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44 authoritative record for this day's march, as of all others, is the official Bowman's Journal: "Made a good march for about nine hours; the road very bad, with mud and water. Pitched our camp in a square, baggage in the middle, every company to guard their own squares." On the eighth the record continues: "Marched early through the waters, which we now began to meet in those large and level plains, where, from the flatness of the country, [water] rests a considerable time before it drains off; notwithstanding which, our men were in great spirits, though much fatigued." By the eighth it would seem the little band had reached the lower plains in the northwest corner of Perry County, two and a half miles northwest of Swanwick, where the headwaters of the Big Muddy tributary of the Kaskaskia were crossed, and the prairie south of Oakdale, Washington County, at which point Elkhorn Creek was crossed at the famous "Meadow-in-the-Hole" of old French days.