Colonel Duke, being still on the south side, superintending the crossing of the troops, took command of this regiment, and led them in person against the enemy. Our men charged the Yankees furiously and desperately, hurling them back with great confusion, and almost capturing their battery, which had been throwing shells into the ford and into our camp beyond. One shell alone killed No. Three and the four horses he was holding. The artillery would certainly have been captured had not Colonel Duke fallen, severely wounded by a piece of shell, and been carried off the field unconscious. He was removed by Captain Tom, who, with a detachment, had been sent for him. The Eighth was withdrawn, and crossed without any further interference on the part of the Yankees, who seemed not inclined to renew the engagement.
When the entire command had succeeded in crossing, and during the advance on the little town of Boston, a town on the Lebanon Branch Railroad about ten miles from Bardstown, we were deployed on both flanks as skirmishers until we drew near Boston, then were ordered to Rolling Fork, to notice the movement of the enemy; for they were in line on the opposite bank of the river, and showed no inclination to come over. Remaining some time within short rifle range and within speaking distance, we finally returned to the advance and reported the situation to the General. When we entered Bardstown we captured the small garrison stationed there, besides a large and valuable amount of army stores. We remained all night, snugly and safely housed, and supplied by the citizens with everything necessary to the comfort and happiness of a soldier.
Early next morning we started in the direction of Lebanon, by way of the Springfield pike, and reached Springfield very late in the evening. It was cold, and there was a storm of driving rain and sleet. Then commenced a night’s march long to be remembered by us for its severity and the suffering it caused. Finding that the enemy had concentrated a large force in Lebanon and fortified it strongly for the express purpose of intercepting our march, the General thought too much of his boys, and perhaps estimated his captured stores too highly, to think of moving against vastly superior numbers, and those numbers equipped with a large amount of ordnance, all strongly entrenched and fortified. “Most assuredly not,” said our General. He did not for one moment intend to advance on their front, as they thought he would do.
No, the programme for the night was quite differently arranged, doubtless to their surprise and disappointment. We fed our stock in and around Springfield, and were on the road a little after dark, headed toward Lebanon. We had decided to pass around Lebanon by taking a side road that passed within two miles of that city, and intersected with the pike on Muldrough’s Hill, a few miles south of town. When within four miles of Lebanon our forces bore off on the side road in silence, with part of the scouts in advance, while the others were ordered by the General to make a feint upon the enemy by an attack in front. This was done in gallant style, and the pickets were driven back into town in great disorder; we even charged almost into their main line, then stationed behind breastworks.
Before we left them I imagine they were deeply impressed with the idea that Morgan was advancing on the town in force, instead of marching around it, as he was in reality. The farce was handsomely executed. A few men kept them under arms, and frightened them so that it is not supposed that a man was put on extra duty for sleeping on his post that night. And when daylight appeared we disappeared, and soon after rejoined our command, then six miles south of Lebanon, en route to Campbellsville. After we had reported to the General he sent us to the advance to join the rest of the scouts.
Our accomplished operator, “Lightning”—Captain Ellsworth—was sent with us to tap the telegraph line a short distance ahead. In due time “Lightning” opened his office; that is, one of the boys climbed a telegraph pole and separated a wire, and “Lightning” attached his battery to it.
It was truly amusing to hear the “operator” repeating the dispatches as they went flying through his office. The operator at Danville, for instance, informs Campbellsville that the picket has just been run in by “Morgan,” and that he has his traps fixed to leave at a minute’s warning. Stanford says, “Morgan is approaching with three thousand cavalry and several pieces of artillery. Send reinforcements.” Campbellsville wires to Danville, “Morgan is now before Lebanon, engaged in a hot skirmish”; and tells Stanford, at the same time, “All the troops able for duty have gone from Columbia stockade at Green River Bridge.” To Lebanon, Campbellsville says, “Save a few companies to protect the hospital and the army stores.”
From the many conflicting dispatches one might have thought there were fifty Morgans, each Morgan with a force before each town, in ten counties square! In reality, the boys seemed nonplussed, they were reported in so many places at the same time, and doing so many different things. They even doubted their own identity. To satisfy themselves, and to prove that they were not mistaken as to their whereabouts, some of them were found pinching themselves to discover whether they were members of Morgan’s Cavalry or not.
Having obtained all the news afloat we mounted and double-quicked into Campbellsville, reaching there a little before sunset, and capturing two or three companies of infantry, three hundred invalids in the hospital, whom we paroled, and also capturing a large amount of commissary and quartermaster stores, and, I might add, a few dry-goods stores, all of which, when the General arrived, were in charge of the scouts.
Meanwhile, our horses had been housed in the hotel and livery stables, and had everything they liked, and plenty of it, before them. The boys, likewise, feasted on the captured stores and the luxuries so bountifully provided by the ladies. “Lightning” was in his office the principal part of the night, being located on a conspicuous woodpile in the center of the street. Early the next morning we were on our way to Columbia, which place we reached about 4 o’clock in the evening, and there we stayed till dark, feeding our horses, as well as ourselves, resting, and shopping at the several dry-goods stores. We did our shopping here because we knew that it was our last chance for some time to come. And here, too, two hospitals, containing about two hundred invalids, with a few well Yankees, were captured and paroled.