A place was found at last, a rude wharf was constructed hastily, and the
fleet disgorged the army, boat by boat. Vast quantities of stores and
heavy cannon were also brought ashore. Despite the cold, Dick and his
comrades perspired all the morning over their labors and were covered
with mud when the camp was finally constructed at some distance back of
the Tennessee, on the high ground beyond the overflow. The transports
remained at anchor, but the fighting boats were to drop down the stream
and attack the fort at noon the next day from the front, while the army
assailed it at the same time from the rear.
The detachment of Pennsylvanians was by the side of Colonel Winchester's
Kentucky regiment, and Colonel Newcomb and his staff messed with Colonel
Winchester and his officers. There was water everywhere, and before
they ate they washed the mud off themselves as best they could.
"I suppose," said Warner, "that seventy per cent of our work henceforth
will be marching through the mud, and thirty per cent of it will be
fighting the rebels in Fort Henry. I hear that we're not to attack
until tomorrow, so I mean to sleep on top of a cannon tonight, lest I
sink out of sight in the mud while I'm asleep."
"There's some pleasure," said Pennington, "in knowing that we won't die
of thirst. You could hardly call this a parched and burning desert."
But as they worked all the remainder of the day on the construction of
the camp, they did not care where they slept.
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