The Army of the Cumberland | Page 8

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, which then fell back; and after a brisk skirmish with the Thirty-fifth Ohio they were driven back with a loss of two or three men on each side.
General Buell had ordered Thomas to keep his immediate command at Columbia, and had directed him not to send any more troops to Schoepff at Somerset, considering that the latter had sufficient force to drive the rebels across the Cumberland. Thomas was directed to hold himself in readiness to make an immediate movement, when ordered, from Columbia on the rebel General Hindman, who with some seven thousand troops was operating in that vicinity, throwing out his cavalry far in advance of his main column, and feeling the position of the Federal forces. Hindman had been ordered by General Johnston to make a diversion in favor of Zollicoffer; and when Thomas from Columbia checked Hindman's advance, the latter reported that the force under Thomas had not been weakened to reinforce Schoepff, or to strengthen the main command at Bowling Green, and that Zollicoffer was in no immediate danger.
Schoepff with his entire command on the