Brigadier-General Felix K. Zollicoffer to Colonel John P. Murray, October 16, 1861

BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS,        

Camp Ten Mile, Ky., October 16, 1861.

Colonel MURRAY, Camp Myers:

SIR: I am 10 miles on the march toward a camp of the enemy on Rock-castle River, having left Cumberland Ford this evening with the greater part of my command. I learned that the enemy at Albany has retired. My plan has been to fall in their rear and cut them off. Now that Colonel Stanton and our cavalry have left the neighborhood of Jamestown, the enemy may return in force near the line. I have ordered stores of subsistence for my troops to be placed at Jamestown by the 25th instant, and have ordered the same cavalry companies to return to that neighborhood almost the same time, to prevent the enemy from seizing and appropriating the stores. Perhaps the cavalry from above would not be sufficient to prevent an incursion. I expect to pass down by Somerset and Monticello or by Columbia and Burkesville, in the hope of capturing any forces they may be threatening your position with. As secrecy is the element of success, I must beg of you not to mention to any solitary person this enterprise. My object in writing to you is to ask you, about the 25th, to move in such a way as to insure, by the aid of the cavalry, the safety of the stores, until I can reach the neighborhood. Inform General Caswell at Knoxville what you can do, and he will communicate with me.

Very respectfully,

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER,        

Brigadier-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 4 (Serial No. 4), p. 212