believing it
would be impossible to save both troops and trains, advised that the
trains be abandoned. But Stanley persevered until the attack was beaten
off and the column again in motion. The two trains of cars had to be
abandoned because a bridge had been destroyed north of the station, and
about forty wagons were lost in the attacks made by Forrest between
Thompson's Station and Franklin. Everything else was saved.

And, by the way, Stanley was one of the many good soldiers who were
overslaughed by the big promotion obtained by Schofield. Stanley
outranked Schofield, both as a captain in the regular army and as a
major-general of volunteers, but by assignment of the President, gained
by his extraordinary ability in the arts of diplomacy instead of by
fighting ability displayed on the battle field, Schofield was a
department commander while Stanley was a corps commander, and it thus
happened that Stanley was serving under his junior in rank.

Wagner's division was the last to leave Spring Hill. When night came
Bradley's brigade began to intrench the line it was on, and kept at this
work until nearly midnight when the men were called under arms, and
spent all the remainder of that anxious, weary night on their feet.
While standing in column we could hear to our left the rumble of the
wheels while the artillery and the wagons were pulling out, and much of
the time could be heard the dull tread of many feet and the clicking of
accoutrements that told of the march of a column of troops along the
pike, but there was no other sound--not even the shout of a teamster to
his mules or the crack of a whip. All the surroundings were so
impressive as to subdue the most boisterously profane men. In expressing
their dissatisfaction with the situation they were always careful to
mutter their curses in a tone so low as to be inaudible a short distance
away, for, looking to our right, we could see the glow on the sky made
by the bivouac fires of the enemy, and in some places could see the
fires with a few men about them cooking something to eat, or otherwise
engaged, while most of their men were lying on the ground asleep. Every
minute of those anxious hours we were looking for them to awake to the
opportunity that was slipping through their fingers and grab hold of it
by advancing and opening fire on the congested mass of troops and trains
that choked the pike. Occasionally our column would move on a short
distance. Any orders that