D.

All through the month of April General Halleck had been concentrating the
mighty armies of almost the entire West for the purpose of crushing
Beauregard at Corinth. For a month the two armies lay but a few miles
apart, almost daily skirmishes taking place between the outposts.

During the month General O. M. Mitchell had overrun Middle Tennessee, and
was holding the Memphis and Charleston railroad from Decatur to
Bridgeport, Alabama. Two railroads led south from Nashville, Tennessee,
both connecting with the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, one at Decatur,
and the other at Stevenson, Alabama. Both of these roads were of vital
importance to General Mitchell, for on them he depended for transportation
for the sustenance of his army.

These roads had been badly damaged by the Confederate army when it
retreated from Nashville, and General Mitchell was busily engaged in
repairing them. If repaired and held, it meant that Chattanooga must fall,
and the Confederate army be driven still farther south.

John H. Morgan, now promoted to a colonelcy, believed that with a small
force the rear of the Federal army could be raided, the railroads cut,
bridges burned, and their communications so destroyed that they would be
forced to fall back. General Beauregard was not so sanguine. While great
damage might be done, and the Federal army subjected to much
inconvenience, the contest, after all, would have to be decided by the
great armies. Then he needed every man, as Halleck was about to move.

At last he gave Morgan permission to make his raid, but with a force not
to exceed five hundred.

It was in the last days of April that Morgan started with his little
force, on what seemed to many certain destruction. But every man in the
command was full of enthusiasm. They had unlimited faith in their leader,
and where he went they would follow.

Following almost the exact route taken by Calhoun, Morgan's first blow
fell on Pulaski, Tennessee. So swift and unexpected had been his movements
that the Federals were taken completely by surprise. The place was
surrendered without a struggle.

Moving rapidly north, the command attacked and, without any loss, captured
a wagon-train en route from Columbia to Athens. Thus at the very
commencement of his raid, Morgan captured Pulaski, with all its military
stores, a wagon-train, and some two hundred and seventy prisoners, and
this without the loss of a man. Among the prisoners captured were