PLAN AGAINST POUND GAP.

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miles below the rebel position. Here the troops went into camp on the wet ground, and awaited the coming of dawn.

Garfield's plan was to send his cavalry up the road to make a demonstration against the enemy's intrenchments, and to engage his attention, while he, with the infantry, should climb the steep side of the mountain, and, filing along a narrow ledge of rocks at the summit, reach the Gap, and attack the rebels upon the flank. Since absolute secrecy was required, every male resident of the vicinity was brought into camp and detained, that he might not carry information to the enemy. Questions were asked of every one about a practicable route to the rear of the rebel intrenchments. There

was none.

The mountain was steep, and in many places precipitous; and it was tangled with dense thickets, obstructed with fallen logs, and covered with huge boulders, which, coated with ice and snow, formed an almost impassable barrier to the passage of any living thing, save the panther or the catamount. Then again, even if the adventurous band succeeded in gaining the mountainsummit in the face of these obstacles, they would still have to traverse for a long distance the narrow ledge, buried three feet in trecherous snow, where one false step would be dangerous-a place, where ten men could dispute the passage of ten thousand.

Though tempted with liberal offers of money,

not one of the "natives" would undertake to guide the expedition on its perilous journey. Garfield lay down at midnight on the floor of a miserable log-shanty, near the foot of the mountains. The prospect was in no way encouraging. Even if failure was to be the reward of his pains, he determined to scale the mountain in the morning. With these thoughts in his mind, he dropped off to sleep. Before morning he was aroused by a number of men entering his apartment, one of whom said:

"Colonel, this old fellow has just come into camp, and offers to guide us over the mountains. He says he knows every road of this region, and can lead us to the rebel nest in safety."

Garfield raised himself from his blanket, and by the dim light of the logs, that were smouldering on the hearth, looked narrowly at the old native. He was apparently not far from seventy, with a tall, bent form, and long hair and beard, which were almost of snowy whiteness. He wore the common homespun of the district, and over his shoulder carried, slung by a stout leather thong, a brightly-burnished squirrel-rifle. His enormous beard and huge slouch hat more than half hid his face; but enough of it was exposed to show a tawny, smoke-begrimed skin, and strongly-marked, determined features. Hastily scanning him from head to foot, the Union officer, opening conversation, said, smiling:

SECURING A GUIDE.

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"You! old man, do you think you can climb the mountain?"

"I hev done it, Gineral, many and many a time," said the "native" in a voice, that sounded much like a cracked kettle.

"I know, but in winter the slope is a sheet of ice with three feet of snow on the summit.”

"I komed down it not ten days ago. Whar I kin come down, ye kin go up."

"I should think so-up or down. Is there a bridle path we can follow?"

"Yes, eight miles below. But ye'd better make yer own path. Ye must cum unto them unbeknown and sudden, and to do that ye must foller the path squirrels travel."

"And do you think we can get over it safely?" "Yes, if ye's men of narve, as means to do what they has come about."

"Well," continued Garfield, after a pause, "what induces an old man like you to undertake a thing so hazardous ?"

"The hope to rid ther kentry of a set of murderin' thieves, as is carrying terror and death inter every poor man's home in all the valley," said he, solemnly.

And what reward do you look for?"

Nary reward-only your word, that I shall go as I come, with no one to let or hinder me." Garfield took a long, steady look at him, and finally replied:

"Very well. I'll trust you. Be here early in the morning,"

When the morning came, the snow was falling so thickly, that objects only a few rods distant were totally invisible. At nine o'clock, the little body of cavalry was started up the road to engage the attention of the enemy and draw him from his intrenchments. Then the infantry was set in motion. In a long, bristling, serpent-like column, catching at every twig, and shrub, and fallen log that lay in their way, they clambered slowly up the icy mountain-side, the old guide leading the way and steadying his steps with the long iron-shod staff in use among mountaineers. The ridge at this point rises two thousand feet above the valley, and half-way up breaks into abrupt precipices, which seem to defy the approach of any foot but that of deer. After a hard scramble through the tangled thickets, over the ice-coated rocks, and along the steep ridge which crowns the summit of the mountain, the native, turning sharply to the left, said to Garfield:

"You are now within half a mile of the rebel position. Yonder is their outside picket, but the way is clear. Press on at the double and you have them."

The picket now descried the advancing column, and firing his gun, set out at the top of his speed for the rebel intrenchments. A dozen bullets made shrill music about his ears; but he kept on,

OPENING THE FIGHT.

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When within

followed by the eager blue-coats. sight of the rebel camp, a line was thrown down along the eastern slope of the mountain, and pressing rapidly forward, was formed along the deep gorge, through which the high road passes.

Up

to this time the rebels had been skirmishing with the cavalry in front of their intrenchments; but now they gathered on the hill directly opposite the advanced portion of the Union infantry.

To try the range, Garfield sent a volley across the gorge. When the smoke cleared away, he saw the unformed rebel line melt away like mist into the opposite forest. The enemy's position being now understood, the Fortieth and the Fortysecond Ohio were ordered to the already formed left wing, when along the line rang the words,