April 28 — We renewed our march early this morning and kept on a steady move all day, over a good grade, although some of the country we passed through is rough and hilly and the Valley is full of fragmentary mountain-like hills scattered around promiscuously. We forded the South Branch but once to-day, at Kile’s Ford, which was very deep and rough. At some places the grade winds along at the foot of steep and rocky bluffs, and at other places through rich and beautiful alluvial bottoms along the river; then again through dense mountain forests of oak and pine, with a thick undergrowth of laurel and mountain shrubbery. We marched twenty-three miles to-day, and are camped this evening one mile below Franklin.
