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[459] regiments of cavalry, which had seen but little if any service. He arrived on the 19th of June, and began at once to have his horses shod and his men made ready for a move. He was then but a Lieutenant-Colonel, though assigned to this command as a Brigadier-General, to which rank he had been recommended for promotion, and the appointment was subsequently made on the 21st of July. After some delay and trouble with his Colonels, growing out of the question of rank, he moved from Chattanooga on the 8th of July, with about two thousand cavalry rank and file. In five days he had crossed the mountains, fought a severe battle at Murfreesboroa, and with his two thousand cavalry, by hard fighting and a successful bluff, captured General Crittenden, with seventeen hundred infantry, four pieces of artillery, six hundred horses, forty wagons, twelve hundred stands of arms and ammunition, and a large quantity of clothing and supplies. A Union writer estimated their loss at one million dollars. In five days more he had driven the Union cavalry from Lebanon, captured three picket posts around Nashville with one hundred and forty-three prisoners, burned four important bridges near the city, a railroad station and a large supply of railroad wood, and made his escape from General Nelson, who was pursuing him with a largely superior force. On the 21st July, 1862, the day his commission as Brigadier-General bears date, while he was tearing up railroad track, burning bridges and doing much damage, he was so completely surrounded that his escape seemed impossible, and a telegram was actually sent to General Buell that he had been captured, with eight hundred men; but when the mountain passes were all guarded, and the enemy moving on him on every road, he coolly and quietly led his men out of the trap set for him, by taking the dry bed of a creek, with steep banks, that concealed him from view, running parallel with the McMinnivelle road, and passing almost under the troops drawn up in line of battle on this road to intercept him.

On the 23d he joined Bragg at Sparta, where he was for the first time furnished with a section of artillery, and as our army moved into Kentucky, was ordered to assist in protecting its left flank, which he did.


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