Saturday, April 8, 2023

Brigadier-General Feliz K. Zollicoffer to Lieutenant-Colonel William W. Mackall, December 23,

BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS,        
Beech Grove, Ky., December 23, 1861.
Lieutenant-Colonel MACKALL,
        Assistant Adjutant-General, Bowling Green, Ky.:

SIR: I feel it my duty frankly to say that the failure to receive the reserves and supplies I ordered up a month ago, and upon which in part the plan of campaign was predicated, has given and is likely to give serious embarrassment. I now receive no responses to communications addressed to Knoxville connected with the most important details. I have five regiments north of the river and two south. The strength of the enemy is unknown, but it is reported by the country people to be very large. There are now, I learn in East Tennessee, besides the force at Cumberland Gap, eight full regiments and the Georgia battalion, a battery of artillery, and eight cavalry companies. I beg respectfully to say that it cannot be that half this force is required there. On the other hand, were this column strengthened properly, the enemy could not venture to pass London to attack Cumberland Gap. We could open the Cumberland and drive the enemy from Somerset and Columbia.

I trouble you with these suggestions, about which I feel the deepest concern, because I learn that Major-General Crittenden has gone to Richmond.

Very respectfully,
F. K. ZOLLICOFFER,        
Brigadier-General.

P. S.—Inclosed I send copies of a general order* and a proclamation I have deemed it expedient to print and circulate.
_______________

* Order not found.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 7 (Serial No. 7), p. 786

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