regiments of cavalry, which had seen but little if any service. He arrived on the 19th of June, and began at once to have his horses shod and his men made ready for a move. He was then but a Lieutenant-Colonel, though assigned to this command as a Brigadier-General, to which rank he had been recommended for promotion, and the appointment was subsequently made on the 21st of July. After some delay and trouble with his Colonels, growing out of the question of rank, he moved from Chattanooga on the 8th of July, with about two thousand cavalry rank and file. In five days he had crossed the mountains, fought a severe battle at Murfreesboro', and with his two thousand cavalry, by hard fighting and a successful bluff, captured General Crittenden, with seventeen hundred infantry, four pieces of artillery, six hundred horses, forty wagons, twelve hundred stands of arms and ammunition, and a large quantity of clothing and supplies. A Union writer estimated their loss at one million dollars. In five days more he had driven the Union cavalry from Lebanon, captured three picket posts around Nashville with one hundred and forty-three prisoners, burned four important bridges near the city, a railroad station and a large supply of railroad wood, and made his escape from General Nelson, who was pursuing him with a largely superior force. On the 21st July, 1862, the day his commission as Brigadier-General bears date, while he was tearing up railroad track, burning bridges and doing much damage, he was so completely surrounded that his escape seemed impossible, and a telegram was actually sent to General Buell that he had been captured, with eight hundred men; but when the mountain passes were all guarded, and the enemy moving on him on every road, he coolly and quietly led his men out of the trap set for him, by taking the dry bed of a creek, with steep banks, that concealed him from view, running parallel with the McMinnivelle road, and passing almost under the troops drawn up in line of battle on this road to intercept him.
On the 23d he joined Bragg at Sparta, where he was for the first time furnished with a section of artillery, and as our army moved into Kentucky, was ordered to assist in protecting its left flank, which he did.
ORGANIZES A NEW COMMAND IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE.
But Forrest was best suited to independent action; and, at his own request, turned over his brigade in Bragg's army on the 27th of September, 1862, at Bardstown, Kentucky, and in five days had marched one hundred and sixty-five miles and was at Murfreesboro', Tennessee, to organize a new command.
By the first November, 1862, he had organized a new brigade, thirty-five hundred strong, and being anxious to retake the capital of his State, had persuaded General Breckinridge, then in command, to permit him, with his own force and three thousand infantry under General Roger Hanson, to attempt it. The movement was made; but just when the attack was about to begin, and when Forrest felt confident of success, an order came to retire.
