, only twenty miles from Marshall's intrenched
position. As the roads along the Big Sandy were impassable for trains,
and unsafe on account of the nearness of the enemy, he decided to depend
mainly upon water navigation for the transportation of his supplies.

The Big Sandy finds its way to the Ohio through the roughest and wildest
spurs of the Cumberland Mountains, and is a narrow, fickle stream. At
low-water it is not navigable above Louisa, except for small flat-boats
pushed by hand. At high-water small steamers can reach Piketon, one
hundred and twenty miles from the mouth; but when there are heavy
freshets the swift current, filled with floating timber, and the
overhanging trees which almost touch one another from the opposite
banks, render navigation almost impracticable. This was enough to
intimidate a man less in earnest than Garfield. He did not hesitate, but
gathering together ten days' rations, he chartered two small steamers,
and seizing all the flat-boats he could lay hands on, took his army
wagons apart, and loaded them, with his forage and provisions, upon the
flat-boats.

Just as he was ready to start he received an unexpected reinforcement.
Captain Bent, of the Fourteenth Kentucky, entering Garfield's tent, said
to him, "Colonel, there's a man outside who says he knows you. Bradley
Brown, a rebel thief and scoundrel."

"Bradley Brown," repeated Garfield, puzzled. "I don't remember any such
name."

"He has lived near the head of the Blaine, and been a boatman on the
river. He says he knew you on the canal in Ohio."

"Oh, yes, I remember him now; bring him in."

Brown was ushered into the general's tent. He was clad in homespun, and
spattered from head to foot with mud, but he saw in Garfield only the
friend of earlier days, and hurrying up to him, gave him a hearty grasp
of the hand, exclaiming, "Jim, old feller, how are yer?"

Garfield received him cordially, but added, "What is this I hear, Brown?
Are you a rebel?"

"Yes," answered the new-comer, "I belong to Marshall's force, and I've
come straight from his camp to spy out your army."

"Well, you go about it queerly," said Garfield, puzzled.

"Wait till you are alone, colonel. Then I'll tell you about it."

Col. Bent said in an undertone to Garfield, as he left the tent, "Don't
trust him, colonel; I know him as a thief and a rebel."

This was the substance of Brown's communication. As soon as he heard
that James A. Garfield was in comman