Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Monday, December 16, 1861

According to orders from Zollicoffer, McNairy moved his battalion back to Camp Hall, where he remained for about nine days longer.

COMMENTARY.

It would seem that while at Richmond, in the latter part of last month, Major-General George B. Crittenden was directed by President Davis to proceed to East Tennessee, assume command of all the forces under Zollicoffer, and with ten additional regiments, to be furnished by the President, move into Kentucky at once. Accordingly Crittenden arrived at Knoxville and assumed command “about the first day of December.¹

On the 6th he dispatched for the ten regiments,² and on the 8th he received the following from the Secretary of War:

The President desires that you return to Richmond and report to him without delay.³

 On the 13th he was ordered to return to his department, which he did, but without bringing any troops with him.

On the 16th he wrote to the Adjutant and Inspector-General, S. Cooper, at Richmond, as follows:

General Zollicoffer is threatened by a much superior force in front and one nearly equal on his left flank. He has been ordered by me to recross the river.

 

He asks for six pieces, twenty-four pounders or eight inch howitzers. Colonel Powell's regiment has been ordered from the railroad to join Zollicoffer immediately, and Colonel Leadbetter informed, so that he can replace the guard it withdraws.

 

To make General Carroll's brigade effective it is necessary to obtain eight hundred muskets, which are known to be in ordnance office at Memphis. Please order William R. Hunt, ordnance officer at that point, to forward them immediately to this place, subject to my order.⁴

 Three citizens from the vicinity of Auburn, Cannon County, Tennessee—Messrs. Franklin Odom, Henry Dougherty and Hop Kennedy—arrived at Camp Hall in the afternoon of the above date, the 16th. Each of them had sons, and also many other relatives and friends, in Captain Allison's Company. They came to spend a few days with us, and we appreciated and enjoyed their visit very much. Three of our company who had been home on a visit and two recruits came with them.

_______________

¹ Rebellion Records, Vol. VII., p. 763.

² Ibid., p. 740.

³ Ibid., p. 745.

⁴ “So ordered same day.” Rebellion Records, Vol. VII., p. 770.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p. 98-9