Our trap is sprung
at last. For three long, weary days and sleepless nights we patiently awaited
the coming of that "flanking column" which we were to capture or
annihilate. First they were reported crossing at Tennessee Ford, twenty miles
below, thirty thousand strong, to sweep the "Northern vandals" from
this fair valley and open up a way for supplies to reach Richmond. Next their
advance had reached Marysville, fourteen miles from this place. Citizens came
flocking in all day Thursday, telling sickening tales of outrage perpetrated by
their "advance" on unoffending "Union people." Some
reported them four hundred strong, others fifteen or twenty thousand.
Yesterday it was
reported ten thousand of our cavalry had gone out to reconnoitre. They visited
the Ford no "raid" had been there—Rocksville; no cavalry had been
there to Loudon; no guerillas had been there. A council of war was held, and
they decided to return by the way of Marysville. There the enemy had been seen.
Cautiously they advanced to beleaguer the devoted town. A short distance from
the town a halt was called and scouts sent out to reconnoitre. They found the
city "occupied" by a force of eight bushwackers. These were captured
"without the loss of a man on our side."
SOURCE: David
Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer,
1862-1865, pp. 101-2
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