with his twenty men, in the
rear of the pickets on post, and then fire a gun. At this signal, the
Major was to dash down with his battalion, and, picking up the pickets,
charge down upon the base and reserve. In the meantime, Morgan expected
to entertain the latter with an unlooked-for volley. It was proposed to
push the plan as far as possible, even, if the first features were
successfully and quickly executed, to an attack upon the camps.

But it happened that some five miles from Nolin, one of the country
fellows, who was in the habit of running into the Federal lines at our
approach, was surprised and arrested by Captain Morgan who was in the
advance.

The women of whom there were several in the house where he was taken,
made a terribly outcry and noise, and would not be pacified.

Captain Morgan moved on, but was shortly afterward informed by one of
the men, that the Tennessee battalion had turned back. He rode to the
Major and urged, but unsuccessfully, that the plan should not be
abandoned. Determined, then, to go forward himself, he proceeded to the
point where the pickets on the extreme front had usually stood, but they
were gone. He halted his detachment here, and taking with him one of his
best and most trusted men (private, afterward Captain John Sisson),
started down the road on foot to reconnoiter. He had been gone but a
short time, when the rear guard of the Tennessee battalion, about twenty
strong, came up; it was commanded by Captain, afterward Colonel, Biffel.
It seemed that the Major had conceived that the shrieks of the women
would notify the enemy of his coming, and prevent his plan of surprising
the picket posts and base from succeeding.

Finding that Morgan had still gone on, Biffel took advantage of his
position in the rear of the returning battalion and came to support him.
As soon as he got up and learned why we were halted, he turned into the
thicket with his detachment, on the side of the road, opposite to that
occupied by Morgan's. Just as he was doing this, a Federal column of
cavalry came up the road, and hearing the noise of horses forcing they
way through the brush, halted about one hundred yards from the point
where we lay. The night was clear, and we could easily distinguish them
in the moonlight. I had been left in command of the detachment, and
would not permit the men to fire, lest it should endanger Captain
Morgan's safety, who, if we were driven off, would probably be captured