bors of all parties to abandon the secret societies to which they were supposed to be attached, but I imagine that my efforts were not successful to any great degree, for I was told before I left home again for the army, that my reported opposition to a secret society of the Union men led some to express doubts of my loyalty to the Union cause. I invited one of the gentlemen who questioned my loyalty upon that ground to return with me to the army; he declined upon the ground, not apparent to others, that his health was too feeble to permit him to be a soldier.

CHAPTER XII.

Retreat to Nashville-Mr. Slate-Pulaski-Major McKittrick discovers a friend-Arrive at Nashville.

I remained at home until August 26th, when I started on my return to rejoin my command, which was then at different points upon the Memphis and Charleston Railroad between Tuscumbia and Decatur. On reaching Tuscumbia, I was assigned to the command of a division of which my brigade was a part, and relieved General E. A. Paine, its former commander. Brigadier-General James D. Morgan was in command of the first of the brigades, and Colonel Geo. W. Roberts, of the 42d, succeeded me.

With the command of the division, General Paine turned over to me orders from General Grant, who by this time had become the commander of the Army of the Mississippi, directing the division to march by the way of Athens and Madison Cross-roads to Dechard on the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, and there report to General Don Carlos Buell, who, on the west side of the Cumberland mountains, was watching Bragg, who had concentrated the whole of his army at Chattanooga. Morgan's brigade crossed the Tennessee river at Florence, and on September 2d, I started by rail to Decatur to collect Robert's brigade at that point, cross the river, march to Athens and join Morgan's brigade, and, with the whole division, march to join Buell, as contemplated in my orders. The direction of my march was changed by an accident singular enough to describe. Morgan reached Athens, September 5th, the day before my arrival, and when I joined him I found a well-dressed and very quiet looking citizen under close arrest near his headquarters, which Morgan explained as follows:

Soon after his arrival at Athens, he received a well written, anonymous note, which described a man named Slate as "a very dangerous person." Morgan was advised to arrest Slate, and assured that if he did so and would use proper means of compulsion, he would furnish valuable information. The writer professed to be a devoted Union man, and insisted upon the prompt arrest of the person named Slate with great earnestness. A squad of soldiers was at once sent to the store of Slate, who was a dealer in flour, bacon, etc., and he was arrested and brought into camp. He was followed by some of his neighbors and acquaintances after his arrest, who spoke of him as a quiet, peaceable man, but when he found an opportunity to speak to Morgan alone, he said he was a native of Ohio, who found himself in Alabama at the breaking out of the war, and since that time had found no opportunity for escape to the North. He then said that two days before a courier from General Buell to the commander of my division was captured near Athens with dispatches announcing that Buell himself had fallen back to Nashville. The information with regard to the change of General Buell's plans seemed sufficiently startling, but it disclosed to me the fact that I had a march of more than a hundred miles before me, my route infested with Rebel cavalry, and an uncertain force of infantry at no great distance to my right, who might easily place themselves on my road to Nashville. After securing this information, I knew there was no time to be lost. Ostensibly to punish the recreant Ohio man, we seized his whole stock of flour, bacon and whatever else he had, and after valuing the stock with a great show of fairness, gave him a voucher for the amount of its apparent value, payable upon proof of his loyalty, and to make his punishment apparently as harsh as possible, we took him with us as a prisoner. It is hardly necessary to add that whatever show of opposition he made at first, we had no difficulty in keeping him with us. After an hour's march, he disclosed his true character,

said he had written the letter himself, and soon after we arrived at Nashville, his vouchers were paid in full without additional proof of his loyalty.

The difficulties of the march from Athens to Nashville were greatly increased by the fact that the quartermaster at Decatur had undertaken to send under my protection to Nashville a large number of wagons loaded with property which would otherwise have been destroyed or abandoned. Several hundred loyal men with their families from the hills south of the Tennessee river had joined me in order to reach the North and escape Rebel conscription. I had also with my column one hundred or more convalescents from the regiments that remained with General Rosecrans, and a numerous crowd of negroes of all ages and sexes, who, in spite of all my exertions to prevent them, had crossed the Tennessee river on the ferry-boat which I had used in crossing my men. Thousands of them were collected on the south bank of the river hoping to cross. The wail of the poor creatures was piteous as the ferry-boat, fired by my order when the last of my troops had crossed, passed down the river in their sight wrapped in flames.

On Sunday morning, September 7th, I moved out on the road from Athens to Elkton, by way of Blowing Springs, with nine regiments of infantry, two six-gun batteries, an escort of about fifty cavalry, and more than a thousand non-combatants, composed of convalescent soldiers, loyal Alabamans and negroes, as before stated.

As I anticipated, the route was infested with bands of mounted Rebels. Information of my situation as well as of my orders were in their possession, and it seemed to me that all the male inhabitants of the country who could raise a horse and shot-gun were out on that Sunday morning "hunting Yankees." We brushed them from our road when they confronted us, but they were numerous and troublesome.

We moved in good order and at a steady pace until

we reached "Blowing Springs," of which I have spoken, where we halted to close up the column. Blowing Springs-why so called I never knew-are a number of large and beautiful springs situated in a deep valley which opens to the north and terminates in the valley of Elk river, which we were approaching. After entering the descent into the valley where the springs are found, the head of the column marched about half a mile, so that when halted it extended along the road which was overlooked by hills at no great distance.

A very exciting and as was thought by others an amusing incident occurred to me while the men were resting in what seemed to us all a very comfortable and safe position. After we halted I saw near the road a handsome log house, in the door of which stood a remarkably comely, neatly-dressed woman. She appeared so polite and good natured, that I crossed the little fence that stood in front of the house and commenced a conversation with her. We were soon both standing in the door facing each other, when suddenly the Rebels on the hill west of us opened fire at not more than a hundred yards distance; with the report the shot rattled against the fence and side of the house; she sprang inside and slammed the door, and as I was next to the hinges the closing door pushed me out of my place and against the fence. The firing wounded two or three men, but upon our return of the fire they fled. Upon reaching the place the Rebels had occupied we found two guns and a revolver, "signs" indicating that probably we had done

some execution.

We resumed our march and crossed the Elk river, about the middle of the afternoon at Elkton, where we struck the turnpike from Elkton to Nashville; I had never marched upon a turnpike before, and was delighted with its smoothness and the ease with which the whole column with a long train of wagons was kept closed up. Near sunset we reached Buchanan's creek, about six miles from Pulaski, Tennessee.