ulars--Tolhurst's
squadron--that he had contrived to drive into this trap, this
_cul-de-sac_, surrounded by the infinite fastnesses of the Great Smoky
Mountains. It had been a running fight, for Tolhurst had orders, as
Ackert had found means of knowing, to join the main body without delay,
and his chief aim was to shake off this persistent pursuit with which a
far inferior force had harassed his march. But for his fortuitous
discovery of the underground exit from the basin of Tanglefoot Cove,
Ackert, ambushed without, would have encountered and defeated the
regulars in detail as they clambered in detachments up the unaccustomed
steeps of the mountain road, the woods elsewhere being almost impassable
jungles of laurel.

Success would have meant more to Ackert than the value of the service to
the cause, than the tumultuous afflatus of victory, than the spirit of
strife to the born soldier. There had been kindled in his heart a great
and fiery ambition; he was one of the examples of an untaught military
genius of which the Civil War elicited a few notable and amazing
instances. There had been naught in his career heretofore to suggest
this unaccountable gift, to foster its development. He was the son of a
small farmer, only moderately well-to-do; he had the very limited
education which a restricted and remote rural region afforded its youth;
he had entered the Confederate army as a private soldier, with no sense
of special fitness, no expectation of personal advancement, only carried
on the wave of popular enthusiasm. But from the beginning his quality
had been felt; he had risen from grade to grade, and now with a detached
body of horse and flying artillery his exploits were beginning to
attract the attention of corps commanders on both sides, to the
gratulation of friends and the growing respect of foes. He seemed
endowed with the wings of the wind; to-day he was tearing up railroad
tracks in the low-lands to impede the reinforcements of an army;
to-morrow the force sent with the express intention of placing a period
to those mischievous activities heard of his feats in burning bridges
and cutting trestles in remote sections of the mountains. The
probabilities could keep no terms with him, and he baffled prophecy. He
had a quick invention--a talent for expedients. He appeared suddenly
when least expected and where his presence seemed impossible. He had a
gift of military intuition. He seemed to know the enemy's plans bef