The home-made little steamboat _Chattanooga_ was beset with difficulties
and dangers on her memorable voyage of November 30th. She made but slow
progress against the wind and the rapid current of the tortuous Tennessee.
Fearful of breaking a steam pipe or starting a leak, she crawled along all
day, and then was enveloped in one of the darkest of nights, out of which
a blinding rain stung the faces of her anxious crew. Assistant
Quartermaster William G. Le Duc, in command of the expedition, helped the
pilot to feel his way through the darkness. At last the camp-fires of the
Federals became guiding beacons from the shore and soon the _Chattanooga_
tied up safely at Kelley's Ferry. The "Cracker Line" was at last opened in
the nick of time, for there were but four boxes of hard bread left in the
commissary at Chattanooga, where four cakes of hard bread and one-quarter
of a pound of pork were being issued as a three-days' ration.
[Illustration: WHERE AN ARMY GAVE ITS OWN ORDERS