Progress became very slow.

It was difficult in the great foggy veil for the regiments to keep in touch with one another, and occasional shots in front warned them that the enemy was active and watchful.

The division barely crept along.
Dick and his comrades were mounted again, and they kept close to Colonel Winchester, who, however, had few orders to send.

The command of the corps rested with General McCook, and it behooved him as any private could see, to exercise the utmost caution.

They were strangers in the land and the Confederates were not.
Dick had thought that morning that they would get into touch with heavy forces of the enemy before night, but the fog and the mud rendered their advance so slow that at sunset they went into camp in a vast forest of red cedar, still a good distance from Stone River.