which six miles
a day was all the distance a six-mule team could accomplish. This state
of affairs could not last long.

The Tennessee river is very crooked. Below Chattanooga it makes two
bends; the first, eight miles in circuit, and only one and a half
across; the other, thirty miles in circuit, and four miles across. If
these two peninsulas could be gained, wagon transportation would be
reduced to ten miles. To accomplish this, Hooker's command was ordered
from Bridgeport through Shellmount to the Lookout valley, thence to
Brown's ferry. While Hooker was doing this, a detail from Chattanooga,
under command of General Hazen, proceeded down the river in pontoon
boats to Brown's ferry, and succeeded in laying a pontoon bridge.

From here there was a good road to Kelly's ferry, and loaded wagons
could go from that point to Chattanooga in half a day.

On the night of the 27th, General Geary's division of Hooker's command,
pitched its camp in advance of the main force, near Wauhatchie in the
Lookout valley, and was attacked at two o'clock on the morning of the
28th.

Geary held his ground, and Longstreet was defeated with severe loss.
The night of this battle was clear, and the moon shone bright. The roar
of artillery and rattle of musketry could be distinctly heard from our
camp on the Chickamauga. Such an affair at the dead of night, when all
else is calm and hushed, presents a thrill of emotions that can be
experienced under no other circumstances.

On the 29th of October, Colonel Dan. McCook received orders to despatch
two of his regiments to the assistance of General Hooker, who was now
in the Lookout valley. The Eighty-sixth Illinois and Fifty-second Ohio,
were accordingly ordered to report to him. They crossed to the south
side of the Tennessee on the pontoon bridge at Kelly's ferry, below
Chattanooga. After crossing the river, the Eighty-sixth was sent to
guard a pass in the Raccoon ridge, and passed there a most miserable
night. It was perched on a hill-side, the rain falling in torrents, and
every man being obliged to hold to a sapling to keep from going down.

From this pass, the next day, the regiment went down the ridge to a
position opposite Lookout mountain, where it relieved a brigade of
Hooker's men. The enemy had a battery planted on the Lookout, at the
Point of Rocks, whence he shelled us continually. The boys could tell
when this battery would shoot, and dodge accordingly. It was here we
had our