CHAPTER XXIII.
GARFIELD'S BOLD STRATEGY.
Garfield didn't wait for the scout's return.

He felt that no time was to be lost.

The expedition which he had planned was fraught with peril, but it was no time for timid counsels.
On the morning following Jordan's departure he set out up the river, halting at George's Creek, only twenty miles from Marshall's intrenched position.

As the roads along the Big Sandy were impassable for trains, and unsafe on account of the nearness of the enemy, he decided to depend mainly upon water navigation for the transportation of his supplies.
The Big Sandy finds its way to the Ohio through the roughest and wildest spurs of the Cumberland Mountains, and is a narrow, fickle stream.

At low-water it is not navigable above Louisa, except for small flat-boats pushed by hand.