WINNING THE BARS.



past the pickets but were warned not to enter the timber, as it
was full of the enemy's pickets. General Barnard heard them', but
as no picket shooting had taken place from them, and as his own
experience at Bottom's Bridge made him doubt it, he passed on
with Custer, reached the swamp, penetrated it, and finally the
two found themselves alone on the margin of the stream, the
dark flow of which gave no revelation of its depths, nor of the
nature of its bottom. Turning to his young subordinate, Gen-
eral Barnard said, "jump in."  There might have been a pass-
ing look of surprise, but the order was instantly obeyed, and
Custer forded the stream (finding firm bottom) and ascended
the opposite bank. The young officer waded the stream, in the
momentary expectation of being fired at by the enemy's pickets
on the other bank. All around him was quite unknown.
There was every reason to suppose that riflemen were in the
bushes beyond, and Custer was in the open river, perfectly ex-
posed. He had drawn his revolver, and held it up above the
water, which rose to his armpits in the middle of the stream;
and his feet sunk several inches into the soft, sticky, black mud
of the bottom. General Barnard, in his report, calls it " firmn
bottom," but it will be noticed that the general did not wade it
himself, and therefore his ideas of the bottom must be regarded
as slightly formal and technical  However, it was not a quick-
sand.
   Arrived at the other side, Custer peered through the bushes
and cautiously ascended the bank, being rewarded for his ex-
plorations by a distinct view of the enemy's picket fires, some
distance off, and by the sight of their nearest sentry, lazily
pacing his post, quite unconscious of the proximity of any foe.
By this time, Barnard was becoming a little nervous for Custer's
and his own safety, and began to make silent signals to him to
come back, but the young fellow never heeded them till he had
carefully examined the whole of the enemy's position, and had
found that their main picket post was so situated in the midst
of a bend of the river that it might be easily cut off by a bold



ill