CAMPAIGNING WITH MAX. 117 



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Early in the morning we "were on our way 

 toward the rear, — about eight thousand caval- 

 ry, ten sections of artillery, two thousand pack- 

 mules, and an unnumbered cloud of fugitive slaves 

 mounted on their masters' mules, often two or 

 three on each, and clustering under our shadow 

 as their only means of escape to the happy land 

 of freedom. In an organized advance, all of this 

 vast hanging on could be kept at the rear and 

 in good order; but on a retreat the instinct of 

 self-preservation always attacks first the non-com- 

 batant element, and during all the days that fol- 

 lowed, we found our way constantly blocked with 

 these throngs of panic-stricken people. 



No sooner had we turned tail than Forrest saw 

 his time had come, and he pressed us sorely all 

 day and until nightfall, and tried hard to gain 

 our flanks. A hundred times we might have 

 turned and given him successful battle, but, at 

 every suggestion of this, we received from our 

 general, who was well in advance of the retiring 

 column, the order to push forward and give our 

 rear a free road for retreat. Midnight found us 



