We wended our way back to Mississippi
and to our command, men and horses weary, worn, sleepy, hungry, and tired, but with the happy consciousness that we had vanquished the foe from the gates of Oxford without the loss of a man.
“Up the broad valley, fast and far,
The troubled enemy had sped.
Up rose the glorious morning star,
And the mighty host had fled.”
CHAPTER XXII
RAID INTO NORTH ALABAMA AND MIDDLE TENNESSEE
N a short while after the Memphis raid our commander decided to go east and break the line that was furnishing Sherman’s supplies while on his advance into Georgia and the Carolinas.
About the first of September, 1864, we marched east to the Tennessee River, crossing at Florence and Bainbridge, Ala.; and after several small fights and skirmishes, we appeared before Athens, Ala., on September 16, 1864. At this place the Union Army had a strong garrison, defended by a fort and blockhouses. The latter defense was impregnable to the assaults of infantry and cavalry, but an easy mark for artillery.