ndous march, and the
fatigue and lack of sleep for the ten days that had elapsed since they
had crossed the Ohio. Having had no opportunity to replenish their
cartridge-boxes, they were almost destitute of ammunition, and after
firing two or three rounds were virtually unarmed. To this fact is
attributable the very small loss our assailants sustained. Broken down
as we were, if we had been supplied with cartridges we could have piled
the ground with Judah's men as they advanced over the open plain into
the valley. As the line, seeking to cover the withdrawal of the troops
taken off by General Morgan, was rolled back by the repeated charges of
the enemy, the stragglers were rushing wildly about the valley, with
bolts of calico streaming from their saddles, and changing direction
with every shrieking shell. When the rear-guard neared the northern end
of the valley,--out of which General Morgan with the greater part of the
command had now passed,--and perceived that the only avenue of escape
was through a narrow gorge, a general rush was made for it. The Michigan
regiments dashed into the mass of fugitives, and the gunboats swept the
narrow pass with grape. All order lost in a wild tide of flight.

About seven hundred were captured here, and perhaps a hundred and twenty
killed and wounded. Probably a thousand men got out with General Morgan.
Of these some three hundred succeeded in swimming the river at a point
twenty miles above Buffington, while many were drowned in the attempt.
The arrival of the gunboats prevented others from crossing. General
Morgan had gotten nearly over, when, seeing that the bulk of his command
must remain on the Ohio side, he returned. For six more days Morgan
taxed energy and ingenuity to the utmost to escape the toils. Absolutely
exhausted, he surrendered near the Pennsylvania line, on the 26th day of
July, with three hundred and sixty-four men.

The expedition was of immediate benefit, since a part of the forces that
would otherwise have harassed Bragg's retreat and swollen Rosecrans's
muster-roll at Chickamauga were carried by the pursuit of Morgan so far
northward that they were kept from participating in that battle.

But Morgan's cavalry was almost destroyed, and his prestige impaired.
Much the larger number of the captured men lingered in the Northern
prisons until the close of the war. That portion of his command which
had remained in Tennessee became disintegrated; the men either were