t
scout was your cousin, Captain Fred Shackelford."

"Are you sure?" asked Calhoun, in a trembling voice.

"Perfectly sure. I knew him too well to be mistaken. For the sake of his
father, I sent word to the overseer of the General's plantation so that
the body could be found, and given Christian burial."

"Thank you," replied Calhoun, as he turned away with swimming eyes. All
his old love for his cousin had returned. There was little heart in
Calhoun for battle that day. It was weeks before he learned that Fred was
not dead.

CHAPTER X.

HARTSVILLE.

WHEN Bragg evacuated Kentucky his weary army found rest at Murfreesboro.
This little city is thirty-two miles southeast of Nashville, situated on
the railroad leading from Nashville to Chattanooga. It had already become
famous by the capture of a Federal brigade there in August, by General N.
B. Forrest, and was destined to become the theatre of one of the greatest
battles of the war.

In the Federal army a great change had taken place. General Buell had been
relieved from command, and General W. Rosecrans, the hero of the battle of
Corinth, appointed in his place. This general assembled his army at
Nashville. Thus the two great armies were only thirty-two miles apart,
with their outposts almost touching.

Bragg, believing that it would be impossible for Rosecrans to advance
before spring, established his army in winter quarters, and the soldiers
looked forward to two or three months of comparative quiet.

Rosecrans's first duty was to reopen the Louisville and Nashville
Railroad, which had been so thoroughly destroyed by Morgan. An army of men
did the work--a work which took them weeks to accomplish. But it was not in
the nature of Morgan to be quiet. Not only he, but his men, fretted in
camp life. Its daily routine with its drills did not suit them. Their home
was the saddle, and they wanted no other. Therefore Morgan began to look
around in search of a weak point in the Federal lines. For this purpose
Calhoun and his scouts were kept busy. They seemed to be omnipresent, now
here, now there. They would ride in between the Federal posts, learn of
the citizens where the enemy were posted, and whether their camps were
guarded with vigilance or not. Many a prisoner was picked up, and much
valuable information obtained. In this way Morgan soon knew, as well as
the Federal commander himself, ho