To the great Volunteer State, Tennessee, belongs the credit of having produced, in many respects, the most remarkable cavalry leader in the world—Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was born near Duck River, at a little hamlet called Chapel Hill, then in Bedford County, Tennessee, but now comprised within the boundaries of Marshall County. Scotch-Irish and English blood flowed through the veins of this great warrior. This strain rarely fails to produce courage, fortitude and enterprise.

When Nathan Bedford Forrest was thirteen years of age, the financial affairs of his father, William Forrest, had gone awry. Leaving Tennessee with seven children, he entered a homestead in Tippah County, North Mississippi, a region which had just been opened to settlement through a purchase by the Federal Government from the Chickasaw Indians. The magical hand of immigration had as yet done little for this region. The Indians had hunted over the lands, but civilization had not given it prosperity and fitted it for the homes of peaceful agriculturists.

Death, with rude hand and pitiless dart, cut down the father, William Forrest. His oldest boy, not sixteen years of age, became the head of his family, including his mother, six brothers and three sisters, and then four months after the father had passed away, there came a posthumous boy, Jeffrey, who, on the 22nd day of February, 1864, was to die a soldier’s death at Okolona, Mississippi, resisting Sooy Smith’s raid. In the supreme moment of dissolution his valiant and heroic brother pressed his dying form to his heart and imprinted upon his cheek, now damp with the death sweat, a last kiss of affection and love. The death of this young brother, upon whom Forrest lavished an immeasurable wealth of tenderness, was the greatest blow the war brought to his fearless heart.

Forrest, deprived of education by the calls of filial duty, secured only such learning as could be obtained at a primary school in Middle Tennessee and in Mississippi in 1836 and 1837, which was scant enough, and which was won between the fall harvest and spring planting seasons.

Within three years, by his indomitable will, his great industry, his shrewd judgment and unceasing labor, he had won for his mother, sisters and brothers agricultural independence.

Typhoid fever, with malignant fierceness, had stricken down two of his brothers and his three sisters, one of these last being a twin sister of Forrest himself.

When twenty years of age, the war spirit of Forrest was moved by the struggles of the people of Texas in their contest with Mexico for independence, and among the adventurous and gallant boys of the South, who cast in their lot with the people of Texas, was this young Tennessean. After reaching the scenes of war, lack of transportation and of necessity for their services forced these young men to either settle in the new republic or to return to their homes. Forrest was penniless, but he split enough rails in a little while to pay his passage to his home in Mississippi, which he reached after an absence of four and a half months.

In 1845 Forrest involuntarily became an actor in a tragedy in Hernando. Four men, grieved at some act of his partner and uncle, Jonathan Forrest, undertook to kill him. Single-handed and alone, Nathan Bedford Forrest severely wounded three of the assailants and drove the fourth from the field. In the conflict, the uncle was mortally wounded, although he had taken no part in the affray.

After reverses in business, Forrest left Hernando, in 1852, and established himself as a broker in real estate and dealer in slaves in Memphis.

In 1861, General Forrest was a cotton planter in Coahoma County, Mississippi, growing a thousand bales of cotton per annum, and with his fortune increasing every year.

He now stood high among the most successful and active business men in Memphis. He had won a fortune by sagacity, integrity and sobriety, and though lacking in education, there was something in his personnel that impressed men with his right to be a leader. He was a born captain, and nature wrote his right to command on his face.

In April, 1861, his foresight assured him that war was inevitable, and he proceeded to arrange his affairs for the impending conflict. His whole soul was centered in his desire to make the South free, and the independence of the Confederate states, he firmly believed, was the only guarantee for a permanent peace.

After a visit to Mississippi, he returned to Memphis and immediately became a private in the Tennessee Mounted Rifles, under Captain Josiah H. White. He sought no rank. His highest aim was to serve his country, and, resolved upon the utmost effort to uphold her cause, he was willing to face all dangers where duty pointed the way. The pupil soon taught the master, and within a month Isham G. Harris, Governor of Tennessee, and General Leonidas Polk urged and commissioned Forrest to recruit a regiment of cavalry. A hurried visit to Kentucky enabled him to purchase five hundred Colt’s navy pistols and a hundred saddles with their equipments.

While in Louisville, he learned that a company of cavalry was being organized for him by Captain Frank Overton, at Brandenburg, Meade County. Hastening thither, he mustered in the Boone Rangers, ninety stalwart sons of Kentucky, which became the first company of the regiment.

Forrest was not long in reaching Bowling Green with his Boone Rangers. A skirmish or two on the way demonstrated his marvelous genius for war, inspired his men with absolute faith in his leadership, and left behind him an ominous warning to those who later in the struggle should be so unfortunate as to cross his path.

A company was organized in Memphis during Forrest’s absence, called the Forrest Rangers, under Captain Charles May,—and the Boone Rangers became the nucleus of Forrest’s famous regiment, which in a few weeks grew to be a battalion of eight companies, and, which in a few days by active operations, laid the foundations of their leader’s astonishing reputation and success.

Two of Forrest’s companies were from Kentucky, one from Meade County and one from Harrodsburg. Alabama contributed four, Texas one, and Memphis one, so that as far as his fame was to become coextensive with the South and West it would seem as if fate had spread over Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Texas a call for these men who were to make their commander renowned.

In a little while, Alabama sent two more companies, and the regiment became of sufficient numbers to make Forrest lieutenant colonel. Alabama troops predominated in his own regiment.

Many skirmishes and marches marked the career of this active and aggressive command prior to February, 1862, and then Forrest was ordered to repair to Fort Donelson, where as senior officer, he assumed command of the cavalry of the army here concentrated. The cavalry consisted of Forrest’s regiment, Colonel Gantt’s Tennessee Battalion, and three Kentucky companies under Captains Huey, Wilcox and Williams, counting, all told, eight hundred men.

Twenty-five thousand Federals surrounded fourteen thousand Confederates at the eventful siege of Fort Donelson. By the exigencies of war these men were surrendered. Whose fault brought about this unfortunate result has long been one of the most fiercely discussed of Confederate military problems.

When a council of war had decreed that a surrender was inevitable, Forrest entered an earnest protest; and at the suggestion of General Pillow, he was allowed to effect his escape, upon condition that he should do so before a flag of truce had communicated with the enemy. The sequel shows upon what slight events human destiny hinges. Had Forrest been less courageous or determined, his future would have been entirely changed. His pluck and his pride revolted at a cavalry soldier yielding without a vehement wrestle with the god of chance; and his brave soul cried out against becoming prisoner without one impetuous appeal to fate for a juster determination of the conflict which raged at this crucial hour.

In the darkness and frost of a cold winter night, Forrest immediately laid his plans to bring his horsemen out of the beleaguered fort. By four o’clock in the morning, with five hundred men and officers, he undertook to ride away. He could only conjecture as to what was ahead. He had no time to send out scouts to reconnoitre as to the presence or position of his foes. He was not so much concerned as to who and where they were. The only anxious inquiry that crossed his mind was how many they were and whether the waters that traversed his path were too deep or too swift for him and his followers to ford or swim in their struggle to find a way of escape from the clutches of their enemies. He had no guides to point the road. He knew that safety beckoned for a southward march. A great host was encamped somewhere in the vicinity. He knew they were ready to dispute his going. He had never traveled the road he was to follow. His keen vision could only pierce a few feet into the blackness of the night. He had only one plan and that was to fight and ride over whatever obstructed his chosen track. With one hand to guide his steed and the other grimly gripping his faithful revolver, he led his followers cautiously and yet speedily amidst the oppressive silence. Every slip of his floundering steeds amidst the gloom of the cold and dreary night, seemed full of awful portent and danger, and yet, amidst all these depressing conditions, the gallant leader entertained no thought of a retreat and sternly ordered all to go forward. It required an iron will and an invincible soul to thus lead five hundred men on this desperate and difficult ride. A few wounded Federal soldiers, crouching by the fires of the rails they had kindled into flames to keep the warmth of life in their maimed bodies until their comrades with the dawn of day should bring succor, were the only sentinels that called to the riders to halt. These were not disposed to question Forrest’s right to pass on into the outlying darkness and he was glad to leave them alone in the cheerless hours of that dread night, which the misfortunes of war had forced them to face.

Once, back water seemed to stop the course of the gallant troopers, but it was only for a moment. His advance guard hesitated, but calling them to clear the way, he fearlessly crushed the ice with his sword, and bade those behind to follow where he so promptly and confidently led.

This sally and escape of Forrest, in the face of almost insurmountable obstacles, gave him a reputation for courage and enterprise that betokened how great his future would be. That this determined cavalryman marched safely away, was to the ambitious and glory-seeking youth of the Southwest a special invitation to enlist under his banners; and decided many of the bravest and most patriotic men of middle Tennessee to enlist under the guidons of such fame-winners as Forrest, Wheeler and Morgan. Succeeding events would only magnify his promise and his skill. Forrest had already shown himself in the briefest while to be a great cavalry leader, and his genius, to those who watched and interpreted it ever so slightly, shone with transcendent brilliance and indicated that he would win renown and attain the highest rank.

On the 16th of March, 1862, two other Tennessee companies came to the regiment; these gave it a full roster, and by acclamation he became colonel; Kelly, lieutenant colonel; and a private, R. M. Balch, major.

When General Bragg marched into Kentucky in the summer of 1862, he left Nashville behind him, under the control of the Federals. After returning from Kentucky, in October, through Cumberland Gap, by degrees he marched westward, and in early winter at Murfreesboro, thirty miles south of Nashville, established his lines.

General Bragg, in December, deemed it important for General Forrest to make a raid into West Tennessee, destroy connections with Memphis, apparently threaten the Louisville & Nashville Railroad between Louisville and Nashville, damage the railroads and break up, if possible, the lines of transportation which enabled the Federals to maintain themselves at Memphis and the adjacent territory.

General Wheeler had been promoted and assigned to the chief command of the cavalry, with headquarters at La Vergne, and Forrest was ordered to report to General Bragg in person. Thereupon, General Forrest was assigned to the command of a brigade of about eighteen hundred men, consisting of the 4th, 8th and 9th Tennessee Regiments, Russell’s 4th Alabama and Freeman’s Battery. This promotion of General Wheeler over Forrest and Morgan greatly disappointed both of these leaders and excited much criticism amongst the rank and file. Not only with the cavalry, but with infantry, was this action most severely condemned. At this time General Wheeler had won neither the record nor the fame which later excited the admiration of all the men in the armies of the South. Morgan’s two Kentucky raids and the Battle of Hartsville, one of the most brilliant achievements of the war; Forrest’s escape from Donelson, his magnificent service at Shiloh, and his assault on Nashville and capture of Murfreesboro, had already made both marked men and given them the admiration and love of the entire army, and there was much indignation at the apparent subordination of Forrest and withdrawal from his forces of the men who had been taught in his campaigns his methods of fighting, and who had learned to believe in him as one of the most wonderful soldiers of the Confederacy.

General Bragg received, with some degree of impatience, General Forrest’s complaints as to either insufficient equipment or undisciplined troops, and directed General Forrest to march westward, to cross the Tennessee River, and operate north and west of Memphis, up to the Kentucky line as far as Moscow, some hundred and sixty miles away.

Taking his final orders on the 10th of December, 1862, and reviewing his command, at the risk of being reprimanded for insubordination, in writing he again called the attention of General Bragg to the lack of ammunition and supplies, and proper arms for his men.

The soldiers under him were largely raw new levies, armed chiefly with flintlock rifles, many without flints. They possessed ten caps per man, and a very meagre and scanty supply of ammunition.

In response to his second demand for better guns and more ammunition, he was curtly and peremptorily ordered to march without delay and take his chances with what had been assigned him for the raid.

Forrest keenly felt this treatment. His best troops had been taken from him. Only four old companies remained with him, men who had already shown great aptitude for partisan work and knew his method of fighting, and were prepared to follow him under all conditions.

To the untrained student General Bragg’s orders bordered on cruelty, and Forrest fiercely resented in his heart the great wrong thus inflicted upon him. He was proud, brave and profoundly patriotic, and no man in the South was more deeply attached to the Southern cause than he. For awhile he brooded over this injustice, but he loved his country too much to falter or hesitate even if he felt and believed that this treatment was indefensible. General Bragg, to him it appeared, had sent him upon the most dangerous mission of the war, and as if to render the task doubly hazardous, had taken from him the men he so much needed for the work he was required to do, and had given him instead men whose inexperience and lack of drill and discipline would render his success full of uncertainty and well-nigh impossible.

He was commanded to undertake and possibly to force the passage of the Tennessee River, when it was swollen by the winter rains, and without even the semblance of a pontoon bridge, he was expected to cross his men, horses, artillery and supplies as best he could. He was either to construct ferry boats, or raise those that had been sunken to hide them from Federal eyes; to search in the creeks or thickets for a few skiffs, or to fashion them from the boards he might pick up in a country already impoverished by the ravages of war. He was to cross the river in face of a vigilant and expectant foe whose garrisons were ordered to be upon the alert for his coming; and were a long time before urged to watch for the presence of the man whose fear was in every heart and whose desperate courage and resistless onslaught had made him a very terror to the peace and quiet of those who were to prevent his coming, or expected to punish his appearance in the country, the holding of which was an essential to the safety of their operations on the Mississippi River below Memphis. Thereafter, he was to move into a region filled with large Federal garrisons, all thoroughly armed, very many times more numerous than his own force, and to ride over roads softened by the winter rains, which by the travel of his horses and guns, were churned into slush, reaching above the knees of the animals, and through which his artillery could only be drawn at an average speed of less than a walk. The conditions of these highways would not only disspirit his followers, but subject them to such physical strain as would possibly render them unable to perform the duties that the campaign necessitated.

He had eighteen hundred troops and four guns. Baggage was reduced to a minimum. Marching westward from Columbia, Tennessee, he reached a place called Clifton, on the Tennessee River. An old, leaky ferryboat, “a tub,” raised from the bottom of the stream where it had been sunk to save it from Federal destruction; a hastily constructed similar craft made from hewed logs, and a half dozen skiffs, were his only means of transportation across the deep stream. The boats were either rotten or leaky, and all dangerous. Horses and mules were driven into the stream and forced to swim, while the men with their saddles, blankets, frying pans, guns, cannon caissons and ammunition wagons, were with the constant fear of Federal gunboats, Federal cavalry and infantry ever in their minds and with constant apprehension of resistance, as speedily as possible, under these adverse conditions, ferried to the western bank of the swollen river.

Only a great soldier and a great leader could have maintained his own equanimity with such adverse surroundings, or could have kept his followers under control with destruction every moment staring them in the face. On the shore, now on the western bank, now in the turgid waters, again on the eastern side, he calmly directed every movement, and his presence gave his followers hope when hope seemed absurd, and imbued them with a sublime courage they themselves could not fathom or understand. That he was there quieted every impulse to fear, and that his eye was upon them spurred every man to the noblest endeavors. Before him, every thought of cowardice became a retreating fugitive, and his example taught every trooper in the brigade that no foe was invincible and no task impossible. Morgan and his men crossing the Cumberland to reach Hartsville, Wheeler and his men forcing a passage of the Tennessee to destroy Rosecrans’ trains, were full of sublime heroism, but Forrest’s passage of the Tennessee River at Clifton, on December 16th and 17th, 1862, will long live as one of the most persistently courageous achievements of cavalry in any age or war.

The strain on man and beast was almost unbearable. Forrest had with him many officers as brave as he but less experienced; but Starnes, Dibrell, Russell, Jeffrey Forrest, Freeman, Morton, Biffle, Woodward, William M. Forrest, Cox, Gurley and many others in this command held up the hands of their beloved leader and aided him in giving even the humblest private a spirit of devotion that made every man who wore the gray jacket an intrepid hero, and a soldier who was without fear, even unto death.

Scouts above and below, ever vigilant, watched for coming gunboats. Pickets, hastily sent out on the western side of the stream, guarded every road that led to the ferry, and eager eyes, quickened by impending danger, scanned every hilltop and watched every avenue of approach. Two nights and a day were consumed in this arduous undertaking. The gunboats could not safely travel at night and Forrest availed himself of this to further his difficult work. He was crossing, with most inadequate means, the fifth largest stream in the United States. The distance from shore to shore was more than half a mile, the current was rapid, and while poling flatboats is a slow and tedious process by day, by night the difficulties were much enhanced. Forrest and his men successfully defied and overcame these natural obstacles, and by the morning of the 17th his men and equipments were all over, the boats were poled back to the western shore, sunk, committed to the care of a few guards, who protested at being left behind for what they esteemed an inglorious task, and with a questioning gaze, Forrest looked across the stream, wondering if he could later repass its currents, and with a wave of his sword, launched forth on his hazardous mission. Aligning his small command, he bade them go forward, not doubting that even with such odds against him, fate would lend a helping hand and safely bring him back from sure yet unknown dangers and fierce battles to his own, again.

This tremendous task accomplished and his scattered forces united, he marched eight miles to Lexington, Henderson County, and encamped for a little while, to allow his wet, hungry and tired soldiers to dry their clothes, inspect their guns, and to relieve their minds as well as their bodies of the great strain to which they had been subjected in the extraordinary and eventful experiences of the past forty-eight hours.

On examination, it was found that the greater part of the ammunition, in crossing the Tennessee River, had become wet and consequently unserviceable, and while this loss of the slight supply of ammunition which had been assigned to his command was being considered, a blockade-runner who had been sent through the lines, appeared with fifty thousand caps.

Forrest had sent forward his agents to secure this supply of ammunition. Already the Federals had had warning of Forrest’s coming, and he had barely advanced a mile until he had encountered squadrons of the Federal force moving along the same road to check his farther advance. Prepared or unprepared, Forrest had come to fight. He viciously assailed the Federals and quickly captured or routed one, a Federal Tennessee regiment, and the other the 11th Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, in which last Robert G. Ingersoll became a Confederate prisoner.

Refreshed and strengthened by Federal supplies, and new and better mounts, he pursued the fugitives furiously, and three days after crossing the river reached Jackson, Tennessee (fifty miles away). He had rested only a day, and his march was never without opposition from his foe.

The Federals quickly concentrated troops at Jackson from the North and South. The railroads from the north were immediately torn up, isolated stations were captured, and guns and ammunition provided for thoroughly arming the Confederates. Forrest was not slow and by the removal and bending of the rails, he cut off further succor or supplies to the garrison at Jackson from the north.

At this time, the force at Jackson was estimated at fifteen thousand. Maneuvering so as to create the impression of an army of a larger force than was really at his call, and with only one regiment apparently in front of Jackson, he started northwest to Humboldt, and here found his richest booty. Two hundred prisoners, four gun caissons, five hundred standard muskets and three hundred thousand rounds of ammunition, and equipments of all sorts here fell into Forrest’s hands.

Reserving the best for himself, the torch was applied to the remainder and the insatiable flames ate up the property that Federal foresight had collected to feed the garrisons that now filled every town of any importance in the adjacent country. His force, had now become steadied by the influence of his example and by his brilliant success. The experiences of a few days had made them veterans, and taught them the ways and genius of their resourceful leader and he too now began to realize that even these new and hitherto untried men were dependable soldiers in any crisis that his daring might invoke.

Five days out from the Tennessee River, General Forrest reached Trenton, and prepared for its capture. A man of intensive action, he quickly surrounded the town. It did not take long to drive the enemy into their breastworks. A charge from Forrest and his escort completed the work. With two hundred and seventy-five men, some of them inexperienced volunteers, General Forrest had captured four hundred prisoners of war, including two colonels, many field officers, a thousand horses and mules, wagons and ambulances, and ammunition, and two hundred thousand rations of subsistence, all worth a half million of dollars.

Flintlock muskets and shotguns were now thrown away. Enfield rifles, the best possible Confederate arm of that period, were issued to his entire command, and with an equipment, the same in most respects as that of their foes, the new soldiers caught the true spirit of war and were eager to meet their adversaries upon more equal terms. Recruits had more than made up for the losses which Forrest had suffered, and well-equipped and well-armed, he still numbered eighteen hundred men and officers.

With the exception of the Tennessee Federal Regiment, all other prisoners were paroled, required to march to Columbus, Kentucky, under an escort, and there turned over to the Federal commander.

The way was now clear, and General Forrest marched toward Union City, on the line between Kentucky and Tennessee. Stockade after stockade was taken, and the real and greatest work of the expedition was now begun. He had come to destroy the railroads. A few of his companies had done such work before, and with eagerness and spirit they gleefully set about the pleasing task. Spikes were drawn, rails were stacked on piles of logs, and the fiery flames assisted in the work of demolition. The iron rails, under the influence of the savage glow, began to twirl and twist and, bent in all directions by the increasing heat furnished by renewed giant piles of wood, they seemed almost alive in their strange contortions; and curved, crooked and ill-shapen lengths of iron were soon all that remained of the tracks that were so essential to transport food supplies for the armies which encamped toward the south, who were dependent upon these rails for their daily bread. He followed the line of the Mobile and Ohio railroad and destroyed it, and tore up its track for fifteen miles, burning down trestles, removing cattle guards, and inflicting tremendous losses upon the line.

In the meanwhile, the forces at Jackson had gotten their second breath. They undertook now to intercept Forrest and prevent his recrossing the Tennessee River. Short work was made of Union City; two hundred and fifty officers and men entrenched, surrendered with their arms and supplies. Here three hundred more prisoners were paroled.

General Forrest had now reached the northern limit of the lines of his expedition, at Moscow, a few miles over the Kentucky border. Several days were spent in demolishing the heavy trestles on the north and south forks of the Obion River.

Twelve thousand Federal soldiers had now been concentrated at Trenton. Forrest had not been out from his crossing of the Tennessee River nine days. Marching twenty-six miles to Dresden, and realizing the work that was before him, he resolved to give his animals and his men a day’s rest to prepare them for the well-nigh superhuman tasks which were before them.

The Federal commanders resolved to prevent General Forrest from recrossing the Tennessee River, and to this end, they applied all the means at their command. They had plenty of men, but the trying problem was to anticipate Forrest’s track and to cope with his wonderful methods for outwitting his foes.

With the keen mind of the great cavalry soldier, it did not take General Forrest long to understand that his enemies were concentrating their forces to prevent his re-passage of the river. He fully understood that it was impossible for him to escape south, that he must go east, and in going east, he must get over the Tennessee River. Before he could start well upon his return, it was necessary for him to cross the Obion River, which empties into the Tennessee, but this was now full with winter floods. All the bridges but one had been destroyed. Across this dangerous and uncertain stream, the bridge had been partially torn out, and it was left undefended because it was regarded as impassable.

Within an hour, the men were at work getting together timber with which to repair the bridge, so as to admit of the passage of artillery. The seemingly hopeless task was accomplished in the briefest period. Within an hour, the causeway was made passable. It was a cold, dark midnight, and a sleeting, drizzling rain was falling, chilling the bones but not the hearts of the Confederate command.

General Forrest, in order to nerve his soldiers for the dangers of slipping from the tottering bridge, himself mounted the saddle horse and drove over the first wagon. Catching the inspiration of their great leader’s courage, two teamsters attempted to follow. They slipped or fell from the bridge and plunged into the deep stream and freezing mud, from which they were with difficulty released.

Men, who had hitherto looked on with undisturbed hearts, now began to question if the crossing of the stream could be made, whether in the gloom of the dark hours which precede the dawn, and the dawn was far off, it would be possible to carry over his sixteen hundred soldiers now present with their equipments. But there was no difficulty or danger that could quail the heart of Nathan Bedford Forrest. The muddy, slushy roads made the passage more dangerous. Conscious of the lack of supplies in the territory into which he must return, Forrest was endeavoring to carry a number of wagon loads of flour, coffee and sugar. The safety of his command and the lives of his soldiers rose higher than all thoughts of the commissary, and the mud and chuck holes were filled with sacks of flour and coffee, and along these and over these the wagons passed.

The trains, by three o’clock, had been gotten over the bridge, but the muddy, sloppy condition rendered it impossible for the artillery horses to draw the guns and caissons. The horses were knee deep in mud, and the men waded in slush half way up their limbs. Fifty men were detailed with ropes to pull each piece of artillery, and only by these superhuman efforts, at three o’clock in the morning, the Obion was passed.

The only rest that could be allowed after the awful experiences of the night was a short halt for food; and hardly had men and beasts satisfied nature’s craving until the scouts informed General Forrest that twelve miles away were several thousand men, converging upon his small and valiant force.

General Forrest had no idea at this time of giving any intimation where he would pass the Tennessee River. And he pursued his way southward toward Lexington, over a wild, rough, hilly, rocky road. The tramp of the horses and the cutting of the wheels of the artillery and the wagons made the road a veritable bayou. The friable soil, stirred and cut by cannon, caisson and wagon wheels, and mixed by the six thousand hoofs of the cavalry horses, became a canal of freezing slush. The animals and their equipments were bespattered with this horrible material, and the clothing, necks, faces, saddles, blankets and guns of the riders were covered with mud, making the march extremely distressing. With grim courage, they ceased endeavoring to wipe the disgusting slime from their faces or clothing. They gritted their teeth, clenched their reins with a stronger grip, and, uncomplaining, rode on in the dark stillness of the awful night; they could at least, they believed, endure the horrors of the situation until dawn of day. This, they hoped, would bring some relief and somewhat assuage the dreadful punishment of this night march. The scouts reported one brigade of the enemy within six miles of General Forrest, another, six miles from this force. Resting until four o’clock, his men were aroused, ordered to saddle and prepare for the advance upon the Federal armies.

General Forrest determined to force the fighting, and he had only a brief time to form a line of battle. Biffle, with his regiment, had moved towards Trenton, but the soldierly instinct told him that his chieftain was calling for him, and so he paroled his prisoners, destroyed his supplies, and turned his face toward the battlefield which was now to decide the fate of the command. General Forrest believed he could destroy one brigade, under Colonel Dunham, before the other, under General Sullivan, could march six miles over the terrible roads along which it must advance, and he resolved to try his fortunes with Dunham first.

The Federals were quite as eager for conflict as General Forrest, and as soon as they felt the impact, pressed forward with great vigor. General Forrest had six pieces of artillery and about fourteen hundred available fighting men; he was hunting a fight, and he was to get quite all that he desired.

Both sides felt the importance of the issue, and both were eager to secure the advantage in positions. Forrest’s artillery, always well placed, was now concentrated upon the Federal lines. The men in blue advanced resolutely to within a hundred and eighty feet of the artillery, but they only came to be repulsed with great slaughter. The Confederate leader thought it was better to make this first an artillery fight, and to reserve his small arms for the later period, when the second force should try issues with him.

Colonel Dunham, in command of the Federals, showed himself to be a fighter. Repulses did not weaken the courage of either himself or his troops, and they renewed charge upon charge. At last his lines were broken, and his men left their cover and ran across the field, where many of them were captured and slain.

Colonel Starnes attacked the enemy in the rear. He had been detached for making this kind of assault; always one of Forrest’s chief maneuvers, who often declared that one man in the rear was worth two in the front. On Starnes’ arrival in the field, white flags were hoisted and Forrest and his troopers were masters of the situation.

While Forrest was congratulating himself upon his safety, Colonel Carroll, a staff officer, rose up to inform him that a superior number of Federals had come into action and were now in his rear. This was a great surprise and an unlooked-for emergency. A full brigade of fresh troops, now behind him, pressed on with remarkable vigor and spirit, and the attack was so sudden and fierce that two hundred and fifty of Forrest’s men were captured, four caissons and two brass cannons were disabled in an attempt to withdraw from the field, and these were abandoned, with a loss of a number of troopers and some artillery.

The newcomers were quite as game as the men who had withstood Forrest’s several assaults. They poured a heavy fire into the Confederate line sustained by their artillery and fiercely and furiously assailed the several Confederate positions. It looked as if the wily Confederate leader had been caught napping, and that favoring fortune, which had so often and so propitiously come to his rescue, was about to desert his standard and give the victory to his enemies.

With only a hundred and twenty-five men, Forrest made one of his characteristic dashes upon the artillery of the enemy, which was being served in such efficient manner as to inflict great loss. Fortunately the horses attached to three of the pieces took fright and ran in the direction of the Confederate lines, where they were seized and driven away.

In the meantime, Colonel Starnes had attacked Dunham’s rear and this halted him, and enabled General Forrest to capture General Dunham’s wagon train with all his supplies, and this was skillfully carried from the field.

General Forrest had now all the fighting he wanted for one day. He had put in nine hours. Twenty-five officers and men had been killed, seventy-five wounded and two hundred and fifty captured. Three caissons, five wagons and mules and seventy-five thousand rounds of ammunition had been left with his enemies.

The Federals had fared even worse than the Confederates. A colonel and lieutenant colonel and one hundred and fifty rank and file had been wounded; fifty dead lay on the ground.

Forrest, with twelve hundred fighting men, had whipped eighteen hundred and then finally stood off a fresh brigade. It was not often that General Forrest was taken unawares, and those who knew his marvelous ability to get information wondered how General Sullivan with a fresh brigade could approach his rear and attack it without notice. Forrest, however, had not forgotten to look after this end of the line. The directions were misunderstood by the officer. He, hearing the guns, deemed it necessary to make a detour in order to reach Forrest. Had this officer promptly reported the presence of Sullivan, Forrest would have been able to destroy Dunham before the arrival of fresh Federal forces, and then with his usual vehemence turned upon the Federal reenforcements and chosen his battlefield with his fresher foes. For once the Confederate chieftain was glad to get out of reach of his enemies. He felt that he had fully enough of conflict, and his best thoughts and energies were engaged in devising ways and means to extricate his command from what even he, chief of military optimists, must admit was a most difficult and dangerous situation.

The engagement at Parker’s Cross Roads, where the commands of Dunham and Sullivan felt that they had severely battered General Forrest, gave the Federals some grounds for believing that even he was not invincible, and encouraged them to seek another trial; and they were, though with many precautions for safety, anxious to again fight out the wager-of-battle.

Twelve miles away from the battlefield, Forrest halted to feed his men and dress the wounds of his patient followers. They had passed the highest physical tests and had come forth victorious, but even Forrest’s followers had limitations and reached a point where nature revolted and peremptorily called a halt.

The Confederate chieftain now determined to recross the Tennessee at Clifton, the same point at which he had passed it fifteen days before. In his hazardous position, this was the only hope of emerging in safety. He had left his sunken boats to rescue him in a last emergency. At no other point was there a substantial chance to find even the crudest means of passing the swollen stream, which, like a great spectre, stood out on the horizon to haunt his dreams and to thwart his escape.

The Federals were glad to leave Forrest alone, and Forrest was glad to leave them alone. With all the vigor and courage the Federals had shown in the pursuit of the Confederates, their failure at the last moment to pursue and attack him while crossing the river is one of the strange and inexplicable delinquencies which now and then appeared in the tactics of both armies, during the four years of the struggle.

When close to the river, the scouts brought information that ten thousand infantry and cavalry were moving from the direction of Purdy and towards Clifton, and this gave General Forrest new cause for apprehension and solicitude.

A few miles from Clifton, across Forrest’s only path leading to the river, he found a regiment of Federal cavalry drawn up in battle line. There was no time for maneuvering, and Dibbrell, always gallant, was ordered to charge down the road across which the Federals had been placed. Dibbrell, realizing the situation, was quick to act, and furiously assaulted the line, cut the Federals asunder, and then Starnes and Biffle, one on the right and the other on the left, went after the detachments, and in a brief space they were scattered and driven from the field.

Strange to say, twenty men were killed on the Federal side and fifty prisoners taken, and only one man struck on the Confederate side. This was General Forrest’s forage master, who was standing by his side, and called his attention to some object. While speaking, he was struck by a spent ball, which flattened on his forehead without penetrating the skull, and the officer fell stunned, but soon revived and only suffered the inconvenience of a severe headache.

Every nerve was now strained to reach the river. The sun was at its meridian when General Forrest rode up and looked across the currents that swirled between him and safety. The skiffs on the other side of the Tennessee, and the flatboats which had been sunk after the passage on the 15th, had been raised, under the direction of Jeffrey Forrest, who, with the speed born of the extremities of the hour, with a small following had galloped forward to put in readiness the meagre flotilla with which the retreating Confederates might cross the river and find safety from their numerous and aggressive foes.

When General Forrest arrived, the boats were ready to move, the horses were detached from all the wagons and artillery, driven into the river and made to swim across. The same process was gone through with the cavalry horses. It was a wonderful sight to a looker-on,—hundreds of horses struggling in a swollen stream. All understood what even an hour’s delay might mean. The beasts could swim, but no man could endure the freezing waters, or hope after half a mile of immersion under its chilling currents to emerge on the other side alive. Logs were searched for in the drift, fence rails were hunted. These were lashed together with grape vines, halter ropes or bridle reins, and on these improvised rafts, bushes and drift were piled, and with poles or board paddles, pushed and pulled across the stream.

The artillery and wagon horses and a majority of the cavalry mounts were animals which had been captured from the Federals. The supreme hour was at hand. Only the speediest action could hold out the slightest hope of escape. One section of artillery, under Captain Douglass, and one regiment were posted a mile away from the ferry. These were directed to fortify their position as best they could, to hold it in the face of all odds, under all circumstances, and to fight even to annihilation. Only brave men, who have received such a command, can realize how calmly human courage rises to its very zenith under such conditions. No one detailed for this important duty sought relief. Forrest himself told them they must stay and if need be, die to save their comrades. They made no excuses, they asked no exemption. They were ready to serve as told and, had the occasion required, every man was ready to fall where his country, at that hour, called him to stand.

The river was eighteen hundred feet wide, but it had banks which were favorable for the escape of the animals from the stream.

From twelve o’clock until eight o’clock at night, the flatboats pulled up stream half a mile and were then permitted to drop down with the current, and were drifted and poled across, and after eight hours the five pieces of artillery, six caissons, sixty wagons and four ambulances, equipments of all kinds, and the whole command had been carried over the swollen stream and were landed on the eastern side of the river. Thirty-six hours out from Parker’s Cross Roads, where Dunham and Sullivan and Fuller had raised such a rough-house with Forrest, he had marched forty miles, and safely passed all his forces with their horses and trains over the Tennessee. This remarkable feat again demonstrated Forrest’s wonderful wealth of resource, and served notice on his enemies that there was nothing he would not dare and few feats that he could not accomplish.

Fourteen days had elapsed since the passage of the river, but what marvelous experiences had Forrest and his raw levies passed. They had traveled over three hundred miles, had been in three sternly contested engagements, with daily skirmishing, had destroyed fifty large and small bridges on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and had burned trestles, so as to make it useless to the enemy; had captured twenty stockades, captured and killed twenty-five hundred of the enemy, taken and disabled ten pieces of artillery, carried off fifty wagons and ambulances with their teams, had captured ten thousand stands of excellent small arms and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition, had returned fully armed, equipped and mounted; had traversed roads with army trains which at that season were considered impassable, even by horsemen. Only one night’s rest in fourteen days had been enjoyed, unsheltered, without tents, and in a most inclement winter, constantly raining, snowing and sleeting; but these wonderful men had endured all these hardships, neither murmuring, complaining nor doubting, but always cheerful, brave and resigned to do any and every duty that sternest war could bring.

This one campaign had made Forrest’s new troopers veterans. There was now no service for which they were not prepared. They were ready to follow their leader at any time and everywhere, and thereafter no troops would perform more prodigies of valor or face a foe with more confidence or cheerfulness; and yet before them were many of war’s sacrifices, dangers, disasters, toils and trials, which would call for the best that was in man.