is sort of support they mutually braced each
other. A planking, some five feet wide, was then laid, and the horses,
wagons, and artillery were crossed without trouble. The bridge was built
in about two hours.

On the 24th we reached Greenville; that night a tremendous snow
fell--tremendous, at least, for the latitude and season. After crossing
Mud river, there was no longer cause for apprehension, and we marched
leisurely. Colonel Morgan had found the country through which he had
just passed filled, as he had expected, with detachments which he could
master or evade, and with trains, which it was pleasant and profitable
to catch. He and his followers felt that they had acquitted themselves
well, and had wittingly left nothing undone. If there was any thing
which they could have "gone for" and had not "gone for," they did not
know it. A very strong disposition was felt, therefore, to halt for a
few days at Hopkinsville, situated in a rich and beautiful country, the
people of which were nearly all friendly to us. We knew that we would
receive a hospitality which our mouths watered to think of. Colonel
Morgan felt the more inclined to humor his command in this wish, because
he himself fully appreciated how agreeable as well as beneficial this
rest would be.

Before commencing the long and rapid march from Gum Spring to
Hopkinsville, we had all been engaged in very arduous and constant
service. This last mentioned march was by no means an easy one, and both
men and horses began to show that fatigue was telling upon them. Many of
the men were then comparatively young soldiers, and were not able to
endure fatigue, want of sleep, and exposure, as they could do
subsequently, when they had become as hardy and untiring as wild beasts.
On this march I saw more ingenious culinary expedients devised than I
had ever witnessed before. Soldiers, it is well known, never have any
trouble about cooking meat; they can broil it on the coals, or, fixing
it on a forked stick, roast it before a camp fire with perfect ease. So,
no matter whether the meat issued them be bacon, or beef, or pork
freshly slaughtered, they can speedily prepare it. An old campaigner
will always contend that meat cooked in this way is the most palatable.
Indeed it is hard to conceive of how to impart a more delicious flavor
to fresh beef than, after a hard day's ride, by broiling it on a long
stick before the right kind of a fire, taking care to pin pieces of fat
up