of the scouting party, ordered him to narrate the whole affair.  The lieutenant could not say how many Federal cavalry there were, but there must have been from three to five hundred, from the rattling of sabers and the volume of sound embodied in their unearthly yells.  At all events, their charge was terrific, and his wonder was that any of his men escaped.  How many of the Federals had fallen it was impossible to estimate, but some were seen to fall, &c.

When Morgan had learned the whole story, with the embellishments, he dismissed the lieutenant.  But the story was too good to keep, and by morning the scare and its cause were fully ventilated, greatly to the chagrin of Major Bennett’s battalion, to which the routed men belonged.  They were questioned daily about “those three hundred Yankees who made that terrific charge;” and whenever a loud noise of any kind was made, even by a mule, it was asked, with a serious face, if that was equal to “the unearthly yells of the Yankees.”  Indeed, for weeks, “the three hundred Yankees” was a by-word of ridicule, in reply to any boast from one of Bennett’s men.

Before we reached Shelbyville I met with my first wound,—­though not from the guns of the Federals.  I had chosen a vicious but noble-looking stallion for my Bucephalus, and in Rareyfying him into submission to Rebel rule, he got the better of me, so far as to land me about a rod over his head, and taking advantage of my being for the moment hors du combat, ran over me, struck me with one of his hind feet, and broke my kneepan.  But so excited was I with the contest, and smarting under my defeat, that unconscious of the seriousness of my wound, I remounted, and rode four miles to camp at a speed which cooled his ire and taught him some manners.  He ever behaved respectably after that, though I always doubted whether he was at heart a true and willing fighter in the Secession ranks, any more than his master.  At the end of this race my knee had swollen to twice its usual size, and was exceedingly painful.  With difficulty I dismounted, and for days was an invalid, for months lame, and even now at times suffer from the old contusion.  Like many another disaster, this proved at length a blessing, as will yet be seen.

The state of society in Tennessee and Alabama, observed on our retreat, calls for no special remarks, except as to its loyalty to the Confederate usurpation.  I am often asked respecting the Union feeling in the seceded States, and can only answer, that while I was there I did not see any.  My position as an officer was not the most favorable for finding it if it had existed, still I would have seen the smallest evidences had they anywhere cropped out around me, as I was on the lookout for this; and then my last months in the South were spent among the citizens, where I must have seen any Union sentiment if it showed itself at all.  The truth is, and it should be stated frankly:  the whole people, men, women, and children, were a unit, cemented together under a high heat in opposition to “the invaders.”