Showing posts with label Cumberland Ford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cumberland Ford. Show all posts

Monday, October 17, 2022

Acting Brigadier-General Samuel P. Carter to Horace Maynard, November 25, 1861

HEADQUARTERS EAST TENNESSEE BRIGADE,        
Camp Calvert, November 25, 1861.
Hon. HORACE MAYNARD:

MY DEAR SIR: A day or two after I wrote you I received orders to break up at this place and join General Thomas. I had sent on a portion of our sick to Crab Orchard and a portion of our commissary stores, but fortunately I was unable to obtain wagons enough to move the whole and was detained until this morning, when I received other orders from department headquarters to remain at London. I know not what will be the next move, but hope most sincerely it may be towards Eastern Tennessee. If something is not done, and that speedily, our people will be cut up and ruined. A column should be ordered to move into Eastern Tennessee, one detailed for that purpose and no other, to go without reference to any other movement, with the specific object of relieving our people, simply on account of their loyalty and as though it were entirely disconnected with any military advantages. I intend to say that our people deserve protection and should have it at once, and independently of all outside considerations.

I sent on 21st between 600 and 700 men, under Lieutenant-Colonel Spears, to Flat Lick, a point 8 miles below Cumberland Ford, for the purpose of obtaining information of the enemy, and with the hope they would fall in with a portion of them and cut them up. Some of our men went nearly to the Ford. None of the rebels were there. From best information the force at the Gap was only about 2,000. Zollicoffer, with some 6,000, was at Ross, in Anderson County.

If we had a battery I believe we could go into Tennessee, and then, if we could carry arms or even powder and lead to furnish to our people, I believe we could stay there.

Will help ever come? I do not mean contingent aid, but special and direct.

We are getting along well. Most of our men have returned who left on night of 13th, and all are elated at the orders to remain here. If it be possible, have it so arranged that the Eastern Tennesseeans shall not again, except in case of urgent and pressing necessity, be ordered back towards Central Kentucky. Many would sooner perish in battle than turn their backs towards the Tennessee line again.

Will you please write me if the President has ever acted on the petition which you forwarded from the officers of the two regiments to commission me as brigadier-general, and, if so, the reason for his non-compliance, as well as what you can learn of his intentions in regard to that matter.With best wishes, I am, yours, very truly,

S. P. CARTER

[ Indorsement. ]

DECEMBER 3, 1861.
Please read and consider this letter.
A. L.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 7 (Serial No. 7), p. 469-70

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Friday, October 25, 1861

Captain Allison sent some of his men out to search the woods into which the bush-whacker was chased last evening to see what discovery they could make. They soon after returned with four muskets, about twenty thousand caps, and some powder, which they had found hid out in the woods.

Captain Horn's servant was shot, but only wounded, by a bush-whacker between Barboursville and Camp Buckner.

Calling in Allison's company off of picket, McNairy moved two miles from Barboursville on the road to Cumberland Ford.

As we were on the lookout for the enemy, we did not unsaddle our horses.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p. 66-7

Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Sunday, October 27, 1861

Lieutenant George Alexander, Dr. J. S. Harrison (afterward Lieutenant) and R. Davenport rejoined Allison's company. They had been home on a visit.

Our battalion moved about three miles and encamped at Flat Lick, within eight miles of Camp Buckner, at Cumberland Ford, where we remained for several days.

As Cumberland Gap was naturally a strong position, and as the three Log Mountains between Camp Buckner and the Gap would soon be almost impassable, General Zollicoffer therefore believed that the Federals would attempt to enter East Tennessee at some point west of the Gap, and for this reason he decided to abandon his position at Camp Buckner. I shall now let our General explain his contemplated movement as follows:

BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS,

CAMP BUCKNER, CUMBERLAND FORD, October 29, 1861.


Lieutenant-Colonel Mackall, Assistant Adjutant-General, Bowling Green, Kentucky:


Sir: My pickets at Laurel Ridge yesterday drove back a small cavalry picket of the enemy and took three prisoners, who represented that a portion of the enemy's force has advanced to London. Their force at and on this side of Rockcastle River (Wildcat) is reported at nine thousand.


There are three main roads by which, if an invasion of East Tennessee is contemplated, an enemy might approach. On this, by Cumberland Gap, we have heretofore concentrated nearly our whole force, and we now have seven guns in position at Cumberland Gap. The most westernly road is by Monticello, in Kentucky, and Jamestown, in Tennessee. The counties of Fentress, Scott, Morgan, and Anderson are poor, mountainous, and disaffected. Should a force select that route of invasion, I could meet them at the mountain passes near Clinton, and between Kingston and Morgan Court-house, and keep them on that broad, sterile region until it would be practicable for General Buckner to throw a force in their rear and cut them off.


In view of this danger they may select the middle route, by Williamsburg, Ky., and Jacksborough, Tenn. The road over the Log Mountains will soon become almost impassable between here and Cumberland Gap. The Gap is a much stronger position than this. While I am watching the road from here to Laurel River, the enemy might be advancing on the Jacksborough or the Jamestown road without my knowledge. For these reasons I send four cavalry companies to scout on the roads from the neighborhood of Jacksborough into Kentucky, and I have ordered one infantry regiment to Jacksborough, one six miles east to Big Creek Gap, two about half-way between Jacksborough and Cumberland Gap, while four will remain at present at Cumberland Gap. I leave six cavalry companies to observe this road. One cavalry company is posted on the road from William[s]burg, Ky., to Huntsville, Tenn., and six cavalry companies, McClellan's Battalion, and I suppose Colonel Murray's Regiment of infantry, are in the neighborhood of Jamestown.1


It is currently reported that an invading force from twenty thousand to thirty thousand is on the road from Cincinnati to East Tennessee, but I have no means of knowing any thing of the accuracy of the rumor.2


Except cavalry scouts, my force will be withdrawn from this post to-morrow. Acting upon my best judgment, I have supposed the disposition of my forces I have described the very best under the circumstances. Had I a military engineer in whose judgment I could rely, to reconnoiter the mountain roads, gaps and passes from Cumberland Gap to Jamestown I would feel much more capable of making a judicious disposition of troops.

I have had rumors that reinforcements of Confederate troops were to be thrown upon this part of the border, but as I have no official information I take it for granted the rumors are erroneous.


Very respectfully,

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER,

Brigadier-General.3
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1 Colonels Murray and Stanton had, according to orders from A. S. Johrston, broken up a Federal camp at Burkesville, Ky., and on the same day that Zollicoffer wrote the above they were at Albany, Ky., on their way back to Overton County, Tenn. Captain Bledsoe's company was at Camp McGinnis between Jamestown, Tenn., and Albany, Ky.

2 It appears that General Geo. H. Thomas, who commanded the Second Division of Sherman's army, and was now in front of Zollicoffer, had, subject to his orders, twenty-nine regiments and three batteries of artillery, though some of the regiments were not fully organized and equipped at this time. See Rebellion Records, Vol. IV., pp. 334, 315.

3 Brigadier-General L. P. Walker had been (October 22d) ordered by General A. S. Johnston to move his brigade from Huntsville, Ala., via Knoxville, to the support of Zollicoffer, and General W. H. Carroll, at Memphis, had been (October 26th) ordered by Secretary of War to join Zollicoffer with three regiments, but neither one of them could obey the order, because their men were not armed. See Rebellion Records, Vol. IV., pp. 470, 476, 486.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p. 67-9

Monday, April 11, 2022

Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Friday, September 20, 1861

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

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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

Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Monday, September 23, 1861

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.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p. 44