the country, for fear of running up against bushwhackers, of
which the country was said to be full.

While one train with the Third was being pulled over the East
Tennessee Railroad towards Sweetwater by a strange engineer over a
track long unused, and cars out of repair, an occurrence took
place which might have ended more seriously than it did under the
circumstances. The train, composed of box cars, one company inside and
one on top, was running along at a good, lively rate. A stampede took
place among the troops on top, who began jumping right and left down a
steep embankment and running with all their speed to the woods in the
distance. It was just after daylight, and those inside the cars not
knowing what the trouble was, and a great many on the top being roused
from their slumbers and seeing the others leaping in great disorder,
and hearing the word "bushwhackers" being called out, threw their
blankets aside and jumped likewise. Soon the cars were almost
empty, those above and within all thinking danger was somewhere, but
invisible. Just then a train of passenger cars, containing General
McLaws, General Kershaw, their staffs, and others, rounded the cut in
our rear, and was running at break-neck speed into the freight train
in front. Those in the passenger cars seeing those from the train
in front running for dear life's sake for the woods, began to climb
through windows and off of the platforms, the engineers and firemen on
both trains leaping like the men. So we had the spectacle of one train
running into another and neither under control, although the levers
had been reversed. In a moment the rear train plunged into the front
one, piling up three or four cars on their ends. Fortunately, only one
or two were hurt by jumping and none by the collision. It seems almost
miraculous to think of two car loads of soldiers jumping from trains
at full speed and on a high embankment and a great many from top, and
so few getting hurt.

General Longstreet's plan of campaign was to move up the east side
of the Holston, or, as it is now called, the Tennessee River, pass
through Marysville, cross the river in the vicinity of Knoxville with
his infantry, the cavalry to take possession of the heights above and
opposite the city, thus cutting off the retreat of the Federals in
front of Loudon, and capture the garrison in the city of Knoxville.
But he had no trains to move his pontoon bridge, nor horses to pull
it. So he was for