HIS FAMOUS RIDE.

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the Rossville Gap, in the mountain range, he rapidly pushed southward in search of General Thomas, the firing of whose guns, indicating that the Union troops were by no means in retreat, could be plainly heard. The sounds, borne on the peaceful breeze, were as fire to the heels of Garfield's horse. With the true soldier's spirit he strained every nerve to reach the scene of action, following Napoleon's advice to his generals: "March in the direction of the heaviest firing.

When he made this attempt, the road, by which he expected to reach General Thomas, was covered by sharp-shooters and the advance-guard of the rebels, who were pushing forward to secure possession of the road, and thereby cut off Thomas' line of retreat. Garfield did not know of their presence until he was admonished of it by the pattering of their too lively bullets. Garfield's horse and that of his guide, Captain Gaw, were shot at the first discharge; and Garfield's orderly was wounded, though not seriously. They were compelled to abandon the road, and take to the fields and the mountain-side, where Gaw's familiarity with the topography of the country came into play. Trusting himself implicitly to Gaw, Garfield was, after repeatedly avoiding avoiding danger, brought in safety to General Thomas' side.

"The Rock of Chickamauga" was reached just after the repulse of the enemy in a formidable assault all along his line, which the rebels had en

veloped on both flanks. Garfield found Thomas and his staff, General Gordon Granger, General J. B. Steedman, General Wood and others, grouped in a hollow of the open field, a depression just sufficient to protect them from direct fire.

Garfield at once gave Thomas a brief account of the disaster to the right and centre. The latter, in return, stated his own intention and situation. The conversation, however, was cut short by a fresh rebel assault. It was made in great force and with great desperation, the rebels evidently foreseeing, that, if repulsed, they could not get their troops in position for another assault before darkness came to the aid of the enemy. The fire lasted furiously for half an hour, when the rebels again broke and abandoned the assault. During this desperate melee, Garfield quietly sat on the ground behind a dead tree, and coolly indited a dispatch to General Rosecrans, detailing the situation. A white dove, after hovering around and above him for several minutes, finally settled on the topmost perch of the tree above his head. Here it remained during the heat of the fight; and when the musketry ceased, it flew away to the north. The attention of Garfield and General Wood was called to the bird. Garfield said nothing, but went on writing. Wood remarked: "Good omen of peace." Garfield finished his dispatch, sending it by an officer, and remained on the field with General Thhmas, until the retreat to

Chattanooga was effected the same night. At seven o'clock that evening, a shotted salute of six Napoleon guns was fired into the woods, at the last of the retreating assailants, under the personal supervison of General Gordon Granger and General Garfield-the last shots in the battle of Chickamauga. What was left of the Union army was master of the field. For the time the

enemy evidently regarded himself as repulsed; and Garfield said that night, and ever afterwards maintained, that there was no necessity for an immediate retreat on Rossville.

This was Garfield's last important military service. He wrote every order that day but one -the fatal one to General Wood, which, displacing his brigade, allowed Hood to break through and turn the Union flank. That Rosecrans himself wrote. But after Wood had been moved, and