d McCook far to the right. The greatest danger we need
apprehend is that the enemy may concentrate rapidly and fight our widely
separated corps in detail. Our transportation, necessarily large in any
case, but unnecessarily large in this, impedes us very much. The roads
up and down the mountains are extremely bad; our progress has therefore
been slow, and the march hither a tedious one. The brigade lies in the
open field before me in battle line. The boys have had no time to rest
during the day, and have done much night work, but they hold up well. A
katydid has been very friendly with me to-night, and is now sitting on
the paper as if to read what I have written.

17. Marched from Bailey's Cross-roads to Owensford on the Chickamauga.

18. Ordered to relieve General Hazen, who held position on the road to
Crawfish Springs; but as he had received no orders, and as mine were but
verbal, he declined to move, and I therefore continued my march and
bivouacked at the springs.

About midnight I was ordered to proceed to a ford of the Chickamauga and
relieve a brigade of Palmer's division, commanded by Colonel Grose. The
night was dark and the road crooked. About two in the morning I reached
the place; and as Colonel Grose's pickets were being relieved and mine
substituted, occasional shots along the line indicated that the enemy
was in our immediate front.

CHICKAMAUGA.

19. At an early hour in the morning the enemy's pickets made their
appearance on the east side of the Chickamauga and engaged my
skirmishers. Some hours later he opened on us with two batteries, and a
sharp artillery fight ensued. During this engagement, the Fifteenth
Kentucky, Colonel Taylor, occupied an advanced position in the woods on
the low ground, and the shots of the artillery passed immediately over
it. I rode down to this regiment to see that the men were not disturbed
by the furious cannonading, and to obtain at the same time a better view
of the enemy. While thus absent, Captain Bridges, concluding that the
Confederate guns were too heavy for him, limbered up and fell back.
Hastening to the hill, I sent Captain Wilson with an order to Bridges to
return; and, being reinforced soon after by three pieces of Shultz's
First Ohio Battery, we opened again on the advancing columns of the
enemy, when they fell back precipitately, evidently concluding that the
lull in our firing and withdrawal of our artillery were simply devices
to draw them on.

I