months of March and April; the picket-duty was arduous and severe, but the East Tennessee soldiers stood up to the rack manfully. I had been with them on nearly all their expeditions; shared their toils and dangers, until I felt I was a part and parcel of their "institution." Colonel Johnson, at this time, was in Nashville, raising a brigade; the command of the regiment, therefore, devolved upon Colonel Brownlow. The Colonel had frequently invited me over to the camp, but other engagements had as frequently deterred me from accepting the invitation. I was seated, one beautiful afternoon, in the tent of Doctor Charles Wright, of the 35th Ohio, conversing with Colonel Brownlow, when Major Tracy, of the Tennessee regiment, with two or three others, agreed that "now was the appointed time." A horse was proffered me by John Leiter, Esq., and I proceeded forthwith to the head-quarters of the renowned East Tennesseeans. Arriving there, the Major requested that I would entertain the boys, who, as well as they knew me personally, did not know me _facially_--did not know the "power of facial expression." Major Tracy ordered the assembly-call sounded, which was done, and, in a short time, five or six hundred men were congregated in front of head-quarters, and as those in the rear could not have a good view of the speaker, the Major ordered the front rank to kneel, or squat. The boys had been told that Alf was going to give them some "fun;" that Alf was to amuse them for awhile. During the congregating of the crowd, I was in the tent--the audience in waiting. Major T. went to the front and announced that the REV. EBENEZER SLABSIDES, from Middle Tennessee, would address the congregation. A table was placed, and I had taken a "_posish_," with spectacles mounted on my nose, when, just as I had commenced the discourse, by saying: "MY BELOVED BRETHERING," I heard a strange voice say: "We didn't come to hear no sermon--we come to hear Alf. Put that fellow out!" Another voice said: "That's a burlesque on our parson." Still I went on, thinking all would be quiet. Presently a big, tall E. T. C. fellow shouted "Move him, move him!" and shouts of "Alf! where's Alf?" resounded all over. Here I tried to divest myself of my spectacles, but they stuck, and before I could identify myself to the crowd as to who I was, I received a _knock-down_ argument.