Especially was he apt in utilising material at hand to accomplish his ends--a trait that was also prominent in his civil life.

Bridges he built from cotton-gin houses, mantelets for his guns from gunny bags and old rope, and shields for his sharpshooters from the mould-boards of old ploughs found on the abandoned plantations.

All this time wherever possible he continued his studies in natural science.

He made a collection of fossils unearthed in the trenches around Vicksburg, land and river shells from the Mississippi swamps, and a large collection of mosses while on detached duty in Illinois.

He also familiarised himself with the geology of regions through which the armies passed to which he was attached.