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SHERMAN on the 24th was not able to accomplish, as did
Hooker, all the task which was assigned to him, but it was not for lack of zeal on the part of the leaders or the men. Besides, the results which they have already achieved are considerable.
It was only in the evening of the 23d that his four divisions of the left wing found themselves collected near the crossing-point.
At midnight
Giles Smith's brigade embarks, on the bank of the
North Chickamauga, on the one hundred and sixteen boats collected by
Lieutenant Drener under the direction of
General W. F. Smith.
Noiselessly the lines are cast off, and the flotilla, reaching the waters of the
Tennessee, silently descends the stream, keeping close to the right bank.
Then, at a given signal, it comes to the shore on the opposite bank, somewhat below the mouth of the
South Chickamauga — that river so painfully suggestive to the Army of the Cumberland, and the troubled waters of which still appear dyed with the blood of its best soldiers.
Two regiments, quickly landed, surprise the enemy.
Some of the boats, thus unloaded, will be used to throw over the
Chickamauga a bridge which will enable
Long's cavalry rapidly to gain the rear of the hostile army.
Giles Smith lands, with equal good fortune, the rest of his brigade six hundred and fifty yards below the confluence.
Without losing a moment his soldiers begin the work which before daybreak will command the heads of the bridges, and they prepare on the shore, besides means of access, some landings for the steamboats.
Sherman, on the other hand, has moved forward, on the right bank of the river, all the artillery, yet silent, but ready with its fire to protect the crossing, and also
Lightburn's brigade, which, like
Giles A. Smith's, is under the orders of
Morgan L. Smith.
The three other divisions are under arms.
Meanwhile, the boats,
