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[370] and proposed to swap horses, as theirs were worn out. Our neighbor trotted out two, and offered them a bargain. One of his horses, however, had a very white head and face. “That one won't do,” said one of the soldiers; “the enemy could see that face a mile.” “No,” said the other soldier, quickly, “that's no objection; for the other end of Bragg's cavalry is always toward the Yankees!” So they took the white-faced horse and went on, satisfied that the rear only would point toward the enemy during the remainder of the war. This happened just as I have related it, and shows something of the spirit of Bragg's army on the famous retreat from Tullahoma.

When General John B. Floyd retreated from Fort Donelson to Chattanooga, he passed near us, and made a speech to the people of the neighborhood, as I have before related, in which he said that he would “never be taken alive by the Yankees, that he had a long settlement to make with them, which they might settle in h 1.” I was telling a Federal soldier of this, an Irishman, when he broke out: “That's all right-we'll be ripresented thar, too!” A lady living near us, hearing that the Federal army was coming, took some corn to the side of the mountain, buried it, and covered the spot with leaves. A few days after a blue coat appeared at the door. “Madam,” said he, “I found some corn on the side of the mountain, which I am told is yours. I came to tell you that you should hide it better, as our boys will get it!” Another neighbor, having lost all his bacon but one large “middling,” hid that in his writing-desk. A squad of cavalry officers swooped down upon him, searched his house, and found the bacon. Said one soldier to another: “Ain't it a pity we're in such a hurry, we can't stop to cook and eat this bacon?” They thought it very sad, indeed, that they should find such a treasure, and not be able to make immediate use of it. Another neighbor had two wagon loads of bacon when the Federal advance was near. He hustled one load across the Tennessee river in a hurry, and came back for the other. When he returned to the south side of the river again, he found that the Southern troops had eaten the last morsel of his first load, and were lying in wait for the second. He broke down completely. “It's just no use,” he said, “to try to save anything in this war.” One day a squad of Federal cavalry were searching the house of a neighbor for plunder. They threw the beds on the floor, emptied the contents of the trunks out, climbed up into the garret, and upset things generally in their mad chase for hidden treasures. While one of the soldiers was up to his elbows in the sacred contents of a trunk, he said to the owner, who stood near, pale and trembling, “What ”

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