decided alone by the superiority of the pistol over the
saber, where the opposing columns had crossed each other in the charge
and, wheeling, had mingled in the fight.

But the Rangers were compelled to discard the carbine and the saber for
other reasons than their inferiority in the hand-to-hand conflict. It
was always their policy to take the enemy by surprise if possible. Their
favorite plan was to wind their way through the Federal pickets during
the night, and make the attack at break of day. The rattling of the
carbine and saber would have made it impossible to execute these
movements with the silence necessary to success. To the uninitiated it
would be surprising to see with what noiseless secrecy these manoeuvers
could be accomplished. Only whispered commands were necessary from the
officers, and the presence of danger insured silence in the ranks. This
silence, which was observed so long as silence was proper, served to
make the charge, with its shout and its cheer, the more terrible to the
foe.

But it must not be imagined the Rangers were always successful. They
were themselves sometimes surprised, sometimes repulsed. Nothing else
could be expected from almost daily encounters in a country abandoned to
the enemy. There were occasions when they were saved from total ruin
only by their knowledge of the country and the swiftness of their
steeds.

A ROMANCE OF MORGAN'S ROUGH-RIDERS

THE RAID, THE CAPTURE, AND THE ESCAPE

I. THE RAID

BY BASIL W. DUKE

In the summer of 1863, when, at Tullahoma, Tennessee, General Bragg's
army was menaced by superior numbers in flank and rear, he determined to
send a body of cavalry into Kentucky, which should operate upon
Rosecrans's communications between Nashville and Louisville, break the
railroads, capture or threaten all the minor depots of supplies,
intercept and defeat all detachments not too strong to be engaged, and
keep the enemy so on the alert in his own rear that he would lose or
neglect his opportunity to embarrass or endanger the march of the army
when its retrograde movement began. He even hoped that a part of the
hostile forces before him might be thus detained long enough to prevent
their participation in the battle which he expected to fight when he
crossed the Tennessee.

The officer whom he selected to accomplish this diversion was General
John H. Morgan, whose division of mounted riflemen was well fitted for
the work in hand. Equal i