When we were approaching we heard the old guard and the Yankee picket talking back and forth across the river.

The new guard immediately resumed the conversation.

We had to halloo at the top of our voices, the river being about three hundred yards wide at this point.

But there was a little island about the middle of the river.
A Yankee hallooed out, "O, Johnny, Johnny, meet me half way in the river on the island." "All right," said Sergeant Tucker, who immediately undressed all but his hat, in which he carried the Chattanooga Rebel and some other Southern newspapers, and swam across to the island.

When he got there the Yankee was there, but the Yankee had waded.