Our battalion
marched (about fourteen miles) from Camp McGinnis to within five miles of
Albany, the county seat of Clinton County, Kentucky.
From his
headquarters, thirteen miles west of Monticello, Zollicoffer wrote, under the
above date, to General S. Cooper, Adjutant and Inspector-General, Richmond,
Virginia, thus:
Two
regiments cross the river to-day at Mill Springs to endeavor to cut off eight
hundred of the enemy at Waitsborough, nine miles above. A mail from Columbia to
Monticello has been captured, by which we learn that there are two battalions
of cavalry and two regiments of infantry at Columbia.
They
had heard of my advance and heard my force was nine thousand. This they doubt,
but think if it is true they will have to retreat for want of numbers. I learn
that General Thomas is at Crab Orchard, but have no reliable intelligence of
forces other than those at Columbia and Waitsborough.
I
have sent detachments of cavalry to examine the ferries at Burkesville, and
Creelsborough, seventeen miles above Burkesville, also to get more particular
information of the ferries and roads crossing at Dorothea Landing and
Horse-Shoe Bottom. It is now certain there is no enemy this side of the
Cumberland.*
_______________
* Rebellion
Records, Vol. VII., p. 706.
