ed. The enemy had possession of
the springs we had used the day before, and our details walked
unconsciously into his hands. There was not a drop of water on the whole
field, and men and officers resigned themselves to the torments of
thirst, a thousand times worse than the gnawings of hunger. But with
daylight we could at least get some idea of our position. In front was a
dense forest, in which nothing was to be seen except our own skirmishers
a few yards in advance. Just behind us was an oblong open field, three
hundred yards wide and thrice as long. On the other side of this field
ran the Rossville road. Beyond our division, to the left, was Johnson's,
and then Baird's division, the latter forming the extreme left of the
army, and extending off into the woods beyond the lower end of the open
field. To our right--though this we could not see, the line being in a
dense forest--was the division of Reynolds; beyond him was Brannan, and
then came Wood; and so on to the right of the army, in what further
order we did not know. It was evident that the line had been hastily
formed: the divisions had been placed just as they were picked up in the
confusion of the night. No corps was together in the line, but it was
made up of a division from one corps, then a division from another, and
then one from a third corps, and so on. Thus it happened that the four
divisions on the left of the line had with them no corps commander.

In the idle hour after daylight our brigade commander directed the
construction of a barricade of rails and logs, a little more than
knee-high, along the front of his command. Some of the troops on the
left and the right followed the example. The supposition was that the
game would be changed this day, and that we should stand for attack as
the enemy had done the day before. There was no little satisfaction in
thinking that Bragg's men would have a chance to walk up to a fire at
least as murderous as we had faced when attacking them. If the
haversacks were empty and the canteens had gone for water never to
return, the cartridge-boxes were full, and each man had about him an
extra package or two of cartridges.

The morning wore slowly away, and on our part of the line everything was
remarkably quiet. There was some skirmishing toward the right between
eight and nine o'clock, but evidently nothing serious. The barricade was
finished, and there was nothing to do but to lie behind it and wish for
water as the