bered, we were gone, and laughed as we marched to the music of
their guns shelling the innocent woods over the mountain from us.

"After this they changed their tactics, and marched with a heavy line of
skirmishers in front and upon both flanks. After shelling the woods for
hours, we fought vigorously with the axe and torch, felling trees,
barricading the road, destroying bridges, and making every barricade
cost a skirmish and time, for with us time was every thing. The country
was not fit for cavalry operations. The 30th passed away; the 1st of
October was half gone. From the morning of the 26th to noon of the 1st,
over five days, the Federals had marched not over thirty miles, less
than six miles a day. We had done our work, but where was Marshall or
Stephenson? Since the morning of the 29th, we had been anxiously looking
for news from them. Couriers had been constantly sent to both, and to
General Smith. We knew that the enemy were living on meat alone, for we,
in their front, went without bread for over three days, living on fresh
beef, without salt, half-ripe corn, and the luscious pawpaws. If
Marshall or Stephenson had attacked, the army of the gap would have been
prisoners. Whoever was to blame, let him be censured. Morgan, with raw
recruits, badly armed, accomplished his part of the task. About noon,
October 1st, Morgan received an order from General Smith to withdraw
from George Morgan's front, not to attempt further to impede his
progress, but rather assist him to leave the State, and rejoin the main
army at Lexington, or _wherever it might be_."

This writer tells well the story of the campaign in the mountains, and
the reader can derive from it a vivid idea of what it was like. Toward
the latter part of the expedition, the bushwhackers became very
troublesome, and wounded several men. Little Billy Peyton, the Colonel's
orderly, once rode down on one of them and tried to scare him into
surrender with an empty pistol. The fellow had two guns--he had just
fired one at Peyton, and the other was loaded. He answered Peyton's
demand to surrender with a shot from the latter. Throwing himself along
his horse's side, Billy escaped being killed, but was slightly wounded.
His chief regret, however, was that his assailant escaped.

On the afternoon of the 4th, Colonel Morgan reached Lexington. Before he
got in, he became satisfied that an immediate evacuation was imminent,
and he was induced to believe that the enemy we