The Army of the Cumberland | Page 8

be
incorporated in the main command. He could not have been located
farther west without inviting the advance of the Federal forces into East
Tennessee or to Nashville, flanking Bowling Green. Zollicoffer had no
ability as a soldier to handle troops, and General George B. Crittenden,
of Kentucky, a graduate of West Point, who had seen service in the
Mexican War, and who held at the outbreak of the rebellion, a
commission as Lieutenant-Colonel in the regiment of Mounted
Riflemen, was, in November, assigned to the command of the district
as Major-General, with headquarters at Knoxville. Great expectations
were entertained in regard to Crittenden's military abilities; and about
the first of the year 1862 he assumed command in person of the rebel
forces at Beech Grove. The fact that Zollicoffer had established his

camp on the north side of the Cumberland, "with the enemy in front
and the river behind," was known to Johnston, and information given
by him to Crittenden. General Johnston had written Zollicoffer that the
interest of the service required him simply to watch the river, and that
he could do this better from Mill Springs without crossing it.
Zollicoffer, however, had crossed the river before he heard from
Johnston, and replied that, while from this letter he inferred that he
should not have done so, it was now too late, as his means of recrossing
were so limited that he could hardly accomplish it in the face of the
enemy. On his reaching the Cumberland with his command, he had
sent forward his cavalry to seize the ferryboats at Mill Springs. In this
they failed, and the crossing was effected on one ferry-boat, seized
lower down, and barges built by his troops.
General Thomas was ordered in November to concentrate his command
in order to be prepared for any movement Zollicoffer might make, and,
if necessary, to attack him in his camp. General Carter with his brigade
was stationed at London, Colonel Hoskins was near Somerset, and
Colonel Bramlette at Columbia, all watching Zollicoffer's movements,
and reporting them to General Thomas, who endeavored to stop his
advance at the Cumberland River. Five hundred of Wolford's Cavalry
were ordered from Columbia to reinforce Colonel Hoskins; and
General Schoepff, with the Seventeenth Ohio, the Thirty-eighth Ohio,
and Standart's battery, to take position on the Cumberland River at
Waitsborough, where he could command the crossing. Here he was to
fortify and guard the river at this point and above and below, to prevent
the enemy from crossing, or from obtaining the means for doing so.
On December 2d, Zollicoffer, while building his ferries, sent some
troops to shell General Schoepff's camp. A brisk cannonading was kept
up for some time, when the rebels withdrew. Schoepff regarding this as
a feint, and anticipating a movement of Zollicoffer's troops to cross the
river, ordered two companies of cavalry under Captain Dillon to guard
the ford and to give timely notice of any attempt to effect a crossing.
He also ordered the Seventeenth Ohio with three pieces of artillery and
another company of cavalry, all under the command of Colonel

Connell, to support the cavalry under Dillon. The latter proved wholly
incompetent, and failed to comply with his orders in any particular. He
went into camp two miles in the rear from where he was ordered, and
neglected even to post his men to guard the ford, whereby Zollicoffer
was enabled to occupy the north bank of the Cumberland without
opposition and without Dillon's even knowing that the movement had
been made. This was only discovered on the 4th, when the rebels drove
back the Federal cavalry and attacked Connell, who was advancing on
a reconnoissance. Connell, in ignorance of the movement of the enemy,
had reached the vicinity of the ford and found himself confronted by a
strong force of rebels, who had crossed the river, and who being rapidly
re-enforced rendered his situation one of extreme peril. He withdrew
under cover of the night beyond Fishing Creek, without being molested.
Schoepff, finding that the advance of the rebels was supported by
reinforcements and that Zollicoffer's entire force was slowly crossing,
which would make the enemy's force in his front largely exceed his
own, asked General Carter at London to reinforce him. He also ordered
Colonel Coburn with the Thirty-third Indiana to move from Crab
Orchard to his support; and on the 6th established his camp in a strong
position three miles north of Somerset, where he was able to command
both the Stanford and the Crab Orchard roads. Here Carter reported
with two regiments on the 9th, Colonel Van Deveer's regiment, the
Thirty-fifth Ohio, with Captain Hewitt's battery having already arrived.
On the 8th, the rebel cavalry crossed Fishing Creek and reconnoitered
the Federal camps. They were fired on by Wolford's cavalry,