In person I crossed on the 1st of November, and rode forward to Florence, where I overtook Ewing’s division.  The other divisions followed rapidly.  On the road to Florence I was accompanied by my staff, some clerks, and mounted orderlies.  Major Ezra Taylor was chief of artillery, and one of his sons was a clerk at head-quarters.  The latter seems to have dropped out of the column, and gone to a farm house near the road.  There was no organized force of the rebel army north of the Tennessee River, but the country was full of guerrillas.  A party of these pounced down on the farm, caught young Taylor and another of the clerks, and after reaching Florence, Major Taylor heard of the capture of his son, and learned that when last seen he was stripped of his hat and coat, was tied to the tail-board of a wagon, and driven rapidly to the north of the road we had traveled.  The major appealed to me to do something for his rescue.  I had no cavalry to send in pursuit, but knowing that there was always an understanding between these guerrillas and their friends who staid at home, I sent for three or four of the principal men of Florence (among them a Mr. Foster, who had once been a Senator in Congress), explained to them the capture of young Taylor and his comrade, and demanded their immediate restoration.  They, of course, remonstrated, denied all knowledge of the acts of these guerrillas, and claimed to be peaceful citizens of Alabama, residing at home.  I insisted that these guerrillas were their own sons and neighbors; that they knew their haunts, and could reach them if they wanted, and they could effect the restoration to us of these men; and I said, moreover, they must do it within twenty-four hours, or I would take them, strip them of their hats and coats, and tie them to the tail-boards of our wagons till they were produced.  They sent off messengers at once, and young Taylor and his comrade were brought back the next day.

Resuming our march eastward by the large road, we soon reached Elk River, which was wide and deep, and could only be crossed by a ferry, a process entirely too slow for the occasion; so I changed the route more by the north, to Elkton, Winchester, and Deckerd.  At this point we came in communication with the Army of the Cumberland, and by telegraph with General Grant, who was at Chattanooga.  He reiterated his orders for me and my command to hurry forward with all possible dispatch, and in person I reached Bridgeport during the night of November 13th, my troops following behind by several roads.  At Bridgeport I found a garrison guarding the railroad-bridge and pontoon bridge there, and staid with the quartermaster, Colonel William G. Le Due (who was my school-mate at How’s School in 1836).  There I received a dispatch from General Grant, at Chattanooga, to come up in person, leaving my troops to follow as fast as possible.  At that time there were two or three small steamboats on the river, engaged in carrying stores up as far