ts of fighting, the
satisfaction of rounding up a Yankee patrol or blockhouse squad, the
taking of some supply train and finding in its wagons enough to give
them all mouthfuls of food.

Murfreesboro was strongly garrisoned by the enemy, too strong to be
stormed. But on the morning of the seventh a Yankee detachment came out
of that fort and Forrest's men deployed to entice them farther afield.
Buford's command was lying in wait--let the blue bellies get far enough
from the town and they could cut in between, perhaps even overrun the
remaining garrison and accomplish what Forrest himself had believed
impossible, the taking of Murfreesboro.

They made part of that ... fought their way into the town. Drew pounded
along in a compact squad led by Wilkins. He saw the sergeant sway in the
saddle, dropping reins, his face a clay-gray which Drew recognized of
old. Snatching at the now trailing rein, Drew jerked the other's mount
out of the main push.

The sergeant's head turned slowly; his mouth looked almost square as he
fought to say something. Then he slumped, tumbling from the saddle into
the embrace of an ornamental bush as his horse clattered along the
sidewalk. Drew knew he was already dead.

Buford's men went into Murfreesboro right enough, well into its heart.
But they could not hold the town. Only that thrust was deep and well
timed; it saved the whole command. For, though they did not know it yet,
on the pike the infantry had broken. For the first time Forrest had seen
men under his orders run from the enemy in panic-stricken terror. Only
the cavalry had saved them from a wholesale rout.

Drew trudged over the stubble of a field, leading Hannibal and Wilkins'
mount. There had been no way of bringing the sergeant's body out of
town, and Drew had reported the death to Lieutenant Traggart, who
officered the scouts. He felt numb as he headed for the spark of fire
which marked their temporary camp, numb not only with cold and hunger,
but with all the days of cold, hunger, fighting, and marching which lay
behind. It seemed to him that this war had gone on forever, and he found
it very hard to remember when he had slept soundly enough not to arouse
to a quick call, when he had dared to ride across a field or down a
road without watching every bit of cover, every point on the landscape
which could mask an enemy position or serve the same purpose for the
command behind him.

As he came up to the fire he thought that ev