Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/456

Rh transferred to the command of General Wheeler, then chief of cavalry. Afterward it fought in Martin's division. It was in constant, active and arduous service, often far in front of the Confederate forces, on the flanks or in the rear of the enemy, or raiding the enemy’s territory and destroying his supply trains. It was in daily conflict with the Federals, and the aggregate of its losses was large. It was in the fights at Lavergne, Shelbyville, Murfreesboro, Tracy City and Chickamauga, and in the famous raid in the Sequatchie valley, in which 1,000 wagons, loaded with stores, were burned, and 4,000 mules were butchered. With the brigade his work was of the same nature on a larger field and with greater responsibilities. With it he shared the hardships and the dangers of the campaigns around Knoxville, against Burnside, and in east Tennessee, and, subsequently, having been ordered from the French Broad to General Johnston at Dalton, participated in the Atlanta campaign. When General Hood began his movement upon Nashville, General Morgan was left with his command south of Atlanta to watch and harass General Sherman. This was his last service in the field, being then detached to raise regiments for the depleted ranks of the army. He was at Meridian, Miss., when the surrender of Lee and Johnston put an end to the war.

In outpost and detached warfare, in which three of the four years' military service of General Morgan were passed, opportunities for attracting attention and gaining distinction are infrequent. The enemy is to be observed, his raids interrupted and driven back, his communications cut, his trains attacked and his advance delayed; and a force, necessarily dispersed in these varied, arduous and incessant duties, gives up in its daily skirmishes its tens and twenties of gallant men who have ridden far and fast, and watched and fought and bled in obscure engagements for the information of the commanding general and the safety of the army which presently is to meet its opposing enemy in the open day and achieve renown before the