The troops marched and counter-marched till the month of March, 1864, when they joined Union General Steele’s forces, and marched against the enemy, who were posted on the west side of Prairie d’Ane, within twenty-five miles of Washington. As we came up, the enemy fled before us, and we occupied their works without having to fight for them! Indeed, a good deal of the warfare on the western frontier was nothing but marching and counter-marching; coming to blows now and then, in which we were mainly successful, for the rebels often preferred to fly before us! It was curious to note at the time how what appeared to be very frivolous circumstances led to pitched battles and the most serious results. Letters from newspaper correspondents, and private letters as well, made this quite clear. Private letters to friends were often more clear and explicit than the more general and profuse war correspondence. [Illustration: _A RELIC OF SLAVERY DAYS_] Col. Williams informs us that he arrived at Camden on the 16th of April, 1864, but on the following day, the 17th, started with five hundred men of the First Colorado, two hundred cavalry detailed from the Second, Sixth and Fourteenth Kansas regiments, and one section of the Second Indiana Battery, with a train for the purpose of loading forage and provisions at a point twenty miles west of Camden, on the Washington road. On the 17th he reached the place, and succeeded in loading about two-thirds of his train, which consisted of two hundred wagons; the rest of the wagons were loaded next morning as they passed along. At a point fourteen miles west of Camden, the advance encountered a small force of the enemy, who retreated down the road after some slight skirmishing, but did in such a manner as to convince the Colonel that it was a mere feint to cover other movements, or else to draw his command into ambush, as had already been done at Olustee, in Florida. The troops advanced with caution for about a mile and a-half to a place called Poison Springs, and here they came upon the skirmish lines of the enemy in a thickly-timbered region. Our troops drove in their skirmish lines, and discovered that the rebels were there in force. Indeed it was ascertained afterwards that there were about ten thousand of them, and their intention seemed to have been to eat us all up alive! To me it is a most astonishing thing to even think that our small force, not more than 1,000 men, should venture to contest a "field" of 10,000 rebels; but so it was, not only at the battle of Poison Springs, but such attacks were made again and again over the entire seat of war. Surely the colored troops must have had the hearts of lions, and a most tremendous amount of self-confidence even to look in the face of such odds!