From time to time different regiments were sent forward to do picket duty.

I was on picket at the time the advance was made by Rosecrans.

At the time mentioned, I was standing about two hundred yards off the road, the main body of the pickets being on the Nashville and Murfreesboro turnpike, and commanded by Lieutenant Hardy Murfree, of the Rutherford Rifles.
I had orders to allow no one to pass.

In fact, no one was expected to pass at this point, but while standing at my post, a horseman rode up behind me.

I halted him, and told him to go down to the main picket on the road and pass, but he seemed so smiling that I thought he knew me, or had a good joke to tell me.