In July, 1862, Gen. John H. Morgan, of Kentucky, who had considerable fame as a partisan Confederate officer, having been defeated at Lebanon, Tenn., reorganized his command and made Knoxville his starting point for a new expedition. He passed into Kentucky, capturing and destroying, engaged the Federals in battle at Cynthiana, and at length withdrew from that State before a superior force. One year later he again entered Kentucky from Sparta, Tenn., just west of the Cumberland Mountains, and went upon his well known raid into Ohio and Indiana. Afterwards he again appeared in East Tennessee, and one night, when asleep in a private dwelling, exceptionally well provided, at Greeneville, he was surprised by a party of United States soldiers. They had been informed as to where he lodged, and in his attempt, partially dressed, to escape through the garden of his hostess, a soldier fired upon and killed him. The ordinary routine of things at Knoxville was enlivened in the summer of 1862, by the arrival of some forty United States soldiers who had been taken prisoners by Col. Forest, in the military adventure and surprise he accomplished at Murfreesboro. They bore their adversity with fortitude and unlessened devotion to their country. Horses and wagons captured at the same time, accompanied them and with the prisoners presented a spectacle of military trophies that drew a crowd of triumphant beholders. Some of these spectators made then their safe and nearest approach to the destructive war, which they had rejoiced that others should carry on with danger and hurt. The captured men were sent to Georgia. An exhibition by authority--less creditable than the show of prisoners and horses--was that of the private correspondence seized at Murfreesboro, which was distributed the next day among soldiers and citizens and read on the streets. About the middle of August, 1862, Gen. Kirby Smith, having collected forces sufficient for the purpose, made a forward movement into Kentucky, crossing the mountains at a gap considerably west of that named Cumberland. Soon after he departed, Col. W. M. Churchwell, Provost Marshal, died of disease that was probably contracted through exposure the previous winter at Cumberland Gap. CHAPTER XII. NEWS AND LITERATURE IN THE CONFEDERACY--A MIXED DINNER PARTY AND ITS CONVERSATION--CARTER’S RAID AND WHAT BEFELL A RECRUITING OFFICER--AN UNTERRIFIED YANKEE CITIZEN OF GEORGIA--SANDERS’ RAID--DEATH OF PLEASANT MCCLUNG. “Young men soon give, and soon forget affronts; Old age is slow in both.” ADDISON’S _Cato_. “A wise man ... examines if those accidents Which common fame calls injuries, happen to him Deservedly or no. Come they deservedly? They are no wrongs then, but punishments: If undeservedly and he not guilty, The doer of them first should blush--not he.” JONSON.