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 COMMANDER! OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, 
 
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 WAR PAI 
 
 
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 Onit^d States. 
 
 
 COMM/\plDE[^V OF TpE D1^T[(ICT OF C!OLUWlBl/\. 
 
 
 WAR PAPERS. 
 
 19 
 
 "^i7^ Sailor on. 3{or££baclc." ' 
 
 PREPARED BY COMPANION 
 Lieutenant-Colonel 
 
 G. C. KNIFFIN, 
 
 U. S. Volunteers, 
 
 AND 
 
 READ AT THE STATED MEETING OF MARCH 7, 1894. 
 
 !0|>4 
 
^^ 74- 
 
|t ^ailat an §iai:$iebadt. 
 
 The two "general officers whom I iirst met after enterin<^ the 
 ^ vohmteer army were sailors. 
 
 The first was Lieut. Wm. Nelson, boisterous as the Atlantic 
 in a storm ; 
 
 The other, Lieut. Samuel P. Carter, more Pacific in de- 
 meanor, both of the United States Navy. 
 
 Alike in the element of courage and intelligence, they soon 
 oVitained C(jntrol over the turbulent spirits who flocked to their 
 standard at Camp Dick Robinson, Kentucky, and, although 
 totally unlike in other characteristics, they were full of tireless 
 energy and unquenchable patriotism. Nelson seemed to require 
 neither sleep nor rest. He regarded the drilling and discipline 
 of raw recruits as of paran>punt importance in carrying out the 
 great task to which he had been assigned, and bent eveiy effort 
 towards rendering the force under his command effective. He 
 had been directed by the Pi"esident to organize in Kentucky a 
 brigade of infantry and cavalry and a battery of artillery to con- 
 voy an ammunition-train across the Cumberland Mountains to 
 the relief of the suffering loyalists of East Tennessee. 
 
 His subsequent career, his development into one of the most 
 efficient division commanders of the Army of the Ohio, and 
 his tragic death, will form the theme of a subsequent paper, if 
 the Commandery desires to hear it. 
 
 Lieutenant Cai'ter was in most regards the opposite of Nelson. 
 Tall and graceful in carriage, he was equally handsome, of great 
 affability, and his winning address was coupled with dignity 
 and self-restraint. His appearance at the camp had a soothing 
 effect upon his fiery brother officer of the navy, and it was 
 
observed that the expletives w^ith which the latter vs^as wont to 
 emphasize his opinion upon subjects that displeased him were 
 more' mild in tone when the "parson," as he dubbed Carter, 
 was present. 
 
 Long service in the navy had imparted to an otherwise pleas- 
 ing address an appearance of sternness — increased, doubtless, by 
 the gravity of the situation. 
 
 The habit of command sat easily upon him, and the control 
 which he speedily acquired over his men increased to veneration 
 as events, crowding rapidly upon each other, brought into 
 requisition the qualities of patience, courage, and discipline, with 
 which he was eminently endowed. 
 
 Lieutenant Carter was a native of East Tennessee, a graduate 
 of the Naval Academy, and the outbreak of the rebellion found 
 him on duty with his ship at Valparaiso, Chile. 
 
 Like Nelson, he had been transferred to the War Department 
 for special duty at the urgent request of his countrymen in East 
 
 a. 
 
 Tennessee and assigned to the command of such troops as could 
 be organized from the refugees from that locality, with the rank 
 of Brigadier General. 
 
 You who have been accustomed to meeting this quiet, cour- 
 teous gentleman at his home, on the street, with the Commandery, 
 or within the sacred portals of the church can form little idea of 
 the masterful character of the man. With him Christianity was 
 not a garment to be put on and doffed at pleasvne. It was a 
 very real and living presence. Glowing with equal intensity in 
 camp and upon the battle-field, it- permeated with its refining, 
 uplifting influence the atmosphere of his headquarters. 
 
 General Carter was a clean man — in person, in thought, 
 speech, and behavior — and there were none so gross or sensual as 
 not to yield deference to the soldierly Christian, whose courage 
 was unquestioned and whose piety was so sincere. 
 
There came a time in the outset of his militaiy career when 
 all the patience and firmness with which he was so wonderfully 
 endowed were needed in a great emergency. General Zollicoffer, 
 in command of the Department of East Teimessee, entered the 
 State of Kentucky at the head of an army that he believed was 
 strong enough to oyercome the small force under command of 
 General Thomas at Camp Dick Robinson. He was defeated 
 on the 22d of October, iS6i, at Wild Cat, before he had 
 marched half the distance towards our camp, by a detachment 
 of three regiments sent out to meet him. General Thomas at 
 once put his forces in motion, and the pursuit continued nearly 
 to Cumberland Gap, where, owing to lack of transportation for 
 supplies, the pursuit was abandoned. 
 
 The East Tennessee brigade, elated at the prospect of reach- 
 ing their homes, had pressed forward, eagerly counting the days 
 that must elapse before they could march triumphantly throvigh 
 their native valleys. 
 
 Upon these men the order to return to camp fell like a death- 
 knell. They were new to the profession of arms. They knew 
 nothing of discipline or drill. They were only a motley assem- 
 blage of men in whose hearts was one sentiment, which opposi- 
 tion had fanned into an intense flame — love of country and home. 
 
 Nearly the entire brigade mutinied, demanding to be led into 
 East Tennessee! " Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." It 
 maddens strong, unreasoning men. They fell upon the ground 
 in an agony of despair, some cursing the commander, others 
 calling upon God to help them in their extremity. Tears were 
 flowing down bearded cheeks, and many officers and men de- 
 clared they would not return. 
 
 A commander of less judgment than General Thomas would 
 have called upon the other brigades to reduce the East Tennes- 
 seeans to submission ; but he, with that wisdom that never failed 
 
him in any emergency, left the matter entirely to General Carter, 
 who, moving abont on foot among the men, exhorting them to 
 obedience, promising an early renewal of the campaign, gradu- 
 ally regained his influence and led his sullen and disappointed 
 regiments back to camp. 
 
 From this unpromising material he formed a brigade of well 
 drilled and disciplined troops, which on many a hotly contested 
 field demonstrated their love for the Union and their devotion to 
 their heroic commander. 
 
 The limits of this paper will allow of but one instance, among 
 many, showing how well the confidence of both people ajid' 
 Government was placed, and how gallantly the duties of a 
 soldier may be performed by a sailor on horseback. 
 
 The organization of cavalry regiments for military operations 
 in rear of the Federal lines was undertaken by the Confederate 
 Government at an early period of the war, resulting in the 
 periodical destruction of our lines of railroad from the base of 
 supplies to the army front. 
 
 Conspicuous among the leaders of these organizations were 
 Generals Morgan and Forrest, the one operating in Kentucky 
 and the other in Tennessee. The boldness with which these fo- 
 rays were conducted, and their marvellous rapidity of movement, 
 imparted a spice of romance to the raiders inspiring to the youth 
 of the Blue-Grass State. The ranks were filled b}' brave, de- 
 termined young fellows varying in intellectual endowments from 
 the graduates of Yale and Harvard down to the youngster 
 whose principal endowments were to read and write and ride a 
 horse. How well they rode, how bravely they fought, and how 
 keen they were in a horse trade, and the rest of their acts, are 
 written in the chronicles of the War of the Rebellion. Morgan's 
 raids in a State so well provided with horses, forage, and subsist- 
 ence as Kentucky were successful owing largely to the adherence 
 
to one invariable principle. No matter how hot the pursuit or 
 precipitate the retreat, this sul)tle influence actuated every mem- 
 ber of the command from general to private soldier. This all- 
 pervading rule, without wliich the Morgan raids would have 
 been ignominious failures, was, to tiever pass a good Jioi'se. 
 It was not until a full year after the fame of Morgan had 
 filled every hamlet in the land that the War Department awoke 
 to the importance of organizing a cavalry force equal to that of 
 the enemy. 
 
 The people had come to believe that Southern horsemen were 
 superior to those from the Northern States, and the Government 
 appears to have had the same idea. 
 
 The Confedarate records show that the cavalry equipped and 
 mounted during the winter of iS63-'3, under Generals Van Dorn, 
 Wheeler, Forrest, and Morgan, numbered over 20,000. The 
 cavalry of the Army of the Cumberland and the Army of the 
 Tennessee combined did not reach one-half that number. The 
 result of this preponderance of cavalry was the capture of Holly 
 Springs by Van Dorn, and the halt of Grant's column while on 
 its way to the certain capture of Vicksburg in December, 1S62, 
 the burning of bridges and capture of stores along the line of the 
 Mobile and Ohio Railroad by Forrest, and the destruction of 
 trestle-work and capture of trains and of a whole brigade of 
 infantry by Morgan. Army movements and military operations 
 of the highest importance were for the time rendered abortive 
 by persistent raids upon our communications by these pestifer- 
 ous fellows, who moved so rapidly — appearing here to-day, and 
 to-morrow fifty miles away — that it became necessary to detail a 
 force ecjual to one-tenth of the infantry in the army to guard 
 bridges along the railroad leading back to the bases of supplies. 
 The urgent appeals of General Rosecrans for horses and 
 carbines with which to mount and arm his men and pursue the 
 
8 
 
 rebels to the rear of their own lines were unheeded by the 
 wiseacres of Washington, who at a thousand miles' distance 
 attempted to plan and prosecute campaigns in Tennessee. The 
 origin of disagreement between Stanton and Rosecrans was the 
 refusal by the former to comply with Rosecrans' rec[uest for 
 more cavalry, or, in lieu thereof, for horses upon which to mount 
 infantry. That there was no foundation for the assertion that 
 Morgan's cavalry was in any regard superior to that from other 
 States was demonstrated l)y its pursuit and capture in Ohio by 
 Shackelford in 1S63, and by its destruction by Burbridge in 1S64, 
 at Cynthiana, Kentucky. 
 
 The success of Morgan is rather to be attributed to the con- 
 stant exchange of horses in the country through which he passed 
 and to the lack of cavalry with which to pursue him or head 
 him off from his own lines. His operations were conducted in 
 a country to a great extent friendly to the Confederate cause, 
 and in which his men were recruited. Being never at a loss for 
 a guide, he was able to take advantage of the topography of the 
 country to secure the most practicable routes of march from one 
 point to another. 
 
 His men fought well when the necessities of the case required, 
 as at Lebanon and Hartsville ; but Morgan never risked a battle 
 merely for the sake of a fight. He was master of his own 
 movements and was not required to render an account of his 
 operations to the commanding general of the department. 
 Thus, untrammelled by orders, he moved, from place to place, 
 inflicting as much injury as possible upon the Federal lines ; 
 avoiding a battle, if it could be done by flight, leaving in his 
 wake smoking bridges and looted storehouses. 
 
 Pursued by a brigade of infantry no larger than his own 
 command, under Colonel (now Associate Justice) Harlan, 
 he avoided a fight, preferring to trust his safety to the speed of 
 
his horses. Calling upon a Michigan regiment to surrender, and 
 being met by the heroic response, "Michigan soldiers do not 
 surrender on the Fourth of July," he ordered a charge upon the 
 works by his entire division, when, suffering a severe repulse, 
 he ordered a retreat, leaving the Wolverines to their own devices. 
 
 Forrest, on the other hand, appeared to be always spoiling for 
 a Hght. " Give me ten minutes bulge on 'em, and I don't care 
 for your tactics," said this early morning raider, and many a 
 luckless garrison had cause to curse the unconscionably early 
 hours in which he chose to do his fighting. 
 
 Van Dorn's brief experience as a cavalry officer gave small 
 opportunity to judge of his powers. He celebrated his advent 
 in the saddle by moving to the rear of Grant's army and de- 
 stroying his depot of supplies at Holly Springs, in December, 
 1862, causing the retreat of Grant to Memphis, and Sherman's 
 ineffectual assault upon Chickasaw Bluffs. His career closed in 
 the spring of 1S63, at Spring Hill, Tennessee, where he fell a 
 victim at the shrine of Venus instead of Mars. 
 
 But no such adventitious circumstances attended the cavalry 
 raid through mountainous passes out in an vmknown country by 
 Northern cavalry, which I shall attempt to describe. There was 
 urgent need of the greatest speed to accomplish the purpose of 
 the expedition, Ijut there was no possibility of exchange of 
 horses. The loss of the horse meant the loss of the rider, yet the 
 celerity of movement and the thoroughness with which the work 
 was acomplished were never excelled by either of the Confed- 
 erate commanders I have mentioned. 
 
 Among the patriots of 1S61 there are none who have a 
 stronger hold upon the veneration of the American people than 
 those of East Tennessee. The courage and constancy of their 
 devotion to the Union ; their suffering and exposme to death in 
 every form that the malignity of their enemies could invent ; their 
 
lO 
 
 separation from their families during months of anxious waiting, 
 when every messenger from their native land brought to their 
 ears tales of outrage and cruel persecution inflicted upon those 
 who were left behind, by a lawless horde of guerrillas, who, in 
 the name of the confederacy, filled the land with rapine and mur- 
 der ; their long probation and final triumph, form matter for an 
 epic poem for which the poet has not yet arisen. Banished from 
 their homes by the stern edict of a power whose authority they 
 defied, and which was at war with all their traditions of loyalty, 
 they had no recourse from entering the Confederate service except 
 in expatriating themselves from their homes and leaving their 
 families to the tender mercies of freebooters. The occupation 
 of East Tennessee by a military force sufficient to hold posses- 
 sion of it had from the outbreak of the rebellion been an ob- 
 ject dear to the great heart of President Lincoln. Failure to 
 accomplish this cherished result had caused the removal of Gen- 
 eral Buell from the command of the Army of the Ohio, to which 
 General Rosecrans was- assigned in October, 1862. The deter- 
 mination to carry out this object was impressed upon General 
 Roseci'ans, who found, on assuming command, the Confederate 
 army, under General Bragg, encamped in Middle Tennessee, 
 thirty miles from Nashville. To move into East Tennessee 
 through Cumberland Gap, even if so long a march over country 
 roads, without adequate transportation for army supplies, in the 
 early winter months had been practicable, would invite the cap- 
 ture of Nashville, and the invasion of Kentucky from the south, 
 resulting in cutting off his lines of communication with his base 
 at Cincinnati and the possible occupation of the States north of 
 the Ohio by the Confederates. Yet, preposterous as it appears 
 at this distance, the march through Cumberland Gap was per 
 sistently urged by the War Department. While Rosecrans was 
 gathering his forces for a decisive blow upon the army in his 
 
II 
 
 front, the Confederate cavalry, outnumbering that in the Union 
 army three to one, wei-e constantly raiding through the country 
 in his rear. Forrest, in West Tennessee, turned his attention to 
 the Mobile and Ohio Railroad in rear of General Grant ; and 
 Morgan, in Kentucky, fell upon the Louisville and Nashville 
 Railroad, and swept it clear of bridges and trestle-work from 
 Bacon Creek to the Rolling Fork. 
 
 While Morgan with his rough riders was illuminating the 
 heavens along the line of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad 
 with the light of burning bridges, a counter raid was in progress 
 in East Tennessee, conducted by Brig. Gen. S. P. Carter. 
 On November 35, 1862, an expedition was proposed to enter 
 East Tennessee and destroy the bridges along the line of the 
 East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad. A good deal of time 
 was used in organizing the expedition, and it was not until De- 
 cember 19th that arrangements were perfected and the move- 
 ments ordered. Even then an insufficient force was detached 
 upon a most hazardous expedition. General Carter, in command 
 of the forces assigned to the work, ordered a junction to be made 
 in Clav County, Kentucky, and proceeded to that point on the 
 
 20th. 
 
 The organizations composing this force were as follows : 
 Two battalions each of the Second Michigan Cavalry, Lieu- 
 tenant Colonel Campbell, and Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry, 
 Major Russell, and the First Battalion of the Seventh Ohio 
 Cavalry. Major Raney— the brigade, 9S0 strong, under command 
 of Col. Charles A. Walker, of the Tenth Kentucky Cavalry. 
 A forao-e-train accompanied the command sixty miles, and then, 
 after distributing a portion of the supplies to the men, transferred 
 the remainder to a train of pack-mules. At noon on the 28th 
 the foot of the Cumberland Mountains was reached on the north 
 «ide, opposite Crank's Gap. equidistant between Pound Gap and 
 
12 
 
 Cumberland Gap. The horses were then fed, a day's forage 
 procured, and the pack-mules sent back. A little before sunset 
 the summit of the mountain was reached, and in the distance 
 the whole field of operations was spread out to view. From 
 this point General Carter's objective point, the railroad bridges 
 above Knoxville, Tenn., lay tv^o hundred miles southeast. To 
 reach it he must cross the southwest corner of Virginia, trav- 
 ersed by mountain ranges and rivers at right angles to his line 
 of march, over heavy dirt roads, where rapid movement was 
 impossible, and through mountain passes where a few hundred 
 determined men could effectually bar the passage of his troops. 
 Four hours were occupied in the steep narrow descent, where 
 General Carter learned that 400 Confederate cavalry were en- 
 camped at Jonesville, Va., five miles distant. The territory into 
 which Carter had penetrated was comprised in the district 
 entrusted to the guardianship of Humphrey Marshall, whose 
 Falstaffian proportions required that he should remain near head- 
 quarters at Abingdon, Va. On the night of the 29th he re- 
 ceived from Captain Lanier, stationed at Pattonsville, informa- 
 tion by telegraph that 4,000 Union cavalry were marching on 
 Bristol, Tenn., forty-five miles distant. Mai'shall's force con- 
 sisted of the Forty-sixth Virginia Infantry, Colonel Slemp, 
 encamped near Bristol ; a battalion of Kentuckians, under 
 command of Col. Ezekiel F. Clay; a battalion of artillery, 500 
 strong, at Jefferson, Tazewell County, Va., with twelve guns, 
 and a battery of six pieces at Wytheville, Va. He had, in 
 addition to this, a mounted force scattered through the country 
 whose principal employment was to forage for subsistence for 
 themselves and horses. The obese general seemed to be always 
 a man with a grievance. Kirby Smith had banished his cav- 
 alry from his domain and forbidden them to collect forage in 
 East Tennessee. General Floyd, in the enjoyment of vice- 
 
1-3 
 
 regal rights under State authority in Western Virginia, al- 
 though not his superior officer, treated Iiini with cold con- 
 tempt. A nomadic life had bred within his capacious breast 
 a restless desire to accomplish something, but as fast as he 
 succeeded in accumulating a force sufficient to carry out a grand 
 design it was taken from him. The constant victim of nos- 
 talgia, he was compelled to stand without the gates of paradise, 
 which all true-born Kentuckians are taught to believe centers in 
 the blue-grass region, and feed his hungry recruits upon the 
 husks beyond Pound Gap. Colonel Giltner's Fourth Kentucky 
 Cavalry had moved on from day to day, in compliance with 
 Kirby Smith's demand, to Russell County, Virginia; Clay's 
 battalion of Kentucky mounted rifles was near the Three 
 Springs, in Washington County, Tenn. Johnson's liattalion still 
 lingered near Kingsport, Tenn., always on the eve of starting 
 for Kentucky in search of forage and recruits. Witcher's bat- 
 talion of Virginia riflemen had drifted as far east as Chatham 
 Hill, Va., above the salt-works. McFarland's company were 
 grazing in the rich lands of Tazewell County. Thus at the 
 instant when Captain Lanier's telegram was handed to General 
 Marshall his force of 3,000 men was scattered over sixty miles 
 of territory, all intent upon the one object of filling their stom- 
 achs and those of their horses. Colonel Slemp, commanding 
 the regiment at Bristol, was ordered by telegraph to keep a 
 sharp lookout in the direction of Fattonville. Batteries of 
 artillery were ordered from Wytheville to Bristol. Judging 
 that the real point of attack was at the salt-works, where ir- 
 reparable injury could be inflicted in a few hours' time, the 
 Georgia battery was ordered to that place, where, in front 
 of Hyde's Gap, covering Saltville, a regiment of cavalry was 
 encamped. Lieutenant Colonel Pryor, of the Fourth Ken- 
 tucky Cavalry, visiting at Abingdon, was aroused and sent to 
 
H 
 
 his camp, twenty-two miles, with orders to throw out heavy 
 pickets towards Russell, Hansonville, Va., and the mouth of 
 Dump's Creek, with videttes thrown out towards Estillville and 
 Osborne's Ford, on Clinch River. Captain Harmon, in com- 
 mand of Witcher's battalion, was ordered to move rapidly down 
 Poor Valley to the Little Moccasin Gap, throw out scouts to 
 Hanson's and open communication with Giltner. Toward 
 morning a railroad train arrived from Bristol, and the conductor 
 was directed to remain and transport troops back to that point, 
 but diso])eyed the order, thus preventing the arrival of troops 
 until too late to be of any avail. 
 
 While Marshall was making these dispositions of the forces 
 at his command. General Carter was advancing rapidly toward 
 the railroad. All through the day and night of the 29th the 
 column marched down Cove Creek, through a gap in Poor 
 Valley Ridge, across Powell's Valley, Va., reaching the top 
 of Powell Mountain at daylight of the 30th ; then through 
 Stickleyville and across Clinch River, arriving at Estillville, 
 now Gate City, Va., at 10 P. M. Here they met Witcher's 
 battalion, which fled towards " Kingsport without firing a gun. 
 No time now for a rest. Confederate cavalry hovering upon 
 their flanks, on they moved in compact ranks, through the 
 mud and darkness, over unknown roads, picking up the ene- 
 my's sti'agglers at every mile of the march. A sergeant of 
 the Second Michigan Cavalry, with two soldiers, falling to the 
 rear to adjust a saddle-girth, rode on to join the command and 
 missed the way in the darkness of the night. Seeing cavalry 
 ahead, they rode up and asked if the column had passed. 
 "What column?" was asked. "Carter's," was the response. 
 "We are Confederates, and you are prisoners." The poor 
 fellows surrendered, and immediately afterwards a pistol-shot laid 
 one of them dead at the feet of their captors. The murder was 
 
15 
 
 committed by Major Johnson, commanding a battalion of Ken- 
 tucky mounted rifles, who was on his way from Abingdon to join 
 his command. Immediately preceding the capture, he had come 
 up with Lieutenant Duncan's company "A," of Lieutenant Col- 
 onel Clay's command, scouting from liis camp tow^^rds Estill- 
 ville, " The two remaining prisoners," says Clay in his report, 
 "were sent to camp accompanied by Major Johnson, who was 
 very much excited and yet holding his pistol in his hand," 
 
 At daylight on the morning of the 30th Carter reached Blount- 
 ville, Tenn., where he captured and paroled some thirty soldiers 
 of the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry. Bristol was eight miles ahead, 
 but, hearing that it was guarded by a regiment 900 strong 
 and a battery of artillery, Carter moved to the right to strike 
 the railroad toward Union, now^ Bluff Citv, Tenn. Meanwhile 
 the country lying to the left of his line of march was alive with 
 troops hastening to the defence of Bristol and Saltville. 
 
 The Second Michigan Cavalry was despatched to Union to 
 take the place and destroy the railroad bridge, while Carter re- 
 mained a few hours to await the arrival of the rear guard, in 
 charge of stragglers. Major McDowell, in command of a 
 battalion of the Sixty-second North Carolina, surrendered with- 
 out resistance, and on the arrival of Carter with the main body, 
 the bridge across the Holston, a fine structure 600 feet in length, 
 was slowly burning. The prisoners were paroled, and that after- 
 noon were on their way to the mountains of North Carolina, 
 swearing they would never be exchanged. Their joy at being 
 captured seemed to be unbounded. The depot, containing a large 
 quantity of salt, nitre, and other Government stores, was burned. 
 As soon as the work of destruction was fairly under way, Colonel 
 Walker, with Col, J, P. Carter, of the Second East Tennessee 
 Infantry, who accompanied the expedition as a guide, with de- 
 tachments of the Second Michigan, Ninth Pennsylvania, and 
 
i6 
 
 Seventh Ohio Cavah-y, in all i8i men, started for the Watauga 
 bridge, at Carter vStation, ten miles west of Union. On their 
 way they captured a locomotive and tender, on which Colonel 
 Love, of the Sixty-second North Carolina, was hastening to 
 Union to investigate the truth of the rumor that a Union force 
 was advancing upon Bristol. Two companies of his regiment 
 were posted at Carter's Station, where Colonel Walker arrived 
 about sunset and attacked it at once. After a brief resistance, the 
 guard, 200 strong, broke and fled to the woods. Major Roper, 
 of the wSixth Kentucky Cavalry, with two companies of the Ninth 
 Pennsylvania, imder Captain Jones, in a gallant dash in pursuit, 
 captured and paroled many of the fugitives. Walker lost two 
 killed and three wounded ; the Confederates lost twelve to sixteen 
 killed and a proportionate number wounded. Tlie railroad 
 bridge, 300 feet in length, was soon in flames and completely 
 demolished ; also a large number of arms and valuable stores, 
 including the locomotive, which was run into the river. 
 
 While the Union cavalry was engaged in destroying the rail- 
 road. General Marshall, having, as he supposed, obtained accu- 
 rate information of its number and movements, made such dis- 
 position of his forces as to attempt its capture. The alarm had 
 been given ; the road was open to Knoxville from Carter's Sta- 
 tion, and from Union to Abingdon. At half past seven on the 
 morning of the 30th Lieutenant Colonel Clay telegraphed 
 Marshall the capture of three prisoners, and reported a force of 
 1,500 or 2,000 strong advancing toward Bristol. Clay deter- 
 mined to hold his position in front of Slemp's regiment, which 
 was still at Bristol, 400 strong, until reinforcements could be 
 sent to that point. Between Clay's camp and Bristol two roads 
 converged, by each of which he was informed the Union cavalry 
 was advancing. He therefore sent scouts down both of these 
 roads in the direction of Blountsville and Estillville. At 1 1 A. M. 
 
17 
 
 videttes on the former road brought information that the Union 
 cavah-y had left the Bristol road and advanced on Union Station. 
 This information was also telegraphed to Marshall at Abingdon, 
 and Clay fell back upon Bristol in the expectation that Carter 
 would move east upon that place. All this time Marshall had 
 been in telegraphic communication with the railroad officials, 
 first at Bristol and then at Lynchburg, asking for cars to tran- 
 port his tr6ops from Abingdon to Bristol, only fifteen miles. 
 After, at last, reaching the proper officer a train reached Abing- 
 don. 
 
 After the burning of the bridges, at 8 P. M. of the 30th, in- 
 formation came from Slemp that his command and Clay's, 900 
 strong, were concentrated at Bristol, but afraid to attack Carter, 
 whose force they estimated at 2,000, Colonel Giltner was di- 
 rected, at 6 P. M., to move his cavalry to Bristol and unite with 
 Clay and Slemp. The same order was sent to Witcher at Little 
 Moccasin Gap. Marshall arrived at Bristol with reinforce- 
 ments at midnight ; no one knew where Carter had gone from 
 Watauga. Fearing an attack upon Johnson's camp, he ordered 
 him to join Clay, and then went to bed. The train came in dur- 
 ing the night, bringing ten cannon, but no horses to move them. 
 These he had ordered from Wytheville, the horses to travel on 
 foot. While the Confederate commander was wooing the 
 drowsv god, Carter had turned the head of his column west- 
 ward. Leaving Watauga at midnight, he reached Kingsport at 
 sunset on the 31st. A brief rest, a supper to men and horses, 
 and the men were again in the saddle — passed Rogersville, which 
 they left eight miles to the south, through Looney's Gap of 
 Clinch Mountain, bivouacking, for the first time in ninety-six 
 hours, late at night, at a point in Hancock County, Tennessee. 
 
 The morning of the 31st found General Marshall engaged 
 upon a map of the country constructed under the supervision 
 
of several citizens of Jonesboro. At 12 M. he received in- 
 formation that the Union cavah-y w^as still in camp near Union ; 
 then that they were en route for Kingsport ; later that they were 
 encamped at Hull's, four miles south of Blountville, on the 
 Jonesboro road, which latter despatch contained an earnest re- 
 quest to send all his force to Kingsport. vStill later Captain 
 Baldwin telegraphed that the Union cavalry, about 2,000 strong, 
 were making their way to Rogersville with a view to plundering 
 the bank at that place. This despatch was dated 8 P. M., and 
 still the plethoric commander lingered at Bristol. Captain 
 Bedford, of Clay's command, who had left Bristol about noon, 
 passing through Blountville and hearing nothing of a camp at 
 Hull's, sent back word to that effect, whereupon Giltner was 
 despatched with all speed to Blountville, there to co-operate with 
 Baldwin and cut Carter off from Moccasin Gap. Marshall had 
 been promised reinforcements by Gen. vSam Jones, command- 
 ino- at Dublin, Virginia ; but they had not arrived. His artillery 
 horses were still on the road. The conflictirtg statements of his 
 scouts obscured the movements of Carter's cavalry, and, to add 
 to his perplexity, the map provided for him by Mr. Dunn was 
 made without regard to points of compass or distance from place 
 to place. When, finally, he was warned by the flight of time 
 that a movement must be made in pursuit, he found that he had 
 but 1,533 effectives with which to capture a force estimated as 
 exceeding that number. Nevertheless Marshall moved from 
 Bristol on the night of the 31st and occupied Moccasin Gap 
 about 4 A. M. on the morning of the ist of January. vSuppos- 
 ing that Carter would cross Clinch Range below Estillville, he 
 sent messengers to arouse the bushwhackers in Lee County, 
 Virginia, through which Carter would be likely to pass, and 
 others to Cumberland Gap and Pound Gap, requesting co-opera- 
 tion while he moved forward to vSpeer's Ferry, which Carter had 
 
19 
 
 crossed in his outward march. Up to midnight of January ist 
 no information could be obtained of Carter's movements. In 
 obedience to his orders, the countrymen had felled trees across the 
 road, but in some cases had taken the precaution to wait until 
 the Union column had passed, when, finding his way blockaded, 
 Marshall remained at Pridemores, five miles beyond Spier's 
 Ferry, until the morning of January 3d, when he moved to 
 Pattonsville, and Carter resumed his march in the direction of 
 Jonesville, where 400 infantry and two companies of cavalry 
 from Cumberland Gap had taken position. Carter reached 
 Jonesville late in the afternoon. The infantry fell back, but the 
 cavalry showed fight. A charge led by Colonel Walker drove 
 them in haste to the wood with a loss of several killed and 
 wounded. Twenty were captured and paroled. At 1 1 P. M. the 
 column passed through Crank's Gap and, thoroughly exhausted 
 from a march of five days and a half, in which they had been 
 out of the saddle but seventeen hours, the men threw themselves 
 upon the ground and rested until morning. Marshall atlvanced 
 from Pattonsville toward Jonesville, reaching there in time to 
 hurry Carter's rear guard out of the town ; but, deterred from 
 pursuit by the impression that Carter's force was superior to his 
 own, and that his troops might be led into an ambuscade, he 
 followed Carter's example and went into camp. The expedition 
 returned to Manchester, Kentucky, on the 5th, when the force 
 was disbanded and the detachments sent to their respective 
 commands. 
 
 This raid of over 470 miles, 170 of which was through the 
 enemy's country, bears favorable comparison with any made by 
 either Morgan or Forrest during the year, and demonstrated the 
 equal endurance of the Northern cavalry. Had the force been at 
 all commensurate with the undertaking, General Carter could 
 have turned eastward from Watauga bridge and swept the rail- 
 
20 
 
 road as far as Abingdon. The destruction of the salt-works at 
 Saltville would have inflicted irreparable damage upon the con- 
 federacy, and the defeat of the broken and disorganized force of 
 Humphrey Marshall would have given a favorable opportunity 
 for the Union men of East Tennessee to assert their rights by 
 revolt. 
 
 Their probation, however, soon ended. For nearly two years 
 the Unionists of East Tennessee had looked forward to the time 
 of their deliverance from Confederate bondage. The flag of their 
 country had floated, on several occasions, from the peaks of the 
 Cumberland Mountains, but had as often disappeared behind the 
 western slope. Like a mirage, it had excited their hopes only 
 to dash them to the ground. The expedition led by their coun- 
 tryman, General Carter, proved the avant-courier of a powerful 
 army under General Burnside, which, a few months later, planted 
 the Stars and Stripes upon the pinnacles in Knoxville, where it 
 floated in triumph until the close of the war. 
 
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