In this section two or three bends of nearly a mile in bulge occur, one of which had quite an influence in the action.

The town itself lies in a bight of this kind, just west of the railroad, which crosses the river by a bridge, at that time destroyed.

Immediately above it, however, an iron road-bridge still remained.

The latter is the centre of a semicircle of hills, which surround it to the northward, their crests being on an average some 1,400 feet high and distant four and a half miles.

The bridge was also the centre of battle, as planned by the British.