Page:Palo'mine (1925).pdf/192

 but more often in a squadron, or even in a single troop. Their work was to cross into Tennessee between forts and cut railway connections, to tear up tracks, burn bridges, capture provision trains, and do all the damage to the Confederate cause they could. So they were here and  somewhere else. They went like the wind and struck like lightning. They carried little baggage and lived off the country, which meant that they frequently went hungry. Often they slept in the snow with no tent over them, while their horses browsed like deer.

At first Halsey had thought the work very cruel, destructive and inhuman. His first battle which was little more than a skirmish, made a great impression on him. He and Palo'mine were taken prisoners and but for the lucky termination of the affair their usefulness to Uncle Sam might have ended then and there.

The Buckeye Raiders had surprised a large wagon train of provisions for the Confederate army about fifty miles south of the