soldiers in Kansas.
I tried to protect that old lady, as I would have liked another man to
protect my mother in her distress. I am sorry if I have disobeyed your
orders and I am ready for any punishment you wish to inflict on me."

"My boy," said the general, "you may be too good-hearted for a soldier,
but you have done just what I would have done. My orders were to
destroy all Southern property. But we will forget your violation, of
them."

General Smith kept straight on toward Forrest's stronghold. Ten miles
from the spot where the enemy was encamped, he wheeled to the left and
headed for Tupedo, Mississippi, reaching there at dark. Forrest
speedily discovered that Smith did not intend to attack him on his own
ground. So he broke camp, and, coming up to the rear, continued a hot
fire through the next afternoon.

Arriving near Tupedo, General Smith selected, as a battleground, the
crest of a ridge commanding the position Forrest had taken up. Between
the two armies lay a plantation of four or five thousand acres. The
next morning Forrest dismounted some four thousand cavalry, and with
cavalry and artillery on his left and right advanced upon our position.

Straight across the plantation they came, while Smith rode back and
forth behind the long breastworks that protected his men, cautioning
them to reserve their fire till it could be made to tell. All our men
were fighting with single shotguns. The first shot, in a close action,
had to count, or a second one might never be fired.

I had been detailed to follow Smith as he rode to and fro. With an eye
to coming out of the battle with a whole skin I had picked out a number
of trees, behind which I proposed to drop my horse when the fighting
got to close quarters. This was the fashion I had always employed in
Indian fighting. As the Confederates got within good range, the order
"Fire!" rang out.

At that instant I wheeled my horse behind a big oak tree. Unhappily for
me the general was looking directly at me as this maneuver was
executed. When we had driven back and defeated Forrest's men I was
ordered to report at General Smith's tent.

"Young man," said the General, when I stood before him, "you were
recommended to me as an Indian fighter. What were you doing behind that
tree!"

"That is the way we have to fight Indians, sir," I said. "We get behind
anything that offers protection." It was twelve years later that I
convinced General Smith that my theory of In