Diary of Musician David Lane, October 9, 1863

At daylight yesterday we were ordered to be ready to march at 9 o'clock. It had been rumored for several days the Rebels had possession of Greenville, seventy-five miles up the valley, and that our forces were falling back toward Morristown. The Second Brigade was sent that way last week. Monday the First Brigade of the First Division moved forward to Morristown and was followed on Wednesday by the Second. Today the Third Brigade follows.

The Second and Twentieth Michigan Infantry and the One Hundredth Pennsylvania have gone, and we are momentarily expecting the train which is to take us. General Wilcox has arrived with five thousand new troops, and is at Morristown. We have, also, a heavy force of mounted infantry and cavalry at Greenville. The Rebels are reported eight thousand strong. The intention is to lure them on to near Bulls Gap, and, while the mounted men work around the mountains to their rear, we close in on them in front and grind them between us.

Burnside went to the front today, from which I infer there is work to be done. This line of railroad is of the utmost importance to Virginia Rebels. They cannot safely winter there without it, and they will make a desperate effort to regain control of it.

SOURCE: David Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, p. 103