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 COPYRIGHT, 1911, REVIEW OF REVIEWS CO.] At Missionary Ridge (seen in the distance in the lower picture) the Army of the Cumberland removed forever from Grant's mind any doubt of its fighting qualities. Grant, anxious to develop Bragg's strength, ordered Thomas, on November 23d, to demonstrate against the forces on his front. Moving out as if on parade, the troops under Gordon Granger drove back the Confederates and captured Orchard Knob (or Indian Hill) a day before it had been planned to do so. Still another surprise awaited Grant on the 25th, when from this eminence he watched the magnificent spectacle of the battle of Chattanooga. Thomas' men again pressed forward in what was ordered as a demonstration against Missionary Ridge. Up and over it they drove the Confederates from one entrenchment after another, capturing the guns parked in the lower picture. "By whose orders are those troops going up the hill?" "Old Pap" Thomas, who knew his men better than did Grant, replied that it was probably by their own orders. It was the most signal victory of the day. [Illustration: THE CAPTURED CONFEDERATE GUNS COPYRIGHT, 1911, REVIEW OF REVIEWS CO.] [Illustration: THE MEN WHO COMPLETED THE VICTORY COPYRIGHT, 1911, REVIEW OF REVIEWS CO.]