ruits in Bragg's army, except in the Kentucky cavalry commands. The
two armies faced each other, not more than three miles apart. The belief
was almost universal, in each army, that next morning we would fight.
The troops thought so, and, despite the pouring rain, and their
uncomfortable bivouacs, were in high and exultant spirits. I know, for I
saw them late in the night, that some officers of high rank confidently
looked for battle, and were cheerful, and sanguine of victory.

What General Bragg really intended to do that night--perhaps he himself
only knows--and it is quite as probable that even he does not know. He
retreated on the next morning to Bryantsville. There was no undignified
haste about this movement--the troops moved off deliberately, and in
such order, that they could have been thrown quickly, if it had become
necessary, into line of battle. General Bragg manifested no great
anxiety to get away from the vicinity of his enemy, and Buell certainly
manifested no strong desire to detain him.

On the next day (the 12th), the army remained at Bryantsville, and took
up its march for Lancaster about ten o'clock of that night. It reached
Lancaster on the morning of the 13th, and divided. General Smith going
to Richmond, and over the Big hill, to Cumberland Gap, General Bragg
with the troops which had come into Kentucky under his immediate
command, passing through Crab Orchard.

It was hoped, and thought probable, that Buell would overtake and force
Bragg to fight at Crab Orchard. He did, indeed, come very near doing so.
Sending one division to Lancaster, he moved with the bulk of his army
toward Crab Orchard. He failed, however, to intercept Bragg, and the
latter moved on out of Kentucky.

Thus ended a campaign from which so much was expected, and which, had it
been successful, would have incalculably benefited the Confederate
cause. Able writers have exerted all their skill in apologies for this
campaign, but time has developed into a certainty, that opinion then
instinctively held by so many, that with the failure to hold Kentucky,
our best and last chance to win the war was thrown away.

Let the historian recall the situation, and reflect upon the influences
which in the, then, condition of affairs were likely to control the
destinies at stake, and he will declare, that with this retreat the pall
fell upon the fortunes of the Confederacy.

All the subsequent tremendous struggle, was but the dying agony o