other, and even widely apart, but which lead to a
common goal--and its operations will be more efficient--than if it be
marched _en masse_, by one route.

The advantages to be derived from such a disposition (as regards
freedom, and rapidity of movement, and facility of obtaining supplies),
are at once apparent, but certain strategic advantages besides, may, in
some cases, be thus secured. To attempt it, in moving against a strong
enemy, already posted at the objective point, would be to give him the
opportunity of attacking and crushing the columns separately. But when,
as was the case in this campaign of General Bragg, two armies make a
race for the occupation of a certain territory which is to be fought
for, the army which is divided, while on the march, if the columns are
all kept on the same flank of the enemy, can be worked most actively and
as safely. More can be accomplished by such a disposition of forces, in
the partial engagements and lighter work of the campaign, and the morale
of the troops will be all the better when the detachments are again
combined. Such campaigns might be made more frequently than they are,
and with success.

When the army was concentrated at Harrodsburg, on the night of the 10th
of October, Colonel Morgan was ordered to take position about six miles
from the town, on the Danville pike, and picket the extreme left flank.
Desirous of ascertaining what was before him--as he could see the
camp-fires of the enemy stretching in a great semi-circle, in front of
Harrodsburg--Colonel Morgan during the night, sent Captain Cassell to
reconnoiter the ground in his front. The night was rainy and very dark.
The position of both armies, of the main body of each, at least, was
distinctly marked by the long lines of fires which glared through the
gloom, but we had not lighted fires, and Morgan thought that any body
of the enemy which might be confronting him, and detailed upon similar
duty, would exercise the same prudence. Cassell returned about daylight,
and reported that he had discovered, exactly in front of our position,
and about a mile and a quarter from it, a small body of cavalry on
picket, and a few hundred yards to their rear, a force of infantry,
perhaps of one regiment. He stated positively, also, that one piece of
artillery had passed along a narrow lane, which connected the point
where the cavalry was stationed with the position of the infantry. The
intense darkness prevented his seei