t point, I found Bole
Roberts' horse, with the saddle under his belly, and the stirrups broken
off. As I did not have time to change saddles, I fixed Bole's saddle,
led the horse to the fence, jumped on, used the spurs, and soon passed
Ben again, whose horse was now played out. I overtook Colonel Morgan,
passed him, and found another horse with a saddle on. I stopped and
changed saddles. When we got to Rome, thirteen miles from Lebanon, I
traded horses again, and stayed in the rear with Colonel Morgan, who had
gotten Black Bess pulled up. A short distance from Rome, the Yanks came
within about one hundred yards of us, and told us to stop. I told them
'to go to ----.' The Colonel then told me to ride forward and make the
men push on, as fast as possible. I was the first to reach the ferry,
twenty-one miles from Lebanon. The boat was luckily on our side of the
river. We got into it, as quickly as possible, and left our horses on
the shore. We wanted the Colonel to take Black Bess, but he said no, if
time was allowed he would send for all." This magnificent animal has
never been mentioned, as I am aware, in any official report, and she was
too completely identified with Morgan's early career, to be dismissed
without a description. She was the most perfect beauty I have ever
beheld--even in Kentucky. Not fifteen hands high, the immense power of
her short back, broad tilted loins, and thighs--all muscle--enabled her
to carry Colonel Morgan's one hundred and eighty-five pounds as if he
were a feather-weight. Her head was as beautiful as a "poet's dream"--is
popularly supposed to be. Wide between the eyes, it tapered down, until
her muzzle was small enough to have picked a lady's pocket.

The way it was set on her matchless throttle, might well "haunt the
imagination for years." Her straight superbly proportioned neck, her
shoulder and girth, might have fascinated the eye for ever!--but for her
beautiful hind quarters and the speed and power they indicated! The arch
of her back rib, her flank, her clean legs, with firm, dry muscle, and
tendons like steel wires, her hoofs, almost as small as a clenched fist,
but open and hard as flint, all these utterly baffle description. Her
hide was glossy black, without a hair of white. From her Canadian sire
she had inherited the staunchest constitution, and her thoroughbred dam
dowered her with speed, game, intelligence and grace. An anchorite might
have coveted such an animal. When Colone