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
