Louis by boat for supplying
his army, and requesting him to send a gunboat to convoy them; and to
Thomas, suggesting that large parties should be put at work on the
wagon-road then in use back to Bridgeport.
On the morning of the 21st we took the train for the front, reaching
Stevenson Alabama, after dark. Rosecrans was there on his way north.
He came into my car and we held a brief interview, in which he described
very clearly the situation at Chattanooga, and made some excellent
suggestions as to what should be done. My only wonder was that he had
not carried them out. We then proceeded to Bridgeport, where we stopped
for the night. From here we took horses and made our way by Jasper and
over Waldron's Ridge to Chattanooga. There had been much rain, and the
roads were almost impassable from mud, knee-deep in places, and from
wash-outs on the mountain sides. I had been on crutches since the time
of my fall in New Orleans, and had to be carried over places where it
was not safe to cross on horseback. The roads were strewn with the
debris of broken wagons and the carcasses of thousands of starved mules
and horses.
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