of hours. After pursuing him several miles beyond Greenville, we returned to Bulls Gap to await supplies from Knoxville, and it was here we learned that John Morgan was on his way from the Watauga to "clean us up." The following is actually what occurred:
About 9 o'clock on the night of September 3, 1864, I was in my tent conversing with Captain Sterling Hambright, commander of the headquarters escort, when my orderly, Private David Cahill, knocked and told that "little Jimmy Leddy" wished to speak to me. Knowing the boy since the affair at Blue Springs, near his mother's house, I invited him in, and he told me that Morgan's men were all around his mother's place; that they took his mare, but that he afterwards found her and stole her from the soldiers, and came direct to our camp. I at first doubted his story, but finally concluded to awake General Gillem, who was asleep in the next tent to mine. Gillem acted immediately upon the boy's information; the command was silently aroused, and at about 10 P. M. Lieutenant-Colonel Ingerton, with the 13th Tennessee Cavalry, started. Ingerton's instructions were to get in the rear of the enemy and to attack as soon as he heard firing in front. The main column, consisting of the 9th Tennessee Cavalry, Colonel Brownlow; loth Michigan Cavalry, Major Newell; Patterson's battery of six guns; Colonel John K. Miller, I3th Tennessee Cavalry; General Gillem, staff and escort, started at 12 o'clock, midnight. The night was pitch dark; one of the most fearful thunder storms I ever witnessed prevailed for several hours, and had it not been for the constant flashes of lightning we could not have continued our march. About 5:30 o'clock on the morning of the 4th, we came upon the pickets, and the action commenced about 6. Colonels Vaughan and Giltner, of Morgan's force, who commanded in front, were completely surprised, and retreated at once. Colonel Ingerton, having been successful in getting to the rear of the enemy, was awaiting developments in his front, when a negro boy rode up and told him that Morgan and staff were asleep at Mrs. Williams' house in Greenville. Ingerton directed Captain Wilcox, of his regiment, to take two companies and capture Morgan. This force surprised the premises at 6 o'clock, and the soldiers began firing from their horses over the high board fence that inclosed the garden. It was from this fire that General Morgan received his death wound. The bullet entered his back, penetrating the heart, and death was instantaneous. He left the house as soon as he heard the firing, and walked down the garden. He was only partially
