ausing it to recoil.
Several good shots were made, but as the little pieces were limbered up
to move off, a line of infantry was discovered drawn up across the road
in the rear of the party--it had taken position very quietly, while they
were amusing themselves cannonading the troops in town.

Hutchinson, Breckinridge, Alston, and nearly every field and staff
officer of the brigade, were in the trap. They tried to escape upon
another road, and found that also blockaded. Finally, sending the
howitzers and the advance-guard across a pasture into the Springfield
road, Hutchinson, with the numerous "officials" in his train, made the
best of his way across the country, and rejoined the brigade. The
advance-guard and the howitzers dashed gallantly past a large body of
the enemy, but were neither checked nor injured. The retreat of the
others, diverted (as was intended) attention from them to some extent,
and they rattled on down the pike at a brisk canter, confident, now
(that they were not surrounded), that they could whip a moderate sized
brigade.

About three miles from town, they met our detachment of two hundred men;
at first (thinking us a party of the enemy sent to enter the town by
that road), they prepared to attack and route us, but finding out who we
were, let us off with the scare. We had already learned that the enemy
had entered Gallatin, and I was especially rejoiced to find the "bull
pups," and my advance-guard--the flower of my regiment--all safe.
Colonel Morgan learned directly from the officer in command of this
party, the particulars of the affair, and was satisfied that all had
gotten away. We at once turned toward the river, and marching, until we
reached it, through the woods and fields, crossed at a ford, some miles
lower down than that which the brigade had crossed. We reached Lebanon
on the same afternoon, and found our fugitive friends there. Colonel
Morgan formally congratulated Hutchinson upon his "improved method of
holding a town."

This was the 9th, and the bulk of the brigade went into camp, four miles
from Lebanon, on the Murfreesboro' pike. As Rosecrans' army came pouring
into Nashville, the commandant there manifested a strong disposition to
learn how matters stood outside. On the night of the 9th, a force of the
enemy came down the Nashville and Lebanon pike to Silver Springs, seven
miles from Lebanon. Scouts were sent to examine this force, and
returned, reporting that it manifested no