two miles from Gilchrist's Bridge. The remaining brigade was left with his trains. General Smith found good roads till the severe rains of the afternoon set in, when the roads were so bad that in places no ground could be found solid enough for the animals to stand upon, and the wagons had to be pulled out of the mire by relays of men. His Second Brigade succeeded in crossing Lumber River, and pushed on in the direction of Randallsville, the point indicated in the order of march for his whole division. His train and First Brigade did not get nearer the river than four miles, where the trains were brought into park and the troops bivouacked for the night. The First Division, moving in rear of the Third, only succeeded in wholly crossing Jordan's Creek by 3 p.m., and during the night pulled up to the neighborhood of the First Brigade of General Smith's. The roads that had been pretty good in the morning, when the Third Division passed, were impassable without corduroying before night. The Fourth Division broke camp at daylight from Springfield and moved by plantation roads to Laurel Hill and commenced crossing Jordan's Creek about 3 p.m. The whole of this division had not crossed the swamp along the creek before the heavy rain commence, sinking the bottom of the whole road theral Hazen's train in the morning. General Corse moved on until 9 p.m., corduroying almost every foot of the road and making about four miles from Jordan's Creek. One of the swamp bridges had sunk and his command bivouacked, with Juniper Swamp and Creek, swollen into quite a stream, flowing between his brigades. Each division had heavy working parties on the roads all night, preparatory for an advance in the morning. With things in this condition I received your Field Orders, Numbers 57, directing me to have my command across Little Rockfish Creek. circumstances were such that it was impossible to comply with this order, but I issued instructions to my division commanders, urging them to push forward their commands in the morning to the farthest point attainable. General Hazen was directed to close up his command on Bethel Church and report to headquarters the moment that he was ready to move forward. To the other divisions similar instructions were issued, Generals Smith and Woods to move via Randallsville and General Corse to follow General Hazen. Strong in the morning corduroying the road; it was impossible to move a wagon from the direct road; the country was a perfect quicksand. The corduroying through the swamps had to be made with trees, felled and split, and in some places fastened down with heavy stringers.

The movement of the 10th was a repetition of that of the preceding day. General Corse had rebuilt the bridge across Juniper Creek, crossed his whole division, and moved to Lumber River, then to the position occupied by General Hazen the night previous, massing his troops and trains till the road should be clear for his advance, General Hazen's train having but fairly stretched out. Colonel Wells Jones' brigade had been working through the entire morning on the road through Raft Swamp and across Mill Swamp, and the trains of this division drew out about 12 m. reaching and going into park at Bethel Church that night. General Hazen moved his other brigades forward about 3 in the afters to repair the roads in advance for the movement of his train, the same character of quicksand country being met with. During the night General Corse completed such parts of corduroying as General Hazen had omitted, and moved his supply and ordnance trains some three miles in advance of his infantry bivouacs, parking them in the neighborhood of the trains of the Second Division, about