CHAPTER 18.

Preparing to Remount the Command.

1

During the latter part of the Atlanta campaign the horses of the cavalry were badly used up by too much work and too little food, and I obtained an order to take four hundred of my men to Nashville and draw 1,600 horses for my own and other commands.

September 21st I detailed four hundred men with their arms, and we proceeded in a train of box cars. About midnight, shortly after passing Big Shanty, a station in the mountains, we passed through a long deep cut, in which the top of the cars reached about to the level of the surrounding surface. In this cut, a force of rebels had placed an iron "frog" on the track, and the engine and a number of the forward cars were ditched. The rebels stood on the bank above the track and opened fire on the train. The cars were full of men, riding both inside and on top, mostly asleep. The officers were sleeping in a box car in the rear. The jolt and firing woke us. I pulled on my boots, which had been my pillow, and threw open the side door. The night was so dark that I could not see, but I climbed to the top of the cut, coming up near the rebels who were firing on the train. A number of the rear cars were still on the track, and the men on top were returning the rebels'

fire. I saw, however, that they were firing too high, and called out, "Ninth, Ohio, fire lower!"

The boys responded with a yell, and I heard two or three call out, "The colonel's out there, give it to 'em boys!" A rebel near me overheard this, and shouted to his companions, "God, Boys, there's a whole regiment of 'em". And at that they all broke and ran.

We found three of the cars wrecked, and a few of our men were badly hurt, some by the wreck, and some by the shots of the enemy.

One of the boys had the flesh on his leg so torn in the wreck as to expose the bone from the knee to the ankle. The surgeon, Dr. Finch, was unable to dress the wound in the dark. He called for a light, but there was none to be found, until John Brandenburg of Company "L" came running up with some candles. He said he was the last one to leave the camp. Just as he was ready to start he noticed a bundle of candles and thought of taking them, then hesitated thinking the delay would probably cause him to miss the train. But something seemed to impel him to go back and gather them up, and with the bundle of candles under his arm he reached the train just as it was pulling out.

Another of the injured was a boy about eighteen who had been lying on his back sound asleep on top of a car; evidently his lips had been closed, for a ball had crossed his mouth, and without touching his teeth, had cut both his upper and lower lips. I

consoled him by saying that this might get him a furlough to go home; that his sweetheart would be glad to see him, and particularly interested in the rapid healing of his wound.

A bullet passed through the sides of one of the cars and killed a colored cook who was lying asleep within.

In the meantime the wrecked cars had taken fire, and by the light of these the surgeon was better able to dress the injuries of the wounded.

We were detained two days before we could get another train to take us forward. Then we proceeded to Nashville, but finding no horses there, went on to Louisville where the government had a large corral of them bought especially for the cavalry. We remained there fully a month, selecting and testing horses. Many of these, we learned, had been rejected more than once, but had been taken back and craftily doped and doctored by the dealers until they looked good enough to be accepted.

The magnitude of those brazen rascalities would make common swindling seem innocent pastime, for these grafters were defrauding the government and jeopardizing the lives of honest men, by furnishing drugged and worthless horses to be used against the splendid cavalry of the South.

After a months' hard work assisted by the veterinaries, we finally selected 1,600 horses, and with each man riding one and leading three, we started for Atlanta.