About eleven o'clock they laid the first ambuscade, but Forrest contrived to discover it in advance and, instead of walking into it, caused us to dismount and get into line and crawl up close to the enemy's position.
It would have made too much noise to have brought up a piece of artillery by horse power so soldiers were harnessed to it and dragged it to a point within two hundred yards of the enemy's line.
When the proper moment arrived, he ordered the cannon to open and the cavalry likewise so that we surprised the enemy instead of them surprising us. I walked along the line where they had been formed and found it littered from end to end with small bits of paper. It looked as if every man in their column must have employed the leisure afforded by that stop to tear up all the private letters found upon his person. It was clear that their alarm had become serious and would help us much if we could keep it up.
This is a very good short synopsis illustrating the genius of Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedord Forrest. The early actions described in this story took place not far from where I live (Courtland, Mt. Hope, Moulton, Days Gap, etc.). The story deals with NBF's pursuit of Col. Abel Streight across north Alabama and into GA and how Forrest captured a force over three times the size of his. I had heard stories of how Erwin Rommel and a contingency of German officers toured every one of these battlefields where Forrest fought prior to WW2. I later discovered while reading a biography of Rommel that he himself was not present, but a group of officers from the German War College did in fact visit every one of these battle sites. I am sure "The Wizard of the Saddle" had no idea his tactics would go on to lay the foundations of a new type of mechanical warfare that would come to be known as "Blitzkreig".
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