the oil frozen, he could not make it burn, and he could not possibly
run without it. Colonel Williams grew angry, probably suspecting him
of Union sentiments, and of wishing to delay the train, cursed him
rather roundly, and at length told him he should run it under a
guard; adding, to the guard already on the engine, "If any accident
occurs, shoot the cursed Yankee." Little was a Northern man. Upon
the threat thus enforced, the engineer seemed to yield, and prepared
to start the train. As if having forgotten an important matter, he
said, hastily, "Oh, I must have some oil," and stepping down off the
locomotive, walked toward the engine-house. When he was about twenty
yards from the cars, the guard thought of their duty, and one of
them followed Little, and called upon him to halt; but in a moment
he was behind the machine-shop, and off in the dense woods, in the
deep darkness. The commotion soon brought the colonel and a crowd,
and while they were cursing each other all round, the firemen and
most of the brakemen slipped off, and here we were with no means of
getting ahead. All this time I had stood on the engine, rather
enjoying the _melee_, but taking no part in it, when Colonel
Williams, turning to me, said,

"Can not you run the engine?"

I replied, "No, sir."

"You have been on it as we came down."

"Yes, sir, as a matter of curiosity."

"Don't you know how to start and stop her!"

"Yes, that is easy enough; but if any thing should go wrong I could
not adjust it."

"No difference, no difference, sir; I must be at Bowling Green
to-morrow, and you must put us through."

I looked him in the eye, and said calmly, "Colonel Williams, I can
not voluntarily take the responsibility of managing a train with a
thousand men aboard, nor will I be forced to do it under a guard who
know nothing about an engine, and who would be as likely to shoot
me for doing my duty as failing to do it; but if you will find
among the men a fireman, send away this guard, and come yourself on
the locomotive, I will do the best I can."

And now commenced my apprenticeship to running a Secession railroad
train, with a Rebel regiment on board. The engine behaved admirably,
and I began to feel quite safe, for she obeyed every command I gave
her, as if she acknowledged me her rightful lord.

I could not but be startled at the position in which I was placed,
holding in my hand the lives of more than a thousand men, running a
train of twen