[137] north, and well up abreast. That evening Sherman requested me if possible while pursuing the enemy to so slow up my march as to let the left wing seize Fayetteville. The reason given was that Slocum's division would have the advantage which arose from the primary occupation of a town. Increase of supplies as well as honor thus usually came to the first occupants.
I was not far from Dan's Bridge when Captain Duncan, having my consent, with his scouts and a small escort pushed on ahead to Fayetteville. He found some show of a picket line which he avoided, and came to what is called Little Rock Fish Creek Bridge, which was unaccountably spared by the enemy.
Of this Duncan immediately took possession. Very early the next morning (March 11th) I instructed Duncan to take all our mounted men (his own and Captain King's) and scout toward Fayetteville and keep us informed of what was going on. He again encountered the enemy's pickets just before reaching the city. He drove them so easily before him that he did not anticipate much force ahead, and so pressed on into the city itself. Duncan, while caring for his men, discovered a large force of cavalry on some high ground ready to pounce upon him. He succeeded, however, in saving his command, but he himself in the rear was captured; he, however, escaped and came into bivouac and was described by Sherman as having been stripped of everything valuable, and being clothed in an old unpresentable dress. The account of Duncan's interviews with Butler, Hampton, and Hardee was very entertaining, and is still, as he vividly recalls it. Hardee, Duncan declares, treated him with kindness, but was very anxious to find how he had happened
