arty took up a position on the opposite side of the little
stream on our right, and opened fire on us from that direction. A
portion of our force was shifted to the right of the train to meet the
attack from this quarter, and the firing waxed hot and lively. Our
engineers had seized their guns, and were blazing away with the rest of
us, and our bunch of dismounted cavalry men were also busy with their
carbines. This state of things continued for fully an hour, and I think
some longer, when suddenly, coming from our left rear, a cannon ball
screamed over our heads, followed by the roar of the gun. The
commanding officer of Co. D in this affair (and the only officer of our
company present) was Lieut. Wallace, and he was standing near me when
the cannon ball went over us. "What's that?" he exclaimed. "It means
they have opened on us with artillery," I answered. "Well," he
responded, "let 'em bang away with their pop-guns!" and I think we all
felt equally indifferent. We had become familiar with artillery and
knew that at long range it was not very dangerous. But the enemy's
cannon kept pounding away, and pretty soon a shot struck somewhere on
the engine with a resounding crash. About this time Col. Grass gave the
order to retreat. There was only one way of escape open, and that was
down the track towards Murfreesboro. We hastily formed in two ranks,
and started down the right side of the track in a double quick. As we
passed out of the cut a body of dismounted cavalry came out of the
woods on the ridge to our left and gave us a volley of musketry. But,
being on higher ground than we were, they overshot us badly, and did
but little harm. We answered their fire, and their line halted. The
command quickly went along our column to load and fire as we went, and
"keep firing!" and we did so. We kept up a rattling, scattering fire on
those fellows on our left which had the effect of standing them off, at
any rate, and in the meantime we all did some of the fastest running
down along the side of the railroad track that I have ever seen.
Speaking for myself, I am satisfied that I never before surpassed it,
and have never since equaled it. But we had all heard of Andersonville,
and wanted no Confederate prison in ours. To add to our troubles, an
irregular line of Confederate cavalry charged on us through the corn
field in our rear, firing and yelling at the top of their voices,
"Halt! Halt! you G---- d---- Yankee sons of ----!"--their