quent active military operations defeated this part of my plans, though the data on hand will enable me to make a tolerably good map of the territory alluded to.

On the 23rd October, I accompanied the general commanding to Loudon, where the ground was thoroughly reconnoitered, and on Tuesday, October 27, after two strong reconnaissances in the direction of the Sweet Water, it was decided to evacuate Loudon, not because it was untenable, but in order to adopt another line much more favorable.

This was the line of the Tennessee from Kingston to Lenoir's, where a pontoon bridge was to be thrown over the Holston, thence, by the right bank of the Little Tennessee River, to a point sufficiently near the mountains to render a movement by the enemy around that flank impracticable. This line required a much smaller force to hold, particularly as the autumn rains were coming on, when the Little Tennessee would not be fordable.

The wisdom of this movement became apparent to those who had misunderstood it, when Longstreet made his advance upon Knoxville in two columns (infantry) by the way of the Kingston road, and a heavy cavalry force via Maryville, having for its object to seize the heights on the south side of the Holston opposite Knoxville. We all have a lively and grateful remembrance of the beautiful manner in which this latter movement was thwarted, by that very force which had been guarding the right bank of the Little Tennessee.

By direction of the general commanding I took up the pontoon bridge at Loudon, on the morning of the 28th October, immediately after the troops had crossed it, and transported it to the railroad track at the east end of the Loudon bridge, whence the boats, forty in number, the chess, and a part of the anchorage, after being loaded upon the cars, were carried to Knoxville. This occupied the limited transportation of the railroad for two days, so that it was not until 1 o'clock p.m. of Sunday, November 1, that the bridge was finally in a condition to permit Sanders' division of cavalry, with its baggage, to cross on it from Knoxville to the south bank of the river. The bridge was thrown across the river at the mouth of First Creek.

The transportation and reconstruction of this bridge, while it involved no great skill, did require an immense amount of hard labor; but the usefulness of the bridge has been so great that a hundred times as much would have been well spent.

The bridge across the Holston, at Lenoir's, was successfully constructed out of the material at hand, by Lieutenant-Colonel Babcock, assistant inspector-general, of the Ninth Army Corps. It was destroyed by ourselves in the subsequent operations.

About this time I received orders to build a pontoon bridge which could be transported upon the ordinary army wagons. There was absolutely nothing prepared in the way of material. The lumber was standing in the woods, and the nails ware laying around the railroad shops in the shape of scraps of old iron. Blacksmiths were at once set a work transforming the scraps into sails; and the sawmills to sawing the lumber. Unfortunately, the saw-mills under my control were sadly out of repair, and it was only after the most vexatious delays, on account of broken machinery, that we were able to get even a small portion of the lumber together.

A part of the Engineer Battalion was at work upon the bridge