A few days after the occurrences above narrated the army moved to Batesville, Arkansas, farther down the White river, and at a point where General Curtis expected to be met by gun-boats convoying steamers with supplies and ammunition for his army. No enemy opposed them, and there were no incidents of consequence on the march. There was a small force of rebel cavalry in the town, but it fled before the advance of the army after firing a few shots, which did no harm to any one.
Harry and Jack now believed that the long-talked-of advance on Little Rock had begun. Batesville is about one hundred miles from that city, and if unopposed in its march, the army could easily reach it in a week or ten days. The rumor went through the army that Little Rock was the objective point of the campaign, and bets were freely offered that the stars and stripes would float over the capital of Arkansas long before the fourth of July.
But there were serious difficulties in the way of the advance in the desired direction. In the first place, the river was unusually low for that season of the year, as it had only four feet of water in the channel, while the gun-boats and most of the transports needed not less than five or six feet. One of the gun-boats that tried to ascend the river was blown up by a rebel battery at St. Charles, and the transports could not move without the aid of their armed brothers. The wagon road to Rolla was a long one and open to interruptions by raiding bands of rebels. One entire train was captured and destroyed by them within thirty miles of Rolla, and other trains were more or less interfered with. The army was short of food and ammunition, and in such a condition it could not take the offensive.
To add to General Curtis's perplexities a part of his army (ten regiments) were ordered to join the forces of General Halleck, then besieging Corinth, Mississippi, and to move with all possible haste. They were ordered in the direction of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, two hundred and forty miles away. They performed the march in ten days, an average of twenty-four miles a day, which may be considered one of the best instances of marching during the war. Many of the men wore out their shoes on the journey, and were barefooted for the last fifty or sixty miles. The withdrawal of this force, added to the scarcity of provisions and ammunition, made the army too weak to venture upon Little Rock, and General Curtis began to turn his eyes in the direction of the Mississippi river.
The army remained seven weeks at Batesville, and during that period it sent out many foraging expeditions, in the hope of collecting provisions enough to subsist it without drawing upon its scanty supply of rations which it had received from Rolla. But in spite of all efforts the supply could not be maintained, and many a time the soldiers had to live two days upon food that would have been no more than enough for one. The gun-boats and the transports did not come, and instead of rising the river continued to fall.
Harry and Jack accompanied many of the foraging expeditions, and, on several occasions, they were of much practical service. Harry was able to find concealed stores of pork and bacon where others declared there was nothing, and one day Jack brought from under a heap of straw sufficient bacon to feed a whole regiment for nearly a week. Harry had a keen eye for chickens, and whenever he went on a tour it was a noticeable circumstance that General Vandever usually had chicken that day for supper. Jack was as sharp after pigs as Harry was for chickens, and many were the young porkers that fell into his hands.
One day they ran into a scouting party of rebels, and the foraging party had a sharp skirmish with their adversaries over the possession of a haystack. The rebels were discomfited and the unionists secured the coveted prize, but not until three of their number had been wounded, one of them severely. The rebels suffered to the extent of having two men killed, two or three wounded and four captured. The prisoners were taken back to camp under guard of two soldiers, assisted by our young friends, who kept a sharp watch to prevent the escape of the captives. During the march Harry fell into conversation with one of them, and very soon learned something that caused him to open his eyes with astonishment.
