l was in
readiness to take up the chase again.

Colonel Streight had reached Gadsden, four miles away, when to his
surprise and dismay he heard once more the shouts of his indefatigable
foemen as they rode up at full speed. It seemed as if nothing could stop
the sleuth-hounds on his track. For the succeeding fifteen miles there
was a continual skirmish, and, when Streight halted to rest, the fight
became so sharp that his weary men were forced to take to the road
again. Rest was not for them, with Forrest in their rear. Streight here
tried for the last time his plan of ambuscading his enemy, but the
wide-awake Forrest was not to be taken in as before, and by a flank
movement compelled the weary Federals to resume their march.

All that night they rode despondently on, crossing the Chattanooga River
on a bridge which they burned behind them, and by sunrise reaching Cedar
Bluff, twenty-eight miles from Gadsden. At nine o'clock they stopped to
feed, and the worn-out men had no sooner touched the ground than they
were dead asleep. Forrest had taken the opportunity to give his men a
night's rest, detaching two hundred of them to follow the Federals and
"devil them all night." Streight had also detached two hundred of his
best-mounted men, bidding them to march to Rome and hold the bridge at
that place. But Forrest had shrewdly sent a fast rider to the same
place, and when Russell got up he found the bridge strongly held and his
enterprise hopeless.

When May 3 dawned the hot chase was near its end. Forrest had given his
men ten hours' sleep while Streight's worn-out men were plodding
desperately on. This all-night's ride was a fatal error for the
Federals, and was a main cause of their final defeat. The short distance
they had made was covered by Forrest's men, fresh from their night's
sleep, in a few hours, and at half-past nine, while the Federals were at
breakfast, the old teasing rattle of small-arms called them into line
again. About the same time word came from Russell that he could not
take the bridge at Rome, and news was received that a flanking movement
of Confederates had cut in between Rome and the Yankee troopers.

The affair now looked utterly desperate, but the brave Streight rallied
his men on a ridge in a field and skirmishing began. So utterly
exhausted, however, were the Federals that many of them went to sleep as
they lay in line of battle behind the ridge while looking along their
gun barrels with fi