168 WHIP AND SPUR. 



speedily notified; and through this means we 

 were several times enabled to telegraph to Co- 

 lumbus early information of contemplated raids, 

 — information that was not always heeded, as the 

 surprise of Paducah (on the Ohio River) several 

 days after our warning sufficiently proved. 



One ambition of this worthy man had to remain 

 unsatisfied. How little this was due to the fact 

 that we at the headquarters were all perfectly 

 mounted, modesty makes it improper to state 

 here; but in our frequent meetings as we rode 

 outside the lines, he rarely failed to tell of some 

 particularly fine horse belonging to some partic- 

 ularly bad man and especially virulent Rebel, 

 which it would really be a virtue to "confisti- 

 cate." The worthy fellow was not satisfied with 

 his own conspicuous appropriations; he would 

 fain have mounted our regiments on the weedy 

 screws which the Rebel impressments had left 

 for the horsing of the crippled region of Western 

 Tennessee. Possibly, too, he may have had some 

 lurking fear that there was a suspicion of iniquity 

 in his thefts, and longed for the reassurance of 



