This letter, written 1867 January 29, describes an attack on the 9th Tennessee Cavalry by a group of Confederate guerilla soldiers. Bayless is writing to Brownlow at Brownlow's request, and the letter is meant to detail the circumstances of Confederate guerilla John Pride's death. As written in the letter, Brownlow had forced Pride to surrender, but rather than be taken Pride fired two shots at Brownlow. Pride missed, and Brownlow was able to take deliberate aim and kill Pride. Bayless calls to mind a similar situation in which Captain James Bill was killed by a Confederate guerilla pretending to surrender to the Union Army. Bayless refers to the guerilla soldiers as dastardly and cowardly men and feels that Brownlow was justified in killing Pride.