SOLDIER 49 



on a plain by a beautiful creek (Thompson's), where the 

 water was knee-deep and ran clear as crystal. Co. K. was 

 ordered across to hold the roads on the edge of the adjoin- 

 ing woods, and after a short skirmish succeeded in effecting 

 their object. It rained quite hard, and of course we had to 

 be upon the watch most of the night. 



May 23, we started at 4 a.m., our men pretty well 

 fagged-out by two nights' duty; but no mercy was shown, 

 and the 25th was ordered to take the advance as skirmish- 

 ers; and a terrible time we had of it straggling through sand- 

 banks and ravines, forcing ourselves through bamboo 

 brake, pushing under and over vines, wading through 

 water, scratching and tearing ourselves with thorns, and 

 stumbling over ploughed fields. It was thoroughly ex- 

 hausting work and many a strong man gave out. At 9 

 o'clock a.m. we met the advance of Colonel Grierson's 

 cavalry, 1 and our poor wearied column of men was called 



1 The name of B. H. Grierson, Colonel of the 6th Illinois Cavalry, is 

 connected with one of the most daring enterprises of the Civil War. 

 While General Grant was manoeuvring to secure a position behind 

 Vicksburg, he wished to distract the attention of the enemy and wrote 

 to Major-General Hurlbut on February 14, 1863: " It seems to me that 

 Grierson with about 500 picked men might succeed in making his way 

 south and cut railroad east of Jackson, Miss. The undertaking would be 

 a hazardous one, but would pay well if carried out. I do not direct that 

 it shall be done, but leave it for a volunteer enterprise" (24 W. R. P. 

 Ill, p. 50). Colonel Grierson was not a man to decline such a chal- 

 lenge from the commanding general, and without doubt the general knew 

 it. He started from La Grange, Term., April 17, with about seventeen 

 hundred men, and four days later detached six hundred of them to destroy 

 the railroad between Columbus and Macon and make their way back to 

 La Grange. This move threw the enemy into confusion, and with the re- 

 mainder of his command he pushed on, making a march of some six hun- 

 dred miles in sixteen days, destroying as he went railroads, telegraphs, 



