time in permitting a portion of the cavalry to get to the front, which was necessary, in order that it might reach the position assigned to it in the order of march. After this brief delay I pushed rapidly forward, and, although he road was very heavy, reached Franklin at 1.20 p. m. The whole line of march of the day bore unmistakable evidence of the signalers of the victory our arms had achieved and the completeness of the rout. The road was strewn with small-arms, accouterments, and blankets. The enemy had destroyed all the bridges over the Big Harpeth at Franklin, and as the rains of the previous night and that morning had so swollen the stream as to make it impassable by infantry without a bridge, it was necessary to halt to build one, the pontoon train not having come up. Colonel Suman, Ninth Indiana, nobly volunteered to build the bridge, and thanks to his energy and ingenuity and the industry of his gallant regiment, it was ready-though he had few conveniences in the way of tools, the scantiest materials, and the stream was rising rapidly-for the corps at daylight the morning of the 18th. This service was the more useful, as well as the more gratifying, as our cavalry, which, from reaching the Harpeth earlier on the 17th, had been able to ford it, was sharply engaged with the enemy's rear guard, several miles in front, and the whole corps was burning with impatience to get forward to join in the conflict. The corps was pushed rapidly across the Harpeth, pressed forward and marched eighteen miles that day, though the road was very heavy and many crossings had to be made over the streams. Near night-fall it passed in front of the cavalry and encamped about a mile in advance of it. The weather was very inclement.

During the night of the 18th the rain poured down in torrents, and the morning brought no improvement to the weather of the night. During the night I received instructions from the commanding general of the forces informing me, first, that the cavalry, then encamped in my rear, would move at 6 a. m., pass to the front, and that I should move out at 8 a. m. The cavalry had not all passed at 8 a. m., but at the appointed hour the corps was in motion. The rain still fell in torrents, flooding the earth with water and rendering all movements off the pike impossible. The head of the column advanced three miles and a half and arrived at rutherford's Creek. This is a bold and rapid stream, usually fordable, but subject to rapid freshest, and the heavy rains of the preceding twenty-four hours had swollen it beyond a possibility of it being crossed without bridges. To construct these it was necessary we should first occupy the opposite bank of the stream. As the head of column approached the creek the hostile fire from the southern bank opened with musketry and artillery. to clear the enemy from the opposite bank at the turnpike crossing, where the bridge for the passage of the artillery and trains had to be constructed, it was necessary to pass troops over, either above or below, and a s the pontoon train was not yet up, every expedient that ingenuity could devise was resorted to effect the desired object. Rafts were constructed and launched, but the current was so rapid that they were unmanageable. Huge forest trees growing near the margin of the stream were felled athwart the stream, with the hope of spanning it in this way and getting some riflemen over; but the creek was so rapid and the flood so deep that these huge torsos of the forest were swept away by the resistless torrent. In these efforts was passed one of the most dreary, uncomfortable, and inclement days I remember to have passed in the course of nineteen and a half years of active field service. Late in the afternoon some dismounted cavalry succeeded in crossing the creek on the ruins on the ruins of the railroad bridge and drove off the