Doubtless you learned at the time they were enacted of the many daring and spirited engagements and scouts while we were encamped at Lavergne and Murfreesboro, the enemy near us, at the Asylum and Nashville. I presume you heard particularly of the General’s personal adventures, sometimes alone, sometimes with a chosen few. It is exciting and interesting to read such incidents, but to be an actor in them is the only way to realize “the heart’s exultant swell.” That can only be felt; it cannot be described even by those who have been through it.
During our stay in Murfreesboro a portion of the squadron went with the General, then Captain, to Gallatin, very much to the surprise of the enemy who were garrisoning the town. On this occasion Columbus A. Peddicord, having just come from Virginia, acted as guide. His regiment had been disbanded with orders to reorganize on the first of April, 1862.
It was here that I contracted the illness which afterward resulted in typhoid pneumonia, it being brought on by constant exposure to the long cold rains during the first two weeks of March while we were scouting in the vicinity of the capital. We lived in the saddle the most of the time, and our clothing was continually wet.
Captain Morgan and sixty horse were stationed in Murfreesboro, and they held the town; the rest of the squadron, meantime, encamped on the pike running from Shelbyville, a pike intersecting the Franklin and Nashville pike twelve miles from Nashville. This disposition of our small force nonplussed the enemy entirely and successfully. They could not solve the mystery, or imagine what our number was, or where or who we were.
Our leader, by his rapid blows and daredevil encounters, caused them to believe his entire force was with him at Murfreesboro, while Captain Allen, Captain Bowles, and Adjutant Duke drew their attention in the opposite direction, attacking them at all hours of the day and night. We would capture an outpost, very often galloping in the midst of their camp, thus causing the greatest surprise and consternation imaginable. After presenting the compliments of “Morgan’s Men,” in the shape of a few broadsides from our rifles, a sort of salute of respect and esteem, we would doff our caps à la Morgan, and, without difficulty, make our exit at a brisk canter. Their curiosity was not sufficient to make them pursue us for an introduction, and they did not insist upon an explanation for such intrusion.
When orders were received to fall back, the squadron, after a short separation, was again united at Shelbyville. At Shelbyville I was compelled, for the first time, to leave the ranks on account of illness. My comrades urging me to do so, I went to a private house, to remain there until the squadron should move to Huntsville, as previously instructed. One of the boys escorted me to the residence of a Mr. Desmukes, south of town a few miles, where I was treated “southernly,” and with great kindness by all the family, and especially by the two young lady daughters.
On the departure of the troops, some time afterward, a detachment was sent for me. I had become so weak that when I rose to walk I staggered, and would have fallen had not the arms of the young ladies intercepted and rescued me. They then assisted the invalid to the gate, and also assisted me to mount my “war steed,” Selim, who was to carry me a short distance, to the pike, where an ambulance was in waiting to take me to Fayettesville. Escorted by a small guard of troopers from our own company, and accompanied by C. A. P., who arrived just in time to superintend my transfer, we proceeded to Fayettesville.
From the time I was laid in the ambulance until my arrival in the Huntsville hotel I was entirely unconscious, and ignorant of all that passed, like one dreaming his last long dream. I have been told by C. A. P. that I remained in Fayettesville several days, and was cared for tenderly by the ladies, and especially by the landlady of the principal hotel, where I stopped. I can’t remember. Nor have I the remotest idea what occurred during my stay; neither have I the least knowledge of being carried to the depot in a carriage, thence to Huntsville by rail, where, on my arrival, I was conveyed to the hotel. I was carried in by some of the boys, and on ascending the stairway they allowed one of my feet to fall against the steps, which awoke me from my insensibility. But I soon again relapsed into unconsciousness, and this time it lasted for nearly two months.
During the two weeks that the squadron stayed I was nightly visited by some of the boys, but I was not made aware of it until a long time afterward. However strange it may appear, my best and dearest friends were not recognized. I have only a very slight recollection of the advent of the Yankees under Mitchell, on the 11th day of April, 1862. The grand entree was made about 11 or 12 o’clock at night, and caused no little excitement among the inhabitants, as well as among our men.
Just before Captain Morgan left Huntsville for Shiloh, he called to see me. After standing some time by my bedside, and looking intently at me, he remarked, “Sergeant, you will soon be well enough to be with us again.” Then he shook my hand very affectionately, and, bidding me farewell, went into the entry, where he said to the landlady, Mrs. Georgia Nowell, that I would not live through the coming night, in which opinion Mrs. Nowell acquiesced, as she told me afterward. And indeed, she said for as much as two weeks no one expected that I would recover, not even the kind doctor attending me.