Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 3.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[260] impossible to embark with them the seventeen or eighteen hundred horses which were indispensable for the projected expedition. Dodge had brought a number; more were wanting; it was expected that some might be picked up in the country, but few were found. Finally, at the end of two or three days, a portion of the brigade was mounted, and Streight ready to start. In the mean while, Dodge, gaining upon Roddy, had arrived before Tuscumbia, which he entered on the 24th; Streight closely followed him, and, having joined him, took position on his right, south of the town. It was of importance to confound the two troops in the eyes of the enemy for a few days, in order that at the moment of separation Dodge might lead him on the wrong track, thus giving Streight the necessary start to get away from him. But the time lost by the Federals between the first engagement at Bear Creek and the capture of Tuscumbia was fatal to them, for these four days enabled Bragg to bring on a formidable adversary to oppose them. On receipt of Roddy's despatches he had ordered Forrest to hasten to the aid of the latter with his whole brigade. The order, which was forwarded on the 23d, was promptly executed: a regiment of this brigade, sent direct toward Tuscumbia, arrives at Bainbridge on the 27th, where it crosses the Tennessee, while on the same day Forrest, with the remainder of his troops, crosses the river at Brown's Ferry, and promptly gains the village of Courtland, on the railroad from Tuscumbia to Decatur. He could not have arrived more opportunely: Dodge, leaving a few troops at Tuscumbia and in the village adjoining, South Florence, had resumed his march on the morning of the 27th, and was advancing along the railroad, while Streight was bearing southward in order to reach Russellville. The former was in hope of drawing all Roddy's attention to himself, thus enabling Streight to pass behind him unperceived. This plan would have succeeded if the Federals had had only Roddy and his twelve hundred men and four guns to cope with. But on the morning of the 17th he had been reinforced by the six hundred men that Forrest had sent to Bainbridge, and had posted his forces behind Town Creek, a small stream which empties into the Tennessee near the rapids called Muscle Shoals, where the fords had been entirely submerged by the recent rains.