276 Norra Carortina Troops, 1861-’65.

Captain of Company A. After the column started and had
gotten well on its mission towards Lexington, news of the
eapture of General Morgan’s command was received at head-
quarters and couriers sent to recall the expedition. The
courier sent with the dispatch for Scott’s Brigade never
reached his destination, being either killed or captured by the
“bushwhackers.” In perfect ignorance of the capture of
Morgan’s command in Ohio, we pressed on towards Lexing-
ton with all possible speed. The columns from upper and
lower East Tennessee being recalled, left the central column
without any support whatever. We encountered a force of
the enemy at Richmond, Kentucky, strongly posted on the
road south of the town. A sharp and spirited engagement
ensued lasting from early in the morning until noon, in which
the whole brigade was engaged. The enemy was finally
routed, many being captured and killed. The Fifth Bat-
talion was actively engaged in this battle, maintaining an 1m-
portant position on the left flank of our line and finally par-
ticipating in the charge that routed the enemy from their
strong position and drove them through the town and across
the Kentucky river. Without halting to take needed rest or
reckon the casualties of battle, we pushed on in the direction
of Lexington, frequently coming in collision with detach-
ments of the enemy, expecting every hour to hear from the
Chattanooga column at the common rendezvous. J ust before
reaching the city we observed a great cloud of rising dust,
such as is generally produced by a moving squadron of cav-
alry, and thought full surely it was the expected column, and
every moment looked for the arrival of a courier with a dis-
patch announcing the approach of the expected reinforce-
ments. Just at this time we were fired upon by a detachment
of the enemy’s outposts. Shots were exchanged, and the
horse of the vedette killed and himself captured. We after-
wards found in the soldier’s pocket a Cincinnati newspaper
containing a full account of the capture of General Morgan
and his command. This was the first information we had

received of the surrender of Morgan, but this was not the

worst news we received from the captured vedette. We were
told by him that we were confronted by 12,000 Federal

Firta Batration. 277

eavalry and mounted infantry, and in proof of his statement
he pointed to the great cloud of rising dust plainly visible on
the horizon off to our left flank. This was a condition not to

. be envied; our force did not exceed 1,500 all told—tired men

and jaded horses; two hundred miles from our lines in an
enemy’s country, confronted by a force many times as strong
as our own and a force of unknown proportions lurking in our
rear ready to assail us at the first opportunity, with the cer-
tain knowledge that no succor was available, the strrounding
prospects were anything but pleasing. To engage such a
force in open conflict was like sheer nonsense, and would cer-
tainly have resulted in the annihilation of the entire com-
mand, then and there. True, we might have enriched the
world’s history by a display of heroic splendor commensurate
with that of Leonidas and his invincible band of three hun-
dred Spartans who facing Xerxes’ army of a million of Per-
sian soldiers, yielded up their lives in the narrow pass of
Thermopylex rather than retreat, or by emulating the charge
of the “Light Brigade” that rode down into the “Valley of
Death” at Balaklava. The result would have been the same.
Leonidas’ display at Thermopylz has enriched the pages of
the world’s history with an act of unparalleled heroism and
bravery, and still the Persian army invaded Greece. The
world of modern chivalry applauds the bravery of the “Six
Hundred” who boldly rode “into the jaws of death” at Bala-
klava, and yet the Crimean war did not end a day sooner.
That little band of tired and hungry Confederate soldiers
drawn up in line of battle along the Lexington and Winches-
ter pike possessed all the courage and bravery necessary to
have made that “dark and bloody ground” as memorable in
the history of the world as that of Thermopyle or Balaklava.
They had the courage to do and die—they were Confederate
soldiers. Discretion is said to be the better part of valor,
and it seemed to prevail on this occasion. To risk a battle
with a force ten times the strength of our own would have
been inexcusable folly. We might have hurled our tired and
exhausted squadron of 1,500 famished soldiers and jaded
horses against the cohorts of the enemy, but it would have
been to us what the sunken road of Ohain was to the French