Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Monday, December 9, 1861

General Zollicoffer now had with him. six and a half regiments of infantry, a six-pounder battery of eight guns, and McNairy's, Branner's and McClellan's Battalions of cavalry; also two companies of Brazelton's Battalion, and two independent companies, commanded by Captains Bledsoe and Sanders. Total, about five thousand five hundred present for duty. Two regiments of infantry, two pieces of artillery and McNairy's Battalion were left on the south side of the river; all the other troops were now encamped on the north bank, opposite Mill Springs, intrenching as rapidly as possible.

General D. C. Buell was now in command of the Department of the Ohio, with headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky. General G. H. Thomas was in command of First Division of Buell's army, with headquarter's at Lebanon, Kentucky.

Thomas's Division, which was now in front of Zollicoffer, was composed of five brigades, four regiments each, distributed as follows: The First Brigade, under Brigadier-General A. Schoepf, was now at Somerset; the Second, under Colonel M. D. Manson, and Third, under Colonel R. L. McCook, were posted at Lebanon; the Eleventh Brigade, under Brigadier-General J. T. Boyle, at Columbia; and two regiments of the Twelfth Brigade, the First and Second East Tennessee, under Colonel S. P. Carter, set out from London on the 7th, and arrived at Somerset on the 9th instant, leaving Garrard's Kentucky Regiment at London. Carter's other regiment, the Thirty-first Ohio, was at Camp Dick Robinson.¹

Besides his own brigade, which was composed of the Thirty-third Indiana, Colonel John Coburn; Seventeenth Ohio, Colonel J. M. Connell; Twelfth Kentucky, Colonel W. A. Haskins, and Thirty-eighth Ohio, Colonel E. D. Bradley; General Schoepf had with him at Somerset the Thirty-fifth Ohio, Colonel F. Van Derveer, from McCook's Brigade; First East Tennessee, Colonel R. K. Byrd; Second East Tennessee, Colonel J. P. T. Carter, from S. P. Carter's Brigade; First Kentucky Cavalry, Colonel Frank Wolford, and ten pieces of artillery.²

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¹ See Rebellion Records, Vol. VII., p. 461, 467, 479 and 480.
² See Rebellion Records, Vol. VII., pp. 479, 484 and 486.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p. 92-4

Robert C. Kent to Judah P. Benjamin, November 10, 1861

WYTHEVILLE, November 10, 1861.

J. P. BENJAMIN,  Secretary of War:

Following dispatch received:

Mr. Branner, president East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, came up this evening, and says Union men are gathering; about 1,500 at Carter's Depot. See commander of forces at Wytheville and urge him to come out. This is no sensation report, but truth. Bridges have been burned on East Tennessee Road. General Marshall left here for Kentucky to-day. Commanders of forces here have marching orders to follow. Will you comply with request and send troops from here to Tennessee? Reply. Battery and one regiment here.

R. C. KENT.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 4 (Serial No. 4), p. 235