According to orders from brigade headquarters, Captain Allison's Company was detached from First Battalion, and proceeded from Jacksborough to Wartburg. Morgan County, where they arrived the next day, and remained there until the brigade came up. Allison was instructed to keep a sharp lookout for tories, and guard any stores that might be sent to that point from Knoxville for the brigade.
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Saturday, November 16, 1861
Monday, October 17, 2022
Brigadier-General Felix K. Zollicoffer to Lieutenant Colonel William W. Mackall, November 17, 1861
SIR: Having blockaded the roads over the mountains near Jacksborough, and believing the fortifications at Cumberland Gap very strong, I do not think an army train of the enemy can pass the mountains anywhere between the Pound Gap, in Virginia, and Jacksborough, a distance of about 120 miles. I have started the regiments of Colonels Statham, Newman, Cummings, and Battle, the first battalion of the Sixteenth Alabama Regiment, and Branner's battalion of cavalry, with Rutledge's battery, around by Wartburg, on the way to Jamestown, Tenn., and Monticello, Ky.
I came here rapidly last night to obtain more definite information of the state of things along the line of the railroad and among the tories generally. I will leave for Wartburg this evening, feeling that there is no necessity for remaining longer. General Carroll telegraphs me from Chattanooga that he is there with two regiments, half armed. I have ordered him here, with such of his command as are not engaged in pursuing Clift, a leading tory of Hamilton County, and his followers. Three different expeditions are moving from different points upon Clift's men. I fear they will disperse and take to the mountain fastnesses, eluding our forces. A Pensacola regiment, I learn, is at Chattanooga, and a regiment from Virginia is near Elizabethton, I hear. The present indications are that the tories are about being rapidly overwhelmed. I am seizing arms of Union men known to be inimical to Confederate Government, and hope in this way to arm Carroll's men who are not already armed. I propose to take and strengthen a position between Monticello and Somerset, giving us facilities for commanding the Cumberland River, the coal region supplying Nashville, &c. If I can clear the banks of the Cumberland of our enemies, supplies may this winter be furnished us by boats from Nashville. So soon as the state of things will justify, I would be pleased that General Carroll's brigade would support me in a forward movement.
P. S.—I should probably state to you more in detail what I telegraphed on the 15th, that I have information I think reliable that the enemy have no infantry nearer Cumberland Gap than London, where there are four regiments. They have about 200 cavalry at Barboursville. They have, I think, three regiments at Somerset, and are raising a fourth. They have a regiment at Crab Orchard, one at Rockcastle Camp, and one at Camp Dick Robinson. I suppose they have a regiment of cavalry at Somerset and near Monticello. My information is that six regiments, under General Nelson, advanced on Prestonburg, before whom Colonel Williams has retired through the Pound Gap.
Brigadier-General Felix K. Zollicoffer to Lieutenant-Colonel William W. Mackall, November 20, 1861
Assistant Adjutant-General, Bowling Green, Ky.:
SIR: I am moving as expeditiously as possible, with four and a half infantry regiments, a battalion of cavalry, and Rutledge's artillery, to unite with Stanton's command (his and Murray's regiments and McClellan's cavalry) beyond Jamestown, with a view of taking a strong position on the Cumberland River beyond Monticello. The country is sterile from near Clinton to beyond Jamestown, Tenn. The counties of Wayne and Clinton and the western half of Pulaski, in Kentucky, are, I learn, comparatively good counties for subsistence and forage. If I can find a good position on the Cumberland for hutting in winter I hope, by scouring the country on the north bank down to Burkesville occasionally, to command the river, and draw supplies from Nashville when the roads to Knoxville are bad. From this camp as a base of operations I hope in mild weather to penetrate the country towards London or Danville, or in other directions, and command the approaches to Cumberland Gap or Jacksborough. I hope it may be practicable, by scouring the intervening country occasionally by detachments from both camps, to establish and safely maintain a line of express messengers between General Buckner's outposts and my camp.
My information, when at Knoxville, induces me to believe that the numbers under Clift, in Hamilton County, were greatly exaggerated. I doubt whether he had at any time more than 100 to 200 followers. They are not now to be found, having dispersed. The tories in Sevier seem also to have retired where as yet our troops are not able to find them. I sent a few men up to Greeneville to arrest Andrew Johnson's sons and son-in-law. Have no late news from Carter and Johnson Counties. By this time I presume General Carroll is at Knoxville, in command, and instructed to make proper dispositions to guard the railroads and crush the tory combinations.
The recent burning of the bridges brought a crisis which I think demonstrates that but comparatively a small proportion of the population will now give countenance to hostile acts against the Confederate Government, and that those who are still hostile are only running upon their own destruction. They should now be dealt very severely with. Leniency and forbearance have gradually won many thousands over who would have been driven to the enemy had our policy been severe two months ago, but those that are yet hostile can only be cured of their folly by severity. They should be made to feel in their persons and their property that their hostile attitude promises to them nothing but destruction.
Friday, September 23, 2022
Brigadier-General Felix K. Zollicoffer to Samuel Cooper, November 22, 1861
SIR: Heavy rains have made the roads slippery and will somewhat retard our progress. Day before yesterday I ordered Colonel Stanton, with his regiment, Colonel Murray's and Lieutenant-Colonel McClellan's cavalry, encamped about 10 miles north of Jamestown, to make a rapid and stealthy forward movement to capture the ferry-boats at four or five crossings of the Cumberland, and, if practicable, the enemy's cavalry said to be on this side of the river. I have not heard whether the movement has been made. I see it stated in the Nashville newspapers that General Ward has 2,000 men at Campbellsville, 1,200 at Columbia, and a regiment at Lebanon. It is reported to Colonel Stanton that the two or three regiments between Somerset and the river have moved towards Columbia, to join other forces there. He communicates also a rumor of the crossing of the Cumberland by a force of the enemy at Green's Ferry; but all these reports seem to be uncertain. I have no dispatches from Knoxville since I left there, but hear through various scouting parties that the tories in Lower East Tennessee are dispersed, a number of prisoners taken, a few Lincolnites killed and wounded, and several hundred guns captured. Citizens have turned out in large numbers and assisted the soldiers in scouring the mountains and hunting down the fugitive traitors. They should now be pursued to extermination, if possible.