de
immediately beyond Adamsville, on the same road. The Third Brigade went
into camp on the inner slope of a sharp ridge, and cut down the timber
on the exterior slope, to aid the holding of the position in case of an
attack in front.

While Grant's army was sailing up the river and getting settled at
Pittsburg, General Buell with five divisions of his army was marching
from Nashville to Savannah. Immediately on receiving General Halleck's
order to march, he sent out his cavalry to secure the bridges on his
route, in which they succeeded, except in the cases of the important
bridge over Duck Creek at Columbia, and an unimportant bridge a few
miles north of that. On the 15th, the Fourth Division, commanded by
Brigadier-General A. McD. McCook, moved out, and at intervals, up to
March 20th, it was followed in order by the Fifth, Brigadier-General
T.L. Crittenden, Sixth, Brigadier-General T.J. Wood, and First,
Brigadier-General George H. Thomas--37,000 men in all. Having no
pontoons, General Buell built a bridge over Duck Creek. This would have
caused little delay later in the war; but to fresh troops, who yet had
to learn the business of military service, it was a formidable task, and
was not completed till the 29th. While waiting for the completion of the
bridge, General Buell's command learned that General Grant's army was on
the west bank of the Tennessee. General Nelson at once asked permission
to ford the stream and push rapidly on to Savannah. Permission being
obtained, the division, with Ammen's brigade--the Twenty-fourth Ohio,
Sixth Ohio, and Thirty-sixth Indiana in front--began their march early
on the morning of the 29th, the men stripped of their pantaloons,
carrying their cartridge-boxes on their necks; the ammunition-boxes of
the artillery taken from the limbers and carried over on scows, and
tents packed in the bottom of the wagon-beds, to lift ammunition and
stores above water.

The bridge was finished and the march resumed the same day. Nelson
having secured the advance, his eagerness gave an impetus to the entire
column. The divisions were ordered to camp at night six miles apart,
making a column thirty miles long. But this prevented the clogging of
the march on the wet and soft roads, the alternate crowding up and
lengthening out of the column, the weary waiting of the crowded rear for
the obstructed front to move, nights spent on the road, and late
bivouacs reached toward morning. It made Buell's advan