The mules became bogged down and were unable to pull the wagons which were sinking to the axle. The column moved only about a mile-and-a-half and they went into camp around noon.
In the afternoon they pulled the wagons out with ropes, wading in water that was knee deep. Covered with mud and full of fun, the boys pulled the wagons through the swamps, doing the work of a team of mules. William Fleming described it like this:
...it was rather a bitter pill to pull them a mile by uncle sams hirelings yet the boys would have there sport over it there be a bout fifty get holt of a wagon and they would give a yell and away they would go...
