, and disappeared, and still everything remained quiet. The main
line followed, and after gaining the woods, we discovered plenty of
evidence that they had quite recently been occupied by a body of
cavalry. The ground was cut up by horses' tracks, and little piles of
corn in the ear, only partly eaten, were scattered around. We advanced
through the woods and swamps for some miles and scouted around
considerably, but found no enemy, except a few stragglers that were
picked up by our cavalry. We left Augusta on the 24th, on our
steamboat, and arrived at Little Rock on the same day. I met the
chaplain on the boat while on our return, and remarked to him that,
"Those mighty men who could kill a jaybird with a sling-shot a quarter
of a mile off didn't stay to see the show." "No," he answered; "when
the sons of Belial beheld our warlike preparation, their hearts melted,
and became as water; they gat every man upon his ass, and speedily
fled, even beyond the brook which is called Cache." He then went on to
tell me that on our arrival at Augusta there was a body of Confederate
cavalry near there, supposed to be about a thousand strong, under the
command of a General McRae; that they were bivouacked in the woods in
front of the line of battle we formed, and that on our approach they
had scattered and fled. The enemy's force really exceeded ours, but, as
a general proposition, their cavalry was reluctant to attack our
infantry, in a broken country, unless they could accomplish something
in the nature of a surprise, or otherwise have a decided advantage at
the start.

On May 16th we shifted our camp to Huntersville, on the left bank of
the Arkansas river, and near our first location. We thus abandoned our
log cabins, and never occupied them again. They were now getting too
close and warm for comfort, anyhow. But they had been mighty good
friends to us in the bitterly cold winter of '63-4, and during that
time we spent many a cosy, happy day and night therein.

On May 19th we again received marching orders, and the regiment left
camp that night on the cars, and went to Hicks' station, 28 miles from
Little Rock. We remained here, bivouacking in the woods, until the
22nd, when, at 3 o'clock in the morning of that day, we took up the
line of march, moving in a northerly direction. The troops that
composed our force consisted of the 61st, 54th, and 106th Illinois, and
12th Michigan (infantry regiments), a battery of artillery, and som