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or their "Sam", thinking of course we knew them for they had "jined the Yankee Army". Bashful daughters of the mountains, barefooted and sunburned, stood apart in groups, and gazed in wonder and admiration at the strange and imposing vision of the long column of blue-clad horsemen with carbine and clanking sabre at their sides. "La, there they come! There they come! Haint they purty!" and "Land Sakes, haint the' a sight of 'em!" and "Won't they make them Johnnies run!" were their frequent

exclamations.

The enemy waited for us in force at Campbell's Station, ten miles out from Knoxville, and in a stubbornly fought battle were defeated. Knoxville was evacuated, and occupied by General Burnside. My friend, Colonel Sam Gilbert of the Forty-fourth Mounted Infantry, who was an excellent executive as well as a field officer, was appointed Post Commander, and I was made Provost Marshal.

The Knoxville Campaign has become American history, and it is not necessary to discuss it in this personal narrative.

Will say, however, that here for the first time. wire fence was used to obstruct a charge against artillery, and it is reported that in dredging the river thirty years after the bombardment, a twenty pound shell was found in the bottom of the river with the powder still dry, as the shell exploded on being tested in a fire.

But the result was a great disappointment to many of the citizens of Knoxville who confidently expected that Longstreet with his 20,000 men would promptly re-take the city. Many families busied themselves preparing something good for their soldier friends who were with that popular southern general; and a great deal of fine food and delicacies went to waste because they did not come. It will be remembered that Longstreet found Fort Saunders in the way, and his effort to pass it cost him over a thousand men in less than half an hour.

It is well known that in the beginning the state of Tennessee had voted a majority 60,000 strong against secession; this came principally from the mountain section. The powers in control at Nashville, however, were not satisfied with the result of this vote, and Governor Harris ordered a new election, and called out certain of the state militia in order to control it. As a result, the state of Tennessee was given to the South. The militia of the different states, as it was then constituted, owed their allegiance not to the President, but to their respective governors.

I was told that a Captain McCall of the state troops from one of the eastern counties of Tennessee, received an order from Nashville to report with his company to the provost marshal at Knoxville, fully armed and equipped. On arriving here he reported as directed, and was told to take his company out to the stockade to guard some prisoners.

They proceeded accordingly, but soon afterwards

were seen returning. The company was halted in line before the provost marshal's office, and Captain McCall entered. "Mr. Provost Marshal," said he, "I supposed that I should find a lot of roughs, blacklegs and outlaws in the stockade. Instead, I find only a number of good citizens from my neighboring county, and my old friend, Captain Brownlee. Brownlee and I were captains in the same regiment in Mexico. I saw him lead the Tennesseans under the Stars and Stripes up the heights of Chapultepec. He tells me that you'ns are tired of that old flag and want a new one, and because they don't, you've got them all in that pen out there. I'm here, sir, to tell you, they've a right to their choice of flags. I've got a hundred squirrel hunters from the mountains, fully armed, in line right here. Everyone of them can send a bullet through the head of a squirrel in the top of a tree, and we're going out and pull down your stockade and the men in it are going home like we are, and any body that don't like it had better keep away."

With that he returned to the stockade and put his words into effect; and both captains with new companies took their place afterwards under the old Flag of the Union. And this is the way the old ScotchIrish blood of the mountains maintained the loyalty of East Tennessee.

CHAPTER II.

Organization of the Second and Third Battalions.

On November 10th, while in Knoxville, I received an order to report to Camp Dennison to take command of the other two battalions which Governor Tod had secured for me. I placed the First Battalion in charge of Captain Sims, of Company “A”, and proceeded by way of Cumberland Gap to Camp Dennison to meet the officers and men. Here I remained a week and then reported to Governor Tod at Columbus to express my thanks and receive instructions. He gave me a commission of Lieutenant Colonel, dated November 19th, 1863, and directed me to return to Camp Dennison and open a school of instructions for both officers and men.

Quite a number of both had seen service in the infantry. We drilled for a month on foot, and then horses were secured and were distributed among the companies by color, so that we had three companies on black horses; three on bay; one, sorrel; one, gray; and the band of sixteen pieces, on cream colored

mounts.

On the 2d of December, 1863, I was commissioned as Colonel, and the regiment was fully organized as the Ninth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry commissioned as follows:

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