ille. The first
brigade was encamped along the river, from a point opposite Burkesville
to Irish Bottom. The division remained here for three or four days,
awaiting the return of General Morgan, who had left us at the recrossing
of the Cumberland to go to McMinnville and hurry forward some supplies
and ammunition. These stores were hauled to our camp in six wagons,
which had nearly not gotten to us at all. The heavy rains which had so
retarded the march of the division to Albany, had made the roads which
these wagons had traveled perfect quagmires. When they reached the Obie
and Wolf rivers, which are six miles apart at the points where the road
from Sparta to Monticello crosses them, they met with a very
discouraging sight. These little rushing mountain streams were much
swollen and too deep for any kind of fording. General Morgan instructed
his Acting Inspector, Captain D.R. Williams, an officer of great energy,
to have the wagons taken to pieces, and stowed, with their contents, in
canoes, and so ferried across. In this manner, all were crossed in a
single night. The mules were made to swim.

On the 2nd of July, the crossing of the Cumberland began, the first
brigade crossing at Burkesville and Scott's ferry, two miles above, and
the second crossing at Turkey-neck Bend. The river was out of its banks,
and running like a mill-race. The first brigade had, with which to cross
the men and their accouterments, and artillery, only two crazy little
flats, that seemed ready to sink under the weight of a single man, and
two or three canoes. Colonel Johnson was not even so well provided. The
horses were made to swim.

Just twelve miles distant upon the other side, at Marrowbone, lay
Judah's cavalry, which had moved to that point from Glasgow, in
anticipation of some such movement upon Morgan's part as he was now
making. Our entire strength was twenty-four hundred and sixty effective
men--the first brigade numbering fourteen hundred and sixty, the second
one thousand. This, however, was exclusive of artillery, of which we had
four pieces--a section of three-inch Parrots attached to the first
brigade, and a section of twelve-pound howitzers attached to the second.
Videttes, posted at intervals along the river bank, would have given
General Judah timely information of this bold crossing, and he would
have been enabled to strike and crush or capture the whole force. But he
depended on the swollen river to deter Morgan, forgetting