is situation. Of his own movements he was bound to
suppose that Taylor had received early and full information.
Moreover, the topography of the country where Grover found himself
was obscure and to him unknown. Instead, therefore, of marching
forward as fast as his troops could land, boldly and at all hazards
to seize the roads by which Taylor must retreat, Grover now took
counsel with prudence and concealing his force behind the natural
screen of the wood, waited till his whole division should be fully
ready.

Thus it was six o'clock and the sun stood low among the tree-tops
when Grover, with Birge and Kimball, took up the line of march for
the Teche. Crossing the upper of the two bridges, he went into
bivouac on the right bank on the plantation of Madame Porter, and
called in Dwight's detachment. Before setting out to rejoin the
division Holcomb burned the lower bridge, under orders, and then
marching up the left bank, crossed the upper bridge at a late hour
of the night. In Grover's front stood Vincent alone, for Reily
had not yet come; but in the darkness it was impossible for Grover
to make out the enemy's force, or even to find his exact position.

When about nine o'clock that night, as related in the last chapter,
Taylor heard the news from Reily, he supposed Grover to be already
in strong possession of the only road by which the Confederates
could make good their retreat up the Teche; yet desperate as the
situation seemed, Taylor at once made up his mind to try to extricate
himself from the toils. Sending his wagon train ahead, soon after
midnight he silently moved out of the lines of Bisland and marched
rapidly on Franklin, leaving Green to cover the rear and retard
the pursuit. These dispositions made, Taylor himself rode at once
to his reversed front, a mile east of Franklin. With him were
Reily, whom he had picked up on the road below Franklin, Vincent
who with the four guns of Cornay was still watching Grover, and
Clack's Louisiana battalion, which had come in from New Iberia just
in the nick of time. The plantation with the sugar-house, then
belonging to McKerrall, is now known as Shaffer's. The grounds of
Oak Lawn adjoin it toward the east and north, and along its western
boundary stand Nerson's Woods, whence the coming battle takes the
name given to it in the Confederate accounts. Here, beneath the
trees, along their eastern skirt and behind a stout fence, Taylor
formed his line of battle,