in that the
bushwhacker had been during dinner probably in the cellar under our feet.
The guerillas had great fear of our regular soldiers; two of the latter
were a match at any time for half-a-dozen of the former, as was proved
continually. Should I go back and hang --- up over his own door? I was
dying to do it, but we had before us a very long ride through the Cedar
Barrens, the sun was sinking in the west, and we had heard news which
made it extremely likely that a large band of guerillas would be in the
way.

That resolve to go actually saved our lives, for I heard the next day
that a hundred and fifty of these free murderers had gone on our road
just after us. This fact was at once transferred to the Northern
newspapers, that "on --- a hundred and fifty bushwhackers passed over the
Bole Jack road." Which was read by my wife and father, who knew that on
that very day I was on that road, to their great apprehension.

I never shall forget the dismal appearance of the Cedar Barrens. The
soil was nowhere more than two inches deep, and the trees which covered
it by millions had all died as soon as they attained a height of fifteen
or twenty feet. Swarms of ill-omened turkey-buzzards were the only
living creatures visible "like foul _lemures_ flitting in the gloom."

Riding over the battlefield the Coltons and Paxton pointed out many
things, for they had all been in it severely. At one place, Major
Rosengarten, a brother of my old Paris fellow-student, had had a sabre-
fight with a rebel, and they told me how Rosengarten's sword, being one
of the kind which was issued by contract in the earlier days of the war,
bent and broke like a piece of tin. Hearing a ringing sound Baldwin
jumped from his horse, picked up a steel ramrod and gave it to me for a
cane.

As we approached Murfreesboro' I met a genial, daring soldier, one Major
Hill, whom I had seen before. He had with him a hundred and fifty
cavalry. "Where are you going so late by night?" I said.

He replied, "I am after that infernal scoundrel, --- ---. My scouts have
found out pretty closely his range. I am going to divide my men into
tens and scatter them over the country and then close in."

"Major," I replied, "I will tell you just where to lay your hand at once,
heavy on him. Do you know Grindstone Knob and a white house with green
windows at its foot?"

"I do."

"Well, be there at exactly eleven to-night, and you'll get him. I have
been th