night before last, unhitched and unharnessed. Laid down till 1 A. M.
when we were awakened and ordered to hitch up. No noise allowed to be
made. The pontooners marched by on quick time with axes, etc. Cogswell's
Battery moved out and took position in the front. We soon followed in
breathless silence, entered an open field and followed it up nearly half
a mile, when we came upon the column of infantry moving along in close
order and very fast. Not a breath could be heard, nothing but the
grating of their feet on the gravel was to be heard. Never did a more
earnest or thoughtful column move to meet the enemy. The column
proceeded to the river, and we went into battery in the field thirty
rods from the bank. The infantry were ferried across in the pontoon
boats. One division was already across. Contrary to all expectations not
a gun was fired, and we could hear nothing from our position of the
advancing column. The out-post guard were gobbled up by surprise and
sent over on this side. One escaped and carried the alarm that the
Yankees were coming, which was not believed. But the officer of the day
with seventeen men reconnoitered the grounds, and they too were "taken
in out of the wet" and taken across and put in charge of the guard of
the 5th Wisconsin Battery, they being stationed in a bastion on the
bank. The out-post very innocently told the story that upon hearing a
rustle in the brush which he challenged with a "'Halt! Hush you d----
fool you, the Yankees are right here upon us.' The fust thing I knew you
'uns hed me." While our Division was crossing, long trains of pontoons
came up there with a long line of snow-white ambulances which caused the
anxious question--"Who will be obliged to be borne in these from the
field of battle?" Then came the hospital train, a wagon for each
regiment in the Division, loaded with stores to establish a Division
hospital.

[Sidenote: 1863 Line to Line]

6 A. M. Two divisions were safely across and a more beautiful scene I
never witnessed. Through the gray dawn a long line of infantry could be
seen drawn up on the opposite banks a mile long, while the waters were
covered with boats busily going and coming, loaded with men, the
regimental colors standing in the center of the boat. The bridge was now
covered, boats brought up, anchored in line, and the floor laid without
any delay, the 4th Division marching in the boats and the artillery
covering the field. Fires were allowed to be bu