“On the 6th, the memorable Sunday, a sentinel woke me from sleep on the steamboat serving me for headquarters. He reported cannonading up the river. When I reached the hurricane deck dawn was breaking. The air was humid and heavy, but still. The guns were quite audible. Five minutes—ten—and then the irregular pounding, sometimes distinct, sometimes muffled, kept scurrying down the yellow flood of the river. Directly the camp on the bluff became astir. “My staff officers reported to me. One of them (Lieutenant Ware) I sent to Colonel Smith with directions to form his brigade and conduct it to ‘Stoney Lonesome.’ Another (Major James R. Ross) was dispatched at speed to Colonel Thayer with orders to have everything ready to move; continuing his ride, he bore an order to Colonel Wood of the Third Brigade to break camp, send baggage and property to the landing (Crump’s) and bring his regiments to the rendezvous at ‘Stoney Lonesome.’ The purpose of these orders was to have the division ready for movement when General Grant, who was at Savannah for the night, should pass in his dispatch boat going up the river. “About 8:30 o’clock General Grant drew alongside, and a conversation, substantially (almost literally) the following, took place: “‘Have you heard the firing?’ he asked. “‘Yes, I have been listening to it since daybreak.’ “‘What do you think of it?’ [Illustration: NASHVILLE PIKE, NEAR SPRING HILL, DOWN WHICH ROAD BUELL MARCHED] “‘It is undoubtedly a general engagement.’ “‘What have you in your front?’ “‘There is nothing reported.’ “He then said, after thought: ‘Very well. Hold yourself in readiness for orders.’ “‘But, General, I ordered the concentration about daylight. I am ready now.’ “Again he reflected. He seemed uncertain. It afterwards came out that he believed the real attack would be on me. Presently he repeated: ‘Hold yourself in readiness to move in any direction.’ The pilot bell rang, the lashings were removed and his steamer put off up-stream hard as it could go. “There was general disappointment among my officers. I was disappointed; but without remark I left the boat. My last order at the Landing was to have a horse saddled and bridled and hitched to a tree on the bluff, that a messenger coming down the river with an order for me might bring it without delay. Thereupon I rode out to ‘Stoney Lonesome,’ where Smith and Thayer were waiting, arms stacked. The Third Brigade had not yet arrived. “The men were clustered together in groups. They were doing little talking. Their faces were turned to the south, listening. Occasionally musketry could be heard accompanying the artillery. Smith and Thayer and their staff officers collected around me, and were surprised when I told them the order General Grant had left me.