We remained at
Barboursville. Col. Rains ordered his demi-brigade to cook three days' rations
and be ready to move early the next morning.
We were now in
twenty miles of the enemy's camp at Laurel Bridge. Col. Brown, who lived near
London, was in command of the Home Guards at that camp. Col. Wolford, with a
part of his regiment, was also in that vicinity.
According to
previous instructions (see under 25th instant), Col. Rains, with his regiment,
McNairy's Battalion and Falcond's section of artillery, moved out from
Barboursville in the direction of Laurel Bridge, while Col. Cummings, with his
detachment and about fifty wagons, moved out for the Salt Works, and Col.
Statham moved so as to support either of the other detachments if necessary.
Col. McNairy was
ordered to take the advance with Harris's, Payne's and Allison's Companies. Our
Col. had not gone far along the London road before he threw out flankers as
well as an advance guard, with instructions to keep a sharp lookout for the
enemy. Thus, we moved on without any incident worthy of note until we struck
the enemy's picket, within three miles of their camp. Our advance guard captured
three of their picket and chased the rest (six or eight) into camp. Col.
McNairy then fell back a short distance, sent a messenger to meet Col. Rains,
and awaited his arrival with the infantry and artillery. As soon as Rains
caught up, the command moved on again with McNairy's three companies still in
front. We met a citizen who said that the enemy was lying in wait for us.
thought that we would sure have our first engagement, then and there. Before
reaching the enemy's camp, Col. McNairy was ordered to halt, and Col. Rains
took the advance with his regiment, leaving orders for McNairy to hold his
battalion well in hand, ready to pursue if he (Rains) should succeed in routing
them. On reaching the Federal camp, and finding it deserted, Rains' men raised
a war-whoop that must have made the Federals believe, if they were in hearing,
that 10,000 men1 were after them. Then dashing forward in pursuit,
our battalion went as far as London, took down a Union flag, but did not
overtake any of the fugitives. The citizens caught the panic—men, women,
children and negroes—nearly all, either fled with the Home Guards and Federals
to Camp Wildcat, some thirteen miles beyond London, or went to their neighbor's
off the main road. How strange! that they should think that we
were making war on women and children!
1 The larger portion of the household
furniture was left in many of the dwellings; therefore, the writer, as well as
a good many others, had the pleasure of occupying a good Kentucky feather bed
the two nights that we remained in Barboursville.
2 Col. Walford estimated our force at “from
5,000 to 7,000.”—See Rebellion
Records (Garrard to Thomas), p. 280.
Col. Rains had
learned that Col. Brown, who was in command of the Home Guards that had fled to
Wildcat the evening before, lived some two or three miles beyond London, and,
thinking that perhaps Brown might have some supplies for his men stored away at
his home, he (Rains) ordered Col. McNairy to take his battalion, go to Brown's
and search for the supposed supplies. Swinging ourselves into the saddle,
before I o'clock A. M., we went by the way of London, and searched Brown's
dwelling and premises, but found only a box of shoes.1 As soon as he
was satisfied that there was nothing more to be found in the way of army
supplies, our Col. called out, “Mount your horses!” and we were soon on our
way back to London. Arriving at that place about daylight, we halted until
McNairy treated the whole battalion on brandy, after which we returned to camp
and took another breakfast.
Besides the three
prisoners and the shoes (twenty-five pairs) already mentioned, Col. Rains
captured 8,000 cartridges, 25,000 caps, three kegs of powder, several guns, six
barrels of salt, two wagons and teams, loaded with the last of their camp
equipage, and three other horses.
Soon after
breakfast, our picket came dashing into camp and reported that they had
been fired on just beyond London. Major Malcomb was immediately sent out in the
direction of London with two companies of McNairy's Battalion to meet the enemy
and bring on the engagement, while Col. Rains deployed his men into battle line
ready to receive the enemy should Malcomb be forced back. The Major returned,
however, and reported no enemy found, so we concluded that it was only a scout,
or “bush-whackers,” that had fired on our picket.
1 It would seem that the panic struck Col.
Brown's family just as they were ready to take supper last eve, for we found
their supper still on the table when we entered the house this morning before
day, but I did not say that it was on the table when we left.
Through
carelessness, or some other cause, five barrels of salt were left where they
were captured, near where the enemy had been camping. Lieutenant M. V. Wilson
was ordered to take twenty-five of Allison's Company and a wagon and go back
after the salt, while the rest of the command moved on toward Barboursville. We
regarded this as rather a hazardous trip, though we went back to, and loaded
in, four barrels of the salt (thinking five would be too much for our team)
without any incident worthy of note; but we had not gone far with our salt
before bang! bang! bang! went several guns back about where our rear guard was.
This caused considerable excitement in our little squad, though one of the rear
guard soon came dashing up, and reported that it was only bush-whackers that
had fired on them, and that some of the balls cut very close,
but no one was hurt. So we felt better then, and moved on to Barboursville
without any more trouble. Here we found two companies of our battalion (B and
C), but the other two (A and D) had gone on back to Camp Buckner, on Cumberland
river. We found Rains' Regiment and the balance of our company (E) encamped two
miles from Barboursville on the road leading back to Camp Buckner.
Col. Cummings went with
his detachment to the Salt Works, loaded in all the salt there, 200 bushels,
and returned without coming in contact with the enemy. He receipted for the
salt, as directed by General Zollicoffer. The Salt Works belonged to Union men,
yet Zollicoffer expected to have it paid for at the price of salt at the
works—forty cents per bushel.
Rain's Regiment and
Allison's Company returned to camp at Camp Buckner. Companies B and C of
McNairy's Battalion remained at Barboursville.
Several of Allison's
Company who had been home returned to camp, brother Will (W. C. Hancock) and J.
C. McAdoo, who were sick of the measles at Camp Schuyler, last August, and went
home from there, were among the number.
Companies B and C
(they had been at Barboursville since the 29th ultimo) rejoined the battalion
at Camp Buckner.
Lieutenant Joe Wyatt
(Company C) was elected surgeon of McNairy's Battalion, F. W. Hearn (Company
B), Quartermaster, and M. D. A. Nolan (Company A), Commissary Sergeant.
Sergeant Major M. W.
McKnight, Lieutenant George Alexander and Private T. D. Summer, all from
Company E, started home on furlough.
On the 2d instant,
Col. T. T. Garrard wrote to General G. H. Thomas thus:
Col.
Brown has now enrolled and in camp some 2501 twelve months soldiers.
He has muskets, but no cartridge boxes, caps, pouches, nor bayonet scabbards.
Have
not heard anything of the Rebels since they reached Barboursville. The last
account is that some 100 or upwards were in Barboursville. (Two companies of
McNairy's Battalion).
I
have got Col. Brown to move all of his men to the river (Big Rockcastle, some
two miles to the rear) except one company, and they are outside our camp in a
rock house. We have been much annoyed by them, as well as visitors and others
who were driven before the Rebels. Some of them returned this evening part of
the way home, but heard of the Rebels below London, and they returned to camp.
The report, I am satisfied, is false.2
And the next day,
the 3d, he wrote thus in reference to Brown's men:
You
will see before this reaches you that Col. Brown has moved to the river, some
two miles from us. I would be afraid to place them between the enemy and our
camp.
Some
of his men are, I fear, a little timid, and I doubt whether or not they will do
their duty on that side of us.3
And in reference to
Wolford's Cavalry, on the 10th, he puts it thus:
When
Captain Smith, of the cavalry, reached here (Wildcat), there was not one of
Walford's men in camp, nor had there been for several days, and if my informant
is correct, some of them that are now here will do no good. They were seen
drunk on picket yesterday at, or near, London.4
On the date under
which I am now writing, the 3d, Zollicoffer sent the following telegraph
dispatch to General A. S. Johnston, Columbus, Kentucky:
I
think I have reliable information that Camp (Dick) Robinson was 7,000 strong;
1,000 of these have gone to Lexington and Frankfort; 1,500 remain in camp, the
residue believed to be certainly moving toward Barboursville to meet me. Should
it appear to me expedient, I wish permission to meet them half way.5
On the same day
Johnston replied as follows:
"Dispatch
received. Exercise your own discretion in attacking the enemy."6
It was about this
time that Captain William Ewing resigned and returned home, and William Parrish
became Captain of Company C, First Battalion.
1 It appears from the above that their force
at Laurel Bridge had been overestimated. Including Walford's Cavalry, perhaps
they did not exceed 500.
2 Rebellion
Records, Vol. IV., p. 290.
3 Ibid,
p. 292.
4 See
Rebellion Records (Garrard to Thomas), Vol. IV., p. 301.
5 Rebellion
Records, Vol. IV, p. 435.
6 RebellionRecords, Vol. IV, p. 435.
Gen. Zollicoffer ordered
Col. McNairy to go with his battalion on a reconnoitering expedition as far as
London.
As soon as his men
could prepare two days' rations, McNairy set out from Camp Buckner about 10:30
A. M., and, after, a ride of about forty miles, he drew rein a little after
midnight, within two miles of London. Our advance guard, going on to that
place, returned and reported no enemy there. We then took a nap of some two or
three hours.
Setting out on his
return between daybreak and sunrise, McNairy arrived at Camp Buckner a little
after dark, and reported the result of his reconnoissance to Zollicoffer, who,
on the next day, the 6th, sent the following communication to A. S. Johnston:
A
reconnoitering detachment has just returned from London, reporting no
appearance of an enemy there. They report, upon general information from
country people, that there are 3,300 of the enemy encamped on Rockcastle hills
(Wildcat), a strong position thirteen miles beyond, where the Mount Vernon road
crosses the Rockcastle River.
I
would move forward and attack them instantly but for unexpected deficiency in
subsistence stores. Ten days ago I ordered the brigade commissary to accumulate
a stock of thirty days' rations for 5,000 men. To-day I have not five days'
rations. I could not properly advance with less than ten. I hope soon to have
the supplies.
I
sent a large detachment into Harlan county, where I heard there were 500 or 600
men embodied under arms. No organized enemy found.
I
have sent a cavalry detachment to Williamsburg, some thirty miles west.
Not
yet returned. This is nearly my only means of getting information of the
country.1
1 Rebellion
Records, Vol. IV., p. 439.
Being ordered to
move his battalion to Cumberland Ford, Colonel McNairy set out from Camp
Cummings, near Knoxville, about six P. M., with Harris's (A), Payne's (D), and
Allison's (E) companies, and aster a march of thirteen miles he camped for the
night. The other two companies (B and C) were ordered to follow in about three
days.1
_______________
1 As I was yet quite feeble, having just
recovered from an attack of measles, brother Ben and I put up only three miles
from town.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, p. 44
After a short march
of about sixteen miles, the three companies bivouacked in Union County, four
and a half miles north of Maynardville.
In the saddle early,
we marched some twenty-eight miles, and halted for the night in Claiborne
County, within three miles of Cumberland Gap.
We crossed
Cumberland Mountain at the Gap. Here we passed out of Tennessee, across the
corner of Virginia, and into Kentucky in going, perhaps, a little over one
hundred yards. Virginia corners at Cumberland Gap, a little west of the road.
Some grand mountain
scenery met our view at the Gap. We saw bluffs and peaks from one thousand to
seventeen hundred feet high.
Passing on fifteen
miles beyond the Gap, crossing the three “Log Mountains,” we encamped at Camp
Buckner (Cumberland Ford), in Knox County, Kentucky.
Harris's (B) and
Ewing's (C) companies arrived from Knoxville and rejoined the rest of McNairy's
Battalion at Camp Buckner.
Besides our
battalion, General Zollicoffer now had with him at Camp Buckner four regiments
of infantry (Statham, Rains, Cummings, and Battle), five cavalry companies
(three of Branner's Battalion and two of Brazelton's), and one artillery
company of six-pounders, commanded by Captain Rutledge. Colonel Newman's
Regiment was at Cumberland Gap. The Sixteenth Alabama (Wood) and the Fourth
Tennessee (Churchwell) Regiments of infantry, and McClellan's Battalion of
cavalry and half of Branner's were left at Knoxville: There were stationed at
various points in East Tennessee some other troops, mostly unarmed.
About six days
previous to this, General Zollicoffer had, according to instructions received
from General A. S. Johnston, ordered the Fourteenth Mississippi (Colonel
Baldwin) and the Third East Tennessee (Colonel Lillard) Regiments of infantry
to move to Camp Trousdale, to reinforce General S. B. Buckner, who was then in
command of the Central Division of Kentucky, with headquarters at Bowling
Green.*
General Zollicoffer
had learned that there was a large quantity of salt at the salt works on Goose
Creek, in Clay County, thirty-five miles north of Camp Buckner and eighteen
miles east of a camp of Home Guards variously estimated at from six hundred to
fifteen hundred—at Laurel Bridge, in Laurel County, some thirty-eight miles
north-west of Camp Buckner and two miles south-east of London. As our General
had decided to send a detachment to capture the salt above named, and also
another detachment in the direction of this Federal encampment at Laurel Bridge
to attract attention and mask the movement of the first, he therefore issued
the following special orders:
* The above order
fell into the hands of the Federals (how I know not) and on the 3d October it
was sent by T. T. Garrard, who was Colonel of the Third Kentucky Regiment and
in command at Camp Wildcat, or Rockcastle Hills, to General G. H. Thomas, who
was in command at Camp Dick Robinson, some thirty-five miles beyond Wildcat. At
the same time Garrard wrote to Thomas thus (italics mine):
“I have no
information in regard to the rebels more than I wrote you, except the inclosed
order of General Zollicoffer, which I have no doubt is genuine. I could not
doubt it, because they carried out the instructions to the litter." - Rebellion Records, Vol. IV., p. 291.
Seventy-five of our
battalions set out from Camp Schuyler to go to Knoxville, about forty miles
east, with some prisoners. They returned the 17th.
* J. C. McAdoo and
brother Will (Company E) had the measles, and went home from this camp. Brother
Ben went with them.
McNairy moved his
battalion from Camp Schuyler, about thirty miles north, to Huntsville, the
county seat of Scott County. This was the day of the noted “Big August"
freshet. It rained so much that our wagon train did not get to Huntsville until
next day. We took shelter in the court-house.
Companies A and D
were detached on the 25th und sent back to Camp Schuyler.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, p. 37
The writer and a few others were sent to a gap in the mountain, about twelve miles north of Huntsville and within three miles of the Kentucky line, to watch for a Federal paymaster whom Madame Rumor had said would pass through that section. We had only been stationed a few hours, however, when Colonel McNairy, having received orders to move to Jamestown the next day, sent for us to return to camp immediately, though, on account of rain and high water, we remained at Huntsville three days longer.
Scott was rather a
poor county, and as the people were mostly “Union,” they were not willing to
divide rations with “Rebs”; therefore we suffered more for want of rations
while at Huntsville than anywhere else during the war, while in camp.
Companies B, C and E very gladly bid Huntsville adieu, and, moving westward, bivouacked on the Jamestown road.
McNairy moved on to and camped for the night at Jamestown.
Passing down Cumberland Mountain, the three companies bivouacked at Camp McGinnis, on Wolf River, some ten miles north of Jamestown.
As I was sick of the
measles, I remained for a week with one Mr. Lathan, who lived one mile
from Camp McGinnis. One of my comrades, J. L. Thomas, remained with me.
