about midnight
He made a business of picking up whatever floated down the stream , not excepting the dead bodies of men and horses , the former for their clothing and whatever their pockets contained , and the latter for the saddles and bridles on them . He buried the bodies of the men in a pit he had made for the purpose , drying and storing in his house portions of their clothing . It required a good deal of talking and a handsome reward to induce the ferryman to exhibit his stock of clothing ; but from it the scouts took what they needed ; and were soon clothed in rusty and damaged Confederate uniforms of privates . They bargained for the use for two days of Cuffy 's boat , and embarked about midnight on their mission . The Cumberland was still in a turbulent condition ; but Deck had seen enough of the stream to enable him to avoid the dangerous places . At the point where Deck and Fronklyn had landed , they had a hard battle with the raging current ; but the skill of the lieutenant and the strength of Life carried them safely through the peril . At daylight in the morning , they discovered a creek flowing into the river from the south side .