came soon after upon the men we were looking for. We could
not prevent the escape of the greater portion, who got on hand cars and
ran down the road, but we killed some forty, and released all the
prisoners. At Edgefield junction, First Lieutenant Jas. Smith who
reached that point first, with a part of his Company (A of the Second
Kentucky), attacked the stockade, there, supported by Captain
Breckinridge who shortly afterward arrived. The inmates of the stockade
made fight, and Smith lost three of his men, and was himself shot
through the head, of which wound he soon died. Lieutenant Niles, of
Morgan's staff, was also killed at this point, shot through the body
with five or six balls. I came up at the time that these officers were
shot and ordered the men back. I saw no chance of reducing the work,
even with great loss, in the time that would be allowed us.

These stockades were built with heavy upright timber, ten or twelve feet
high. They were surrounded by ditches and pierced for musketry.
Assailants when right at this bases, were as far from taking them as
ever. There was a plan, which I am satisfied would have been successful
against them, but I never saw it tried, viz.: to construct bundles of
bushwood large enough to shelter a man and compact enough to stop a
musket ball, and place a sufficient number of them in the hands of the
men, who holding them in front, should advance and press them against
the loop-holes--of course riflemen would have to be posted in range, to
prevent a sally on the bundle-carriers. The fire from the stockade
having been thus stopped, the walls could be chopped down with axes, or
brush, in large quantities, could be set on fire and tossed over among
the defenders, until they concluded to surrender. This plan, however,
would require plenty of time, and that is just what partisan cavalry
have least of on such occasions.

Colonel Morgan was much attached to both Smith and Niles, and it was
with great difficulty that he could be dissuaded from continuing to
attack until the stockade was taken. Lieutenant Smith had been one of
the best soldiers in the squadron, and had given universal satisfaction
by his conduct as an officer. He was more than ordinarily brave,
intelligent and zealous, and would certainly have been made a
field-officer if he had lived a few months longer. His men were
devotedly attached to him. The repulse at this stockade made us more
than ever regret the absence of the how