ad been cautioned to aim low. The column, unprepared for
such an entertainment, recoiled, but soon rallied and charged the hill.
Artillery was brought up and opened upon us. We did not stay long. Our
loss was one man killed. I have never been able to learn satisfactorily
what was the enemy's loss. Many reports were received about it, some of
which must have been greatly exaggerated. Colonel Morgan immediately
moved rapidly to get in the rear of this column. He accordingly struck
the road again, some three miles north of Tyree Springs. Posting the
bulk of his force in a woods on the side of the road, he, himself, with
Lieutenant Quirk and two or three others, went some distance up the
pike, and occupied themselves in picking up stragglers, which he would
send back to the main body, where they would be placed under guard. In
this way some forty or fifty prisoners were taken. Suddenly Stokes'
regiment came up the road from toward Tyree Springs, and drove the
detachment immediately upon the road, consisting of about fifty men,
back to the main body, thus cutting off Colonel Morgan and his party.
Couriers were immediately sent to Colonel Morgan to warn him of his
danger, but they did not reach him. He was returning, however, about
that time, and quickened his pace when he heard a few shots fired. He
was bringing back some ten or twelve prisoners. He, Lieutenant Quirk,
and one or two men, forming the head of a column, of which the prisoners
composed the body. Suddenly he rode right into this Federal regiment. He
was, of course, halted and questioned. He stated that he was a Federal
Colonel, that his regiment was only a short distance off, and that the
prisoners with him were men he had arrested for straggling. His
questioners strongly doubted his story, and said that his dress was a
very strange one for a Federal Colonel, that rebels often wore blue
clothes, but they had never heard of their officers wearing gray. The
prisoners, who knew him, and never doubted that he would be now captured
in his turn, listened, grinning, to the conversation, but said nothing.
He suddenly pretended to grow angry, said that he would bring his
regiment to convince them who he was, and galloped away. Quirk followed
him. Before an effort could be made to stop them, they leaped their
horses over the fence, and struck, at full speed, across the country. In
the course of an hour they rejoined the rest of us, and relieved our
minds of very grave appreh