.
I ordered, therefore, that not a shot should be fired, unless they
resumed their march and came right upon us.

They remained at the spot where they had halted for perhaps twenty
minutes, apparently in consultation, when they countermarched and went
off rapidly. In a few minutes after they had disappeared, Captain Morgan
and Sisson returned and gave an account of what had happened to them.
They had walked along the road for fifteen or twenty minutes, when
suddenly they heard the tramp of cavalry. They were in a stretch of the
road darkened for some distance by the shade of heavy timber. This
column came upon them, and they slipped aside some ten or fifteen paces
into the woods. Captain Morgan estimated it at about one hundred and
twenty men. After it had passed, it occurred to him that his men would
be attacked by it, and he started back rapidly to rejoin them. The
fatigue of running through the woods was soon too much for him and he
was compelled to desist.

As he drew near to the point where he had left us and heard no firing,
he conceived a true idea of the situation. Stealing cautiously along, he
came upon the enemy, who, at the halt, had gone into the woods also. He
was then compelled to lie closely concealed and perfectly still until
the road was left clear by the retreat of the enemy. Fortunately his
proximity was not discovered by the enemy when in this last situation.

Captain Morgan continued actively engaged in this sort of service until
the troops were withdrawn from Woodsonville, when he was also ordered to
Bowlinggreen. There the men were sworn into the service, the company
regularly organized and officers elected. John H. Morgan was of course
elected Captain; I was elected First Lieutenant; James West, Second
Lieutenant; Van Buren Sellers, Third, or, more properly, Brevet Second
Lieutenant. The strength of the company was then a little above the
"minimum" required for organization, numbering sixty-seven privates.

Immediately after reaching Bowlinggreen, excellent horses were purchased
and turned over to the company, by General Buckner's order, and saddles,
bridles, tents, etc., were issued to it. It was already provided with
the best guns and accouterments, and when the fitting up at Bowlinggreen
was completed, no command in the Confederate service was better
equipped, in any respect.

At this period two other companies, one commanded by Captain Thomas
Allen of Shelbyville, Kentucky, and the other