Humphrey Marshall to J. R. Brown, January 24, 1862

Lieut. Col. J. R. BROWN, Fourteenth Regiment Kentucky Volunteers :

SIR: You are ordered to take command of a detachment of 130 men, with a complement of company officers, and start to-morrow morning, at as early an hour as practicable, to the cliffs of Little Sandy. The object of your expedition is to eapture or disperse a body of the enemy who are oceupying that vicinity and are committing depredations upon the property of citizens. If in your judgmeut the success of your enterprise demands it, you are authorized to detach a commissioned officer and a squad of men to guard such passes as the enemy would be likely

to eseape through. You are hereby empowered to arrest and bring to these headquarters all persons who are aiding or abetting the rebellion, and who in your judgment are dangerous to the Union cause. I have ordered the quartermaster of the Fourteenth Kentucky to send with you a commissary sergeant, who will provide by purchase such provisions as the forces under your cominand are entitled to by law, but are unable to take with them. Your command will take three days! cooked rations in their haversacks, and will carry nothing in their knapsacks but their blankets. Each man must have 30 rounds of ammunition.

I shall expect you to return at the end of five days. If the success of your expedition requires it, you are authorized to extend the time to six days, but no longer, without orders from me.

Very truly, yours, J. A. GARFIELD, Colonel, Commanding Brigade.

Reports of Brig. Gen. Humphrey Marshall, C. S. Army, commanding brigade, with instructions from War Department.

CAMP AT PAINTSVILLE, JOHNSON COUNTY, K. Y., December 22, 1861.

GENERAL: I had the pleasure to receive your favor of the 10th instant* on last evening. In reply permit me to express my eratification that the misapprehension by my friend Major-General Crittenden of the extent of his jurisdiction and your prompt rectification of what seemed to circumscribe vastly my sphere of proposed usefulness have left me nothing to complain of in regard to the matter and nothing to regret, except the hope it seems to have inspired Colonel Stuart’s regiment with, that the field of its operations would be one more agreeable than the mountains.

I have been compelled to arrest Colonel Moore, of the regiment from Virginia, to be called the Twenty-eighth when organized, and I have directed him to remain at Abingdon (his home) until you order a court to try his case. I shall hereafter forward the charges and specifications, if I shall consider it absolutely essential to press the matter to a hearing. For the present I merely remark that I have been trying to move his command forward to Prestonburg since the 6th day of November. I telegraphed to him from Wytheville at that time, directing him to move. I saw him there on the 9th of November, and explained to him the apprehensions I entertained for Colonel Williams’ safety; urged him to move his regiment. I then gave him written orders to move immediately on receiving arms and ammunition. I left Wytheville in person and went forward to the Richlands, in Tazewell (62 miles), crossed over to a point only 20 miles back of Abingdon, and thence to this place. From Pound Gap I urged Colonel Moore to come forward with his command. I wrote to him, demanding some explanation of his conduct. He rendered it and set a day to start, but he did not start at the time appointed; and when he did start, he only moved 3 or 4 or 5 miles per day, and finally halted between Abingdon and Clinch River, on the

ground that he had promised his men not to move them across Clinch River until their wages were paid. Officers of this command came and went by his column; some of them made speeches to Colonel Moore’s men. I bore all this in silenve, but disapprovingly. The command was finally brought forward to the other side of Cumberland Mountain last Saturday (eight days ago), and there it halted again, and the colonel sent me a message that he was doing all he could to get forward, but his men would not come, and he had to go back after some he had permitted to go home to prepare wood for the winter for their families, &c., and expected

to be detained for some seven or eight days, but would do his best; and —

Iheard that the command was in a terrible condition, so far as discipline is concerned; and this last news and message seemed to leave me no alternative but to try to bring the command forward under the charge of the lieutenant-colonel or the major. Therefore I ordered Colonel Moore in arrest, and directed him to return to his home until you could order an investigation of his case. My sole object is to get his men into the field; I don’t believe he ever will. I can’t say that he does not desire

to do so, but it is plain that if he keeps his own illegal promises to his soldiers at the expense of peremptory orders from his superior officer,

and at the risk of others whose safety might be dependent on his movements, he is a very unsafe depositary of military trust; and if he wants to do right, yet can’t command his men to march after more than thirty days of experiment, he should yield place to somebody who can.

I make this explanation to you because I am aware I ought to send forward charge and specification now, but I have no desire to push Colonel Mcore into any place from which he cannot recover, and I want to leave myself a little room to observe whether the arrest alone will not answer without a trial.

Lam here, 33 miles above Louisa and about 60 miles from the Ohio River. Below me are several large towns: Louisa, 900 population; Catlettsburg, 1,000, at the mouth of the Sandy. Four miles below Catlettsburg is Ashland, 1,200 population; 20 miles below is Greenupsburg; at 7 miles below, on the Ohio side, is Ironton, with 4,500 population, and this is the terminus of a railroad running to the interior of Ohio. At 25 miles from Catlettsburg and directly back of Ashland is Grayson, the county site of Carter County, Kentucky, with a few hundred population. The whole range is supported mainly by working coal and iron, and the capital employed is mainly belonging to Oliio.men. The population is generally against the South. I have taken position here, and have arrested one man within 10 miles of Louisa, the only arrest I have sanctioned. I sent him to the post at Pound Gap, to be detained there until further orders. He ought to have been shot; he is a native of Tennessee, and I found him with an Enfield rifle in hand, a Lincoln uniform on his back, orders in his pockets, and the proof was positive that he was in eompany when two Southern-rights men were killed by Lincoln bands, and when a store was robbed, and. that he was here with Nelson’s command, vaporing through these streets, condueting himself towards old, respectable, and defenseless females in the most brutal and insolent manner; in one instance making an old lady named Preston (the wife of a very respectable old man whom they bailed at $25,000) cook fora mess of Irish and Dutch soldiers for a whole week in her own house. I felt like having him shot, but thought imprisonment was probably the best course to take with him.

The President has released, unfortunately, at least three very bad

.men, whom Colonel Williams sent to Richmond before my arrival on

this frontier. I have a battalion of those special-service men in Pound Gap, and I will send my prisoners there until they have been reported at Richmond. My policy is conciliatory to the people, and I think is having a good effect, but when I arrest a man against whom the proof is plain and whose guilt is startling, I shall secure him so certainly that nothing but superior authority to mine can relieve him. I have with me here Trigg’s and part of Williams’ regiment, and Jeffress’ battery of four pieces, and 30 mounted men; in all about 1,100 men. The mounted

battalion, about 400 men, is at Licking Station, 16 miles from this place,

covering the roads which lead in from the direction from Lexington and

Rosecrans’ cavalry at Louisa. They have made no demonstration in this direetion as yet. Zeigler’s regiment is at Ceredo, 3 miles above Catlettsburg.

Knowing that Colonel Stuart has not left Abingdon, and that Moore has not crossed the Cumberland, I am somewhat embarrassed about putting anything into motion which is not strietly defensive. However, Isent forward a detachment of mounted men as far as West Liberty, in Morgan County, and covered the march of about 50 unarmed recruits to – my camp, collecting at the same time a drove of about 130 hogs, and making contracts for about 30,000 weight of bacon for my command.

The Union men stampeded. in every direction, for it was reported that Ihad an army pouring from the hills and numbering at least 10,000. Some of my men were thrown out in advance of West Liberty, ‘and actually went down to Mount Sterling, within 20 miles of Paris. The Union men were absconding er from Mount Sterling. I formed a military plan thereupon, whieh I should have about 1 ,500 eavalry to execute, and it is to sweep down on the railroad trom Lexington to Cincinnati and destroy it. L could have done it before this time if I had 1,000 cavalry. lI can do it before a month passes if I have the number mentioned, and my opinion is that your column would find your adversary in retr eat directly or so detaching force to assail me that you could march directly on Louisville. I think I shall be able, as it is, to employ some 6,000 or 8,000 of them, and can occasionally whip them when circumstances favor me.

Very respectfully, &c.,