No  time  could  be  given  to  ferrying  the  horses
over — they  had  to  swim.  Two  men  rowed  a
skiff  out  from  the  bank,  with  a  third  man  hold¬
ing  the  bridle  of  a  horse  swimming  alongside.
When  the  boat  had  gone  a  short  distance  from
shore,  the  herd  of  horses  was  driven  into  the
river.  There  was  nothing  for  the  horses  to  do
but  swim,  and  they  followed  the  leader;  at  one
time  a  thousand  of  the  animals  were  struggling
in  the  current.
In  this  manner  Forrest  carried  a  force  of  two
thousand  men,  with  two  thousand  horses,  six
cannon,  his  wagon  train  and  captured  supplies,
across  £  wide  and  swift  river  in  the  brief  space
of  ten  hours.  Crossing  the  river  on  December
17  and  recrossing  it  two  weeks  later,  he  had
marched  three  hundred  miles  through  sleet  and
rain  over  bottomless  roads,  had  fought  three
combats,  killed  and  captured  fifteen  hundred  of
the  enemy  and  taken  large  stores  of  arms  and
provisions.  Most  important  of  all,  he  had  torn
up  the  railroads  in  west  Tennessee  so  thoroughly
that  General  Grant  was  cut  off  from  the  North


60  LIFE  OF  FORREST

for  several  weeks.  In  fact,  Grant  was  much  up¬
set  by  this  attack  on  his  lines  of  supply  and
gave  up  a  march  he  was  about  to  make  into  Mis¬
sissippi;  after  this  he  used  the  Mississippi  river
itself  for  bringing  supplies  instead  of  the  rail¬
roads,  which  the  raider  could  tear  up  at  pleasure.
