little rise three or four hundred yards off notified
the videttes of their vicinity. They did not see us, and we immediately
dismounted and posted ourselves in the thickets on both sides of the
road, sending the horses to the rear under charge of eight or ten men.
No plan of battle was adopted, although many were proposed--the various
suggestions, however, that were thrown out, in the inspiration of the
moment are lost to history. I remember, however, that one man gave it
as his decided opinion, that we ought to charge them immediately on
horseback, and he then rode rapidly back to Green river to report the
situation to Colonel Hanson. Enjoining silence on the talkative, Captain
Morgan went forward on foot to a house, about one hundred and forty or
fifty yards in front of our position, and looked out from a window,
which commanded a full view of their approach, upon the enemy. He saw a
body of sixty or seventy, but this came so close upon him that he was
compelled to leave the house before he could discover whether it was the
advance of another and larger body, or was unsupported. Fortunately he
effected his retreat from the house and rejoined his party without
discovery by the enemy. The latter continued to march on, past the
house, and toward our position, until, within forty or fifty yards of
us, something discovered us to them and they halted. Captain Morgan
immediately stepped out into the road, fired at and shot the officer
riding at the head of the column. Without returning the fire his men
fell back to the house before mentioned, situated on a long low knoll,
through which, to the left of the house as we faced, was a cut of the
railroad. This afforded a pretty good position and one which we should
have taken ourselves. Here they deployed and opened a volley upon us,
which would have been very fatal if we had been in the tops of instead
of behind the trees. Both sides then continued to load and fire rapidly.
With us, every man ought to have behaved well, for each acted upon his
own responsibility. Captain Morgan with a few of the more enterprising,
and one or two personal followers who always kept close to him, worked
his way very nigh to the enemy, and did the only shooting that was
effective. We had neither drill nor any understanding among ourselves.
The fight was much like a camp-meeting, or an election row. After it had
lasted about ten or twelve minutes, an intelligent horse-holder came up
from the rear, brea