entucky without orders.

While in daily expectation of the arrival of these commissioners, the
sudden irruption of the enemy into that part of the country which was
occupied by his command, caused General Morgan to proceed to the
threatened points. Colonels Smith and Giltner, and a portion of General
Vaughn's brigade which was stationed in East Tennessee, under Colonel
Bradford, were driven back to Carter's Station, on the Wetauga river,
some thirty-five miles from Abingdon. When General Morgan reached that
place, and took command of the troops assembled there, the enemy were
retreating. He followed as closely as possible until he had reoccupied
the territory whence the Confederates had been driven. While at
Granville, a small town upon the Tennessee and Virginia Railroad,
seventy-two miles from Abingdon, and eighteen from Bull's Gap, where a
portion of his troops was stationed, he had occasion to revoke the
parole, granted a few days previously, to a wounded Federal officer,
assistant adjutant general to General Gillem, who was staying at the
house of a Mrs. Williams, where General Morgan had made his
headquarters. The daughter-in-law of this lady, Mrs. Lucy Williams, a
Union woman and bitterly opposed to the Confederate cause and troops,
was detected with a letter written by this officer, accurately detailing
the number, condition and position of General Morgan's forces, which
letter she was to have sent to Colonel Gillem. Dr. Cameron, General
Morgan's chaplain, discovered the letter in a prayer book, where it had
been deposited by the lady.

This being a clear violation of his parole, General Morgan sent the
officer to Lynchburg, to be placed in prison. The younger Mrs. Williams
(his friend) resented this treatment very much, declaring that in his
condition, it might prove fatal to him.

This incident is related because it has been thought to have had a
direct influence in causing General Morgan's death. When General Morgan
returned to Abingdon, he found an excitement still prevailing regarding
the investigation, but the members of the commission had not yet
arrived.

I met him, then, for the first time since he had made his escape, or I
had been exchanged. He was greatly changed. His face wore a weary,
care-worn expression, and his manner was totally destitute of its former
ardor and enthusiasm. He spoke bitterly, but with no impatience, of the
clamor against him, and seemed saddest about the condition of his
c