ext meeting, for I felt
that I merited a reprimand, and I knew how severe he could be on such
occasions. He was far to the front, as I knew he would be. "Hello,
Shannon!" he exclaimed, in response to my salute. His countenance was
serious enough, but there was a humorous twinkle in his eye. "Did you
fetch me the fellow I sent you for?"

Thereupon, I related my adventures as briefly as I could. He seemed to
be amused at something or other--I have thought since that it must have
been at my attitude of self-depreciation--and called two or three of
his favorite officers so that they might enjoy it with him. He was
highly tickled by the narrative of my experience with the little lady
in the top-buggy, though, as a matter of course, I suppressed some of
the details.

"Now, I want you all to look at this boy," he said to his officers when
I had concluded. "He ain't anything but a boy, and yet he did what no
other man in my command could have done. He captured Leroy, the fellow
you have been reading about, and fetched him to me, and I've put him
out of business. There's Goodrum, an old campaigner, a man who knows
every man, woman, and child in this part of Tennessee. I put Goodrum on
the same trail, and Goodrum's a prisoner. This boy was a prisoner, too,
and yet he turns up all right and puts up a poor mouth about what he
failed to do. If every man in my command would fail in the same way
I'd have the finest body of troops in the army. And look at him blush.
Why, if these other fellows were in your place"--indicating the
officers--"they'd be strutting around here like peacocks."

"But, General," I protested, "what I did was through my blundering."

"Then I hope you'll go right ahead with your blunders; you couldn't
please me better. I'm going to take you away from the Independents, and
I'll put you where I can get my hands on you any hour of the night or
day."

And as he said so it was--and so it remained until the close of the
war. Especially was it so when Forrest was ordered to cover Hood's
retreat after the disastrous affair at Nashville. History has not made
very much of this achievement, but I have always thought that it was
the most remarkable episode of the war. Under the circumstances, no
other leader could have accomplished it. No other man could have
imposed his personality between the defeated Confederates and their
victorious foe, bent on their total destruction. It was little short of
wonderful.

I remembe