A Tough Tussle. Ambrose Bierce

One night in the autumn of 1861 a man sat alone in the heart of a forest in western Virginia. The region was one of the wildest on the continent -- the Cheat Mountain country. There was no lack of people close at hand, however; within a mile of where the man sat was the now silent camp of a whole Federal brigade. Somewhere about -- it might be still nearer -- was a force of the enemy, the numbers unknown.