Purdy and Ridge roads. General Breckinridge has not arrived from Burnsville, and I fear bad roads may delay him much. His command forming the reserve must necessarily control our movements to some extent. Let me hear from you, by the courier, at Mickey's.
Yours most respectfully and truly,
Major-General Polk.
General Polk, therefore, continued the march of his command in rear of the Third corps, reaching Mickey's that evening (the 4th). General Bragg's column (two divisions) moved by a different road, the head of it reaching Mickey's the same evening. During the night the whole of his corps was closed up and massed at the same point. We thus see that all the night of the 4th both commands bivouacked near Mickey's, not one near Mickey's and the other in its rear—General Bragg's on the Savannah and Monterey road, south of the Bark road; General Polk's on the Bark road, west of the Savannah and Monterey roads, these roads crossing nearly at right angles. General Hardee was beyond Mickey's, in the direction of Pittsburg Landing, on the Bark road, along which all the commands were to move the next day. The orders for the 5th were that the troops should be ready for the march by 3 A. M.; General Hardee to advance to the enemy's outposts, about four miles from Mickey's, and then form line of battle; General Bragg to follow next, furnishing General Hardee with sufficient troops to fill out the first line, and with the remainder of his corps to form line a thousand yards in rear of Hardee; General Polk to halt at Mickey's Cross-Roads till General Bragg had passed to his front, then to move forward and form on the left of the road a certain distance from and parallel to General Bragg's line. Breckinridge was to form to the right of the road in Bragg's rear. At the hour ordered all the commands were ready to advance. During the night, however, a heavy rain storm set in, continuing to pour down in torrents. The streams and ravines across which the road ran were soon impassable. The movement was consequently postponed till dawn. General Hardee then moved forward, but with such difficulty, owing to the state of the roads, that it was 10 A. M.[1] before he reached the enemy's outposts, the point at which his line was to form. This unavoidable delay necessarily affected the movements of General Bragg's Corps. So we find it was 12 o'clock when the last brigade (Jackson's) of the leading division reached the position it was to occupy in line,[2] to the right of
