dispatch had been sent to Nashville to the effect that Morgan had
captured Shelbyville, and Murfreesboro' wanted reinforcements. Colonel
Morgan (anticipating brilliant feats in that line in the future) carried
a telegraph operator (provided with a pocket instrument) upon this
expedition. That night (at dark) the column reached Lebanon, in Wilson
county. The entire command was quartered in the town. Companies A, B and
C (of the Squadron) were placed at the college. The horses were tied in
the large yard and the men occupied the building. The detachments under
Colonel Wood, Captain Harris and Captain Brown were quartered at the
livery stables. Colonel Morgan's headquarters were at the hotel. Colonel
Wood, who had been left in the vicinity of Murfreesboro', with a small
party, to observe if the enemy followed, came in, some hours after
nightfall, and reported that all was quiet.

It was Colonel Morgan's intention to have moved at an early hour next
morning, and to have crossed the Cumberland river at Canoe-branch ferry,
about ten miles from Lebanon. Orders were issued that the men should
saddle their horses at four o'clock, and that the command should form
immediately afterward. These orders were not communicated to the
company commanders. The night was rainy and bleak. The enemy, advancing
upon the Murfreesboro' road, came to the picket stands a little before
daybreak.

The pickets were all at a house. This criminal neglect of duty was
disastrous. Before the videttes discovered the consequences of their bad
conduct, at least one whole regiment had passed. Then one of them, named
Pleasant Whitlow, a brave and (always before) excellent soldier,
declared that he would retrieve his fault, or die. He was mounted upon a
fleet mare, and dashed at full speed along the road, passing the Federal
column, unstopped. He reached the hotel where Colonel Morgan was
quartered, just as the foremost Federal approached it. As Whitlow called
loudly to alarm the Colonel, the enemy fired and killed him. The men at
the college had just commenced to saddle, when the enemy approached.
They hurriedly formed--Company C, which was quartered in the part of the
grounds nearest where the enemy entered the town, were attacked and
driven pell-mell through the others, before it was fairly aligned. The
three companies became mingled together, and fell back into the town and
upon the road, across which Company A (extricating itself from the
others) formed