n and
the sufferings that were visited upon them because of their necessary
upbringing in a rough and wild country.

My sister Julia was now married to Al Goodman, a fine and capable young
man, and I was free to follow the promptings of an adventurous nature
and go where my companions were fighting. In January, 1864, the Seventh
Kansas Volunteers came to Leavenworth from the South, where they had
been fighting since the early years of the war. Among them I found many
of my old friends and schoolmates. I was no longer under promise not to
take part in the war and I enlisted as a private.

In March of that year the regiment was embarked on steamboats and sent
to Memphis, Tennessee, where we joined the command of General A.J.
Smith. General Smith was organizing an army to fight the illiterate but
brilliant Confederate General Forrest, who was then making a great deal
of trouble in southern Tennessee.

While we were mobilizing near Memphis, Colonel Herrick of our regiment
recommended me to General Smith for membership in a picked corps to be
used for duty as scouts, messengers, and dispatch carriers. Colonel
Herrick recounted my history as a plainsman, which convinced the
commander that I would be useful in this special line of duty.

When I reported to General Smith, he invited me into his tent and
inquired minutely into my life as a scout.

"You ought to be able to render me valuable service," he said.

When I replied that I should be only too glad to do so, he got out a
map of Tennessee, and on it showed me where he believed General
Forrest's command to be located. His best information was that the
Confederate commander was then in the neighborhood of Okolona,
Mississippi, about two hundred miles south, of Memphis.

He instructed me to disguise myself as a Tennessee boy, to provide
myself with a farm horse from the stock in the camp, and to try to
locate Forrest's main command. Having accomplished this, I was to
gather all the information possible concerning the enemy's strength in
men and equipment and defenses, and to make my way back as speedily as
possible.

General Smith expected to start south the following morning, and he
showed me on the map the wagon road he planned to follow, so that I
might know where to find him on my return. He told me before we parted
that the mission on which he was sending me was exceedingly dangerous.
"If you are captured," he said, "you will be shot as a spy."

To this I repl