southern plantation, instead of a
main road, and I had been placed on picket near the last
turn before striking the quarter stretch. A small party of
Confederates, who had been out on a scout, and got lost, had
come on the track further down, near the judges' stand, and
they had put a man, on picket up near where I was, supposing
they had struck the road, and intending to wait until
morning so as to find out where they were. My horse was an
old race horse, and as soon as he saw the other horse, he
was in for a race and the other horse was willing. This will
show the situation as well as though I had a race track
engraved, showing the positions of the two armies. The
Confederates, except the man on picket, were asleep beside
the track near the quarter stretch, and our fellows, except
myself, were asleep over by the three-quarter pole.]

I do not suppose any man on this earth, or any other earth, ever tried
to stop a fool horse quite as hard as I did that one. I pulled until my
arms ached, but he went for all that was out, and the horse ahead of
me was buckling in as fast as he could. I could not help wondering what
would happen if I should overtake that Southern man. I was gaining on
him, when suddenly eight or nine men who were sleeping beside the road,
got up and began to shoot at us. They were the friends of the rebel, who
believed that the whole Union army was making a charge on them. We got
by the shooters alive, and then, as we passed the rickety old judge's
stand, I realized that we were on a race track, and for a moment I
forgot that I was a soldier, and only thought of myself as a rider of
a race horse, and I gave the horse his head, and kicked him, and yelled
like a Comanche Indian, and I had the satisfaction of seeing my horse
go by the rebel, and I yelled some more. I got a glimpse of my rebel's,
face as I went by him, and he didn't look much more like a fighting man
than I did, but he was, for as soon as I had got ahead of him he drew
a revolver and began firing at me on the run. I thought that was a mean
trick, and spoke to him about it afterwards, but he said he only wanted
me to stop so he could get acquainted with me.

[Illustration: On went the two night riders 039]

Well, I never could find any bullets in any of the clothes strapped on
the back of my saddle, but it _did_ seem to me as though every bullet
from his revolver hit ver