Ferry, at which place it was directed to cross the river. General Woods was instructed to move along the road to Nichols' Ferry, demonstrate at that crossing, but moving his command to Peay's Ferry by the most direct left-hand road. No signs of the enemy were discovered at either crossing, and the pontoon was laid without interruption. General Hazen crossed his command, taking up position on the opposite side of the river. The rest of the corps encamped ready to cross in the morning. On the 23rd of February the corps continued crossing the Wateree, and on reaching Liberty Hill broke into two columns, the left, consisting of the First and Third Divisions, moving to Flat Rock Church; the right, composed of the Second and Fourth Divisions, to the neighborhood of Red Hill Post-Office. The object of the continued movement was to strike the system of road leading from Camden to Cheraw, across Lynch's Creek, by Tiller's and Kelly's Bridges, and to attain this object the left column was moved on the morning of the 24th of February to West's Cross-Roads, the right column making Big Pine Tree Church on the Camden and Cheraw road. Detachments from the Second and Fourth Divisions entered Camden, destroying all public stores and buildings to be found in the place. No enemy was encountered on this detour. The following morning this column was moved up abreast of the other divisions into position near Pine Tree Church, with one brigade at McCaskill's Cross-Roads, making communication complete. While our troops remained at West's Cross-Roads the enemy's cavalry maneuvered on our flanks, and succeeded in picking up a few of our foragers and stragglers, but no serious inconvenience was experienced from their presence. On the morning of the 26th the corps marched to Lynch's Creek, the Fourth and First Divisions to Tiller's Bridge, and the Second and Third to Kelly's Bridge and prepared to cross that stream. The rains of the previous week had so swollen this stream that, although the bridge remained, the water on each side was deep enough to swim a horse, and presented in its then condition an almost insurmountable obstacle to the crossing of our trains. On reaching the creek, however, General Corse pushed his division across, his men wading up to their armpits, holding above their heads their muskets and cartridge-boxes. On attaining the other bank he skirmished with and drove Butler's division of rebel cavalry, and took position covered with works to hold and protect the crossing. The first serious detention that the corps had met with since the opening of the campaign was the swollen crossing of Lynch's Creek; too wide to be bridged, too deep to be forced, the only feasible plan was to wait till the water subsided before attempting to cross our trains, but in the meantime our whole available pioneer force was engaged in building a footbridge for the infantry. The same character of stream was found at Kelly's Bridge as at Tiller's Bridge, presenting the same obstacles to a crossing at that point.

The 27th and 28th of February were consumed in building footbridges and in futile attempts to put in pontoons, for the broken and irregular character of the bottom rendered it impossible to do so with success. But several deep holes were bridged and sunken corduroy put in wherever the water had subsided sufficiently to admit of work on the bottom. The water having fallen sufficiently to warrant an attempt at crossing our trains, on the 1st of March the crossing was attempted, and by raising our hard bread and ammunition five or six inches in the beds of the wagons the Fourth Division train and a portion of the First Division passed over with little or no damage, but before General Woods could pass the whole of his train it was necessary to build