"If I would give you your supper and let you go,' I asked, "where would you go?"

?"

"I'd hunt up the man that stole my overcoat and lick him and then go to my regiment."

"Would you fight us again if you got a chance?" "Of course, I would. That's what I enlisted for." "Well, then we will keep you here. I think you are an honest boy with good mettle in you. Come, as you say you are hungry. If you will sit down here you shall have a good supper with me but we will try and keep you from killing any of us."

I don't think he ever found his overcoat.

Kilpatrick received orders from General Sherman. to cross the Cape Fear River with his entire command and move on Lexington. Heavy rains had fallen and the roads were so swampy that a long corduroy bridge was found to be under water. The artillery horses of the Second Brigade broke through. The night was dark and wet. To get the guns forward ropes were brought and fifty men were required to pull each of them through. This kept us at work all night. Next morning we breakfasted on a near by plantation. We fed the horses on corn which we found in a crib and parched some for ourselves, which, with honey we took from a bee hive was all we had for breakfast. While eating this, Captain Estes, Kilpatrick's adjutant general, reached us on foot in his shirt sleeves, out of breath, saying that the Third Brigade, which had marched three miles in advance, had been attacked before daylight and their headquarters, with their

horses and equipment, had been captured; that the general and most of the staff had broken for the brush, half dressed, and he had run back to hurry us up. We were not in very good condition to hurry, but soon found that we were not needed. Lieutenant Colonel Stough of the Ninth Ohio with his four hundred dismounted men were camped close by.

When we arrived, however, we found a strange condition of things. General Kilpatrick and staff had been marching with the Third Brigade three miles in advance. Knowing that fact, General Wheeler made an attack before daylight and captured. headquarters with all its property, the artillery and most of the staff officers, although General Kilpatrick made his escape half dressed into the swamp near by.

But it so happened that about four hundred dismounted cavalrymen of our brigade had exchanged their carbines for Springfield rifles and had been marching with the wagon train as infantry under command of Lieutenant Colonel Stough of the Ninth O. V. C., assisted by Lieutenant Louis Geague, Co. E., and Sergant Rice infantry men and good officers, and by officers from other regiments having dismounted men. They had encamped behind a swamp not far from Kilpatrick's headquarters with Colonel Spencer of the 3rd Brigade. In the morning before daylight the enemy made an attack and captured the headquarters and the battery belonging to the 3rd Brigade, including a number of the officers. General Kilpatrick, however, escaped, partly dressed, and remained under cover.

In the meantime Colonel Stough rushed his men to the rescue, and, after firing a volley from his Springfield rifles, charged with the bayonet, re-taking the captured battery. This determined attack the enemy mistook as coming from the 14th Corps which they knew had encamped near by. Officers retook the battery and opened with canister and the enemy were driven from the field and the headquarters of the 3rd Brigade were retaken. When the sun arose the head of the 14th Corps appeared in sight. The enemy lost a large number of men in killed and wounded, including a number of officers.

This timely and dramatic affair released Colonel Spencer and his staff, enabled General Kilpatrick to return from his seclusion and finish his toilet, and smothered the ridicule which the infantry tried to attach to the affair by referring to it as "Kilpatrick's Shirt-tail Skedaddle." Colonel Stough and the dismounted men of our brigade received great credit for this timely dash and Colonel Stough was complimented with the brevet rank of Brigadier General. After the war Lieutenant Geague wrote me that General Kilpatrick had called on him in his western home and spoke in admiration of the affair, saying at the same time that the Ninth Ohio was one of the best disciplined volunteer cavalry regiments that he ever commanded.

CHAPTER 24.

The Last Engagement of the War.

March 17th, 1865, General Johnston evacuated Goldsboro and intrenched his forces on the road leading to Raleigh. This gave us undisputed connection with the North. Here the Ninth Ohio exchanged their Burnside breech loading carbines for the more effective seven shooting Spencers. We also secured a number of convalescents who were waiting for us, and quite a number of recruits who presented themselves too late to be of any value to the service and most of whom had been induced to volunteer by the large bounties they could secure and through the conviction that the war was about over.

One of them who had been in our brigade about a week, got some whiskey and a horse and with a comrade took a ride to the country. He overtook an old citizen carrying a jug, which he demanded, thinking it contained whiskey; and when the old man declined to do this, he shot him. This recruit was promptly arrested, tried by "Drumhead" Court Martial next day and ordered shot.

A box was made that day; next morning marching orders were received and when all was ready the division started on the road to Raleigh. The man was put in an ambulance and brought out under guard

behind the command to a vacant spot outside of the city, riding on his box to where a grave had been dug. Here the brigade of four regiments was ordered up in the form of a hollow square. The man was brought in the ambulance to the grave beside which the box was placed. He was made to kneel on the box, and after he had cast a look around, he was blindfolded. A detail of eight soldiers took their places ten steps in front of him; eight loaded guns were given themseven with ball, and one blank. When all was ready I heard him say, "Schoot me schrait in the breast, boys. Schoot me schrait in the breast. I think it will be better for me."

The guns were leveled and the white napkin fell. I saw his blouse "fly" out from his back as seven balls went through him and he fell upon his coffin. He was buried where he fell. At the sound of the bugle "Fours right, Forward March" was given and the tragedy was over. It was learned that the man was from Canada, and had been making a business of Bounty Jumping.

But when he, like others of his class, found the Confederacy dying, he enlisted to be in at the death.

Among the convalescents who reached us was my young cousin, Daniel Hamilton, a younger brother to the late adjutant. He had been taken down with typhoid fever at Decatur, Alabama, before the Rousseau. raid and was unable to join us in the Grand March, but obtained permission to meet us at Goldsboro.

When taken sick at Decatur he was cared for and