78 WHIP AND SPUR. 



to select six hundred of the best-mounted of my 

 men, and to attack Marmaduke, who was recruit- 

 ing, ninety miles away, at Batesville on the White 

 River in Arkansas. His main body, three thou- 

 sand five hundred strong, lay in the " Oil-Trough 

 Bottom," on the other side of the river. A bri- 

 gade of Western infantry was to march as far as 

 Salem (thirty miles), and to support us if neces- 

 sary ; though we afterward found that at the 

 only moment when we might have had grave 

 occasion to depend on them, they were, with an 

 inconsistency that was not the least attribute of 

 our commanding officer, withdrawn without notice 

 to us. 



We were to go in light marching order, car- 

 rying only the necessaiy clothing, and rations 

 of salt and coffee. Wettstein's ideas of lightness 

 differing from mine, I had to use some authority 

 to rid poor Klitschka of saucepans, extra boots, 

 and such trash; and after all, the rascal had, 

 under the plea of a cold, requiring extra blankets, 

 smuggled a neatly sewn sausage of corn, weigh- 

 ing some fifteen pounds, into one of his rolls. 



