Randolph set out that night, mounted upon the fastest horse, in fact the fleetest, that the Confederate Army could supply.

He was attended only by a dozen faithful negroes, all devoted to his person.
Riding over the Tennessee mountains by paths known absolutely to no one and never advertised, he crossed the Tombigbee, the Tahoochie and the Tallahassee, all frightfully swollen, and arrived at the headquarters of General Braxton Bragg.
At this moment Bragg was extended over some seven miles of bush and dense swamp.

His front rested on the marshes of the Tahoochie River, while his rear was doubled sharply back and rested on a dense growth of cactus plants.

Our readers can thus form a fairly accurate idea of Bragg's position.

Over against him, not more than fifty miles to the north, his indomitable opponent, Grant, lay in a frog-swamp.