HOW WE CONQUERED HALLECK TUSTENUGGEE. 311 



CHAPTER XXI. 



HOW WE CONQUERED HALLECK TUSTENUGGEE. 



" but quoth he, 



' It -was a famous victory.' " 



The winter had passed away and spring had come, 

 opening the pyramid of silver tulip-flowers of the pal- 

 metto royal (the yucca gloriosa of the naturalist), while 

 we were watching a chance to leave Tampa Bay. One 

 day the commanding officer detailed a company of men 

 to cross over the peninsula to the forts on the other side 

 for the purpose of keeping open the communication, and 

 learning the situation of the enemy, as well as of the 

 troops operating in the interior. 



"We accepted the chance, and the next day found us 

 with our packs slung on a mule, two canoes for ferrying 

 across rivers, and a company of about forty men winding 

 through the .pine lands that lie east of the bay. There 

 had been an old trail cut through here, marked by blazes 

 on the trees in the open woods and here and there a log 

 felled bridge-like across the creeks that intersected the 

 swamps ; but the trail was only useful as a guide, although 

 it is marked on the charts of that day as a military 

 road. 



