the column at length came up, the enemy had abandoned the chase and
returned. That evening we marched through their deserted camp. Passing
through Greenville the next morning, which the enemy had evacuated the
night before, we reached Lick creek about 4 P.M. The enemy showed
themselves on the further side, but did not contest our passage. A mile
or a mile and a half in front of the gap we came upon them again, about
twelve hundred strong. General Breckinridge ordered me to attack. I did
so and in a short time drove them into the gap. They came out twice and
were as often driven back. General Vaughan had been sent to demonstrate
in the rear of the gap, and the dismounted men had not gotten up. After
the third trial outside of the works, the enemy contented himself with
shelling us. I witnessed, then, a singular incident. One man was
literally set on fire by a shell. I saw what seemed a ball of fire fall
from a shell just exploded and alight upon this poor fellow. He was at
once in flames. We tore his clothing from him and he was scorched and
seared from head to foot.

All that night we stood in line upon the ground we occupied when it
fell. The enemy's pickets were a short distance in our front and fired
at every movement. During the night the artillery arrived and was
posted upon a commanding position protected by my line. The dismounted
men also arrived during the night.

On the next morning, at day light, the dismounted men and one hundred
and fifty of my brigade, in all some five hundred men, were moved to the
extreme right to assault the gap from that quarter. General Vaughan was
instructed to attack it in the rear, and Colonel George Crittenden was
posted to support the artillery, with one hundred and eighty men, and to
demonstrate in front. The right was the real point of attack. General
Breckinridge hoped to carry the works there, and the other movements
were intended as diversions. The enemy's force, as shown by captured
field returns, was about twenty-five hundred men.

Climbing up the steep mountain side, the party sent to the right gained
the ridge a little after daybreak. The position to be assaulted was
exceedingly strong. Two spurs of the hill (on which the fortifications
were erected) run out and connect with the mountain upon which we were
formed. Between them is an immense ravine, wide and deep. The summits of
these spurs are not more than forty yards wide, and their sides are
rugged and steep. Across