The Army of the Cumberland

and Fores

tion of the Federal forces. Buell was ordered with his command to enter into a campaign looking to the occupation of East Tennessee. One division of his army under O. M. Mitchel left Nashville about the middle of March under orders to proceed to Murfreesboro and repair the railroad bridges burned by Johnston on his retreat. On Colonel Duffield's reporting with the Twenty-third brigade, Mitchel pressed forward to Shelbyville and from there by a rapid movement on the 7th of April he occupied Huntsville, Ala., with Turchin's brigade, Kennett's Ohio cavalry, and Simonson's battery, capturing 170 prisoners, 15 locomotives, and 150 passeng

ek, which he succeeded in capturing, taking in all some three hundred and fifty prisoners. Early in May, Mitchel, who had been placed in command of all the troops between Nashville and Huntsville, ordered General Negley with the Seventh Brigade, belonging to McCook's division-who had been left at Columbia on the advance of the main army upon Savannah-to make an advance against General Adams with a brigade of troops at Rogersville, Ala. At the same time Mitchel sent Colonel Lytle from Athens, Ala., to cooperate with Negley. On the 13th, the enemy learning of the approach of the Federal forces, retreated across the Tennessee River. This placed Mitchel in complete position of that portion of Alabama north of that river. On May 29th, Mitchel concentrated Negley's command from Columbia, Turchin's brigade from Huntsville, and the Eighteenth Ohio under T. R. Stanley from Athens at Fayetteville for an expedition against Chattanooga under the command of Negley. These troops passed through Wincheste

and encamped his co

Morgan, after encountering the enemy in several skirmishes, determined either to compel him to fight or retreat. He sent General Spears with three brigades to Pine Mountain, on the road to Big Creek Gap. General Kirby Smith, commanding the enemy's forces in East Tennessee, placed General Barton's command of two brigades of infantry in Big Creek Gap, and then advanced with some eight thousand men under his immediate command to cut Spears off, and to threaten the Federal forces at Cumberland Ford. Morgan, under orders, withdrew Spears, but learning a few days later from Buell of the operations of Negley's command before Chattanooga, and that Kirby Smith had proceeded with a part of his command to the relief of that place, resumed the advance. Negley's movements

pers, completely routing them after a severe engagement. Morgan with a few men under his immediate command escaped after a chase of twenty-one miles from Lebanon, crossing the Cumberland River on a ferry. Dumont had with him detachments of Wynkoop's Seventh Pennsylvania cavalry, of Wolford's First Kentucky cavalry and of Green Clay Smith's regiment of Kentucky cavalry. Morgan's loss was 150 men captured, with the same number of horses. The balance of his command was dispersed. Wolfor

he had obtained all the recruits he could at Chattanooga he set out for Knoxville, to further increase his command and to re-arm. It was at this place that he received the two mountain howitzers which were used so effectively in the first raid into Kentucky, and which just before his command started on the Ohio raid were taken from it by Bragg's ordnance officers. This came near raising a m

d their work of destruction when a train came up with a number of Federal troops on it, who drove the rebels off in confusion, but for some unknown cause the train then returned to Louisville, leaving Morgan unmolested at Lebanon, who advanced to the attack and drove in the pickets. After a slight skirmish the place was surrendered by Lieutenant-Colonel Johnson of the Twenty-eighth Kentucky, with a small detachment of that command. Morgan destroyed some fifty thousand dollars' worth of Government stores. He left Lebanon at two o'clock in the afternoon, passed through Springfield without halting the command, and pushed on for Harrodsburg, reaching there at nine o'clock on Sunday morning. Here he sent Gano with his squadron around Lexington to burn the railroad bridges on the Kentucky Central Railroad, in order to prevent troops being sent there from Cincinnati. Another detachment was sent to destroy the bridge on the Louisville and Lexington Railroad, cutting off reinforcements from Louisville. Morgan's design was to make it appear that he intended to attack Frankfort, then turn suddenly to the right and attempt the capture of Lexington. He had given out everywhere in Kentucky that he was marching on the State Capital with a force five thousand strong, and had succeeded in spreading the utmost alarm. On the 15th Morgan reached Midway, captured the telegraph operator and installed his own operator at the same instrument, sent despatches in the name of Federal Generals, and changed the orders for the movement of troops. He telegraphed in all directions, without the slightest regard for truth, and succeeded in creating the utmost confusion and alarm at Cincinnati, Louisville, Lexington, and Frankfort. The command left Midway late in the afternoon and started for Georgetown, which place they reached at sundown, where they met a small force of Home Guards, who were driven out of town. From here Morgan sent a force to burn the bridges on the Kentucky Railroad between Lexington and Paris. Then learning how strongly Lexington was garrisoned, he g

ne hundred men, and returned to Livingston on the 28th inst. with nearly twelve hundred, having been absent just twenty-four days, during which time I have traveled over a thousand miles, captured seventeen towns, destroyed all the

ish supplies to his army, now some three hundred miles away from its base at Louisville, dependent during the greater part of the year on one line of road, which was subject to being raided at any time, bridges burned, the roadbed destroyed, and the entire road rendered useless for months. To continue this line the many miles through the enemy's country, subject to increased risks before Chattanooga could be reached, was a matter that required a great amount of careful thought and deliberation. Buell had tried infantry in

d for the additional reason that this road ran for a considerable distance parallel with the front of the enemy, and thus invited raiding parties. While the risks attending the other road were great enough, Buell regarded the Memphis and Charleston road far the more objectiona

d in the command in the West, put his columns in motion eastward to occupy Chattanooga. Johnston, on the retreat from Nashville, sent all surplus army stores to Chattanooga, and Bragg now regarded that p

of the Tennessee, through his own territory, with his lines of communication open when he arrived at that place. With Buell, the repairs of the rail

d on the 29th. On the same day Buell established his headquarters at Huntsville, Ala., and gave personal supervision to the repair of the railroads, now extremely urgent. He placed his troops by division upon the different sections of the line, under orders to push repairs with all possible expedition. These troops, as repairs were made, advanced from time to time, concentrating on the line of the Nashville and Chattanooga road. The repairs to this railroad were complet

ade, had, by reason of the unpleasant relations existing between portions of the command, widely distributed them in different parts of the town. On the return of Crittenden and Duffield on July 11th, neither of them assumed command, and their dignity, thinking more of their own personal importance than the good of the service. With no one in command, there was no unity or proper "esprit de corps" among the troops, and no disposition for defence when Forrest made his attack. the latter had advanced through McMinnville from Chattanooga,

stand and drove the Texans off. Duffield was wounded while rallying his men. The Second Georgia charged into the public square and surrounded the Court House, occupied by a company of the Ninth Michigan, who twice repulsed the attacking force. Reinforcements being brought forward, the doors of t

guard of some hundred men left by Lester to protect his camp, posted behind a strong barricade of wagons and some large ledges of rocks, difficult to carry. Forrest at once ordered a charge which was twice made and repulsed. Leading his

upying the camp of the Ninth Michigan, which consisted of this regiment and a company of the Second Kentucky cavalry. He dismounted two of his regiments and threw forward skirmishers, dir

ster, after an interview with Duffield and a consultation with his own officers, made, surrendering some five hundred infantry of his regiment and two sections of Hewitt's battery of artillery. The entire forces surrendered were seventeen hundred tro

ase cavalry with infantry." Forrest on Nelson's approach withdrew to McMinnville, and from there made a dash on Lebanon, some fifty miles distant, where he expected to find a force of five hundred Federal cavalr

y into united bodies for better defensive movements against these raiders. The Second Indiana, Fourth and Fifth Kentucky, and Seventh Pennsylvania cavalry regiments he formed into one brigade, and on August 11th, he sent it under General R. W. Johnson against Morgan, who had been ordered by Bragg to break the railroad between Louisville and Nashville, in order to retard Buell's movement north to Louisville as much as possible, and who was operating about Gallatin, Tennessee, which he had captured with 200 prisoners

Johnson reformed his lines twice, but the enemy broke, and drove them each time. He then reformed the remnant of his command and fought the enemy dismounted, when the latter charged again, and Johnson, seeing that the greater part of his command had scattered, surrendered. The force that was with him at this time was only a small band of some twenty-five soldiers and a few officers. His loss was 20 killed and 42 wounded. Duke in his "History of Morgan's Cavalry," says: "A great deal of censure was at the time cast upon these men"-Johns