yet be required to complete
the bridge, but permission had been wrung from the 'commanding general'
to cross the river by fording, and comically minute the detailed
instructions of that order were for accomplishing the feat.

So on Saturday, the twenty-ninth of March, we passed over Duck river.
Other divisions immediately followed. By his importunity and
characteristic energy, General Nelson had thus secured for us the
advance for the seventy-five miles that remained of the march, and,
incalculably more than this, had gained days of precious time for the
entire army. How many hours later the Army of the Ohio might have
appeared at Shiloh in season to stay the tide of disaster and rescue the
field at last, let those tell who can recall the scenes of that awful
Sabbath day there on the banks of the Tennessee.

General Grant had established his headquarters at Savannah, and there
immediately upon our arrival our commander reported his division. Long
before night, camp rumors had complacently decided our disposition for
the present. Three days at Savannah to allow the other corps of our army
to come up with us, and then, by one more easy stage, we could all move
together up to Pittsburg Landing, and take position beside the Army of
the Tennessee. It was a very comfortable programme, and not the least of
its recommendations was the earnest of its faithful carrying out, which
appeared in the unusual regard to mathematical precision that our
officers had shown in 'laying off camp,' and the painstaking care they
had required on our part in establishing it.

There was but an inconsiderable force here, composed for the most part
of new troops from two or three States of the Northwest. I remember,
especially, one regiment from Wisconsin, made up of great, brawny,
awkward fellows--backwoodsmen and lumbermen chiefly--who followed us to
Shiloh on the next evening, and through the whole of Monday fought and
suffered like heroes, as they were. Our first inquiries, quite
naturally, were concerning our comrade army, and the enemy confronting
it at Corinth. Varied and incongruous enough was the information that we
gleaned, and in some details requiring a simple credulity that nine
months of active campaigning had quite jostled and worried out of us. It
seemed settled, however, that our comrades up the river were a host
formidable in numbers and of magnificent armament and _material_;
altogether very well able to take care of themselves,