OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE. [CHAP.XII.
Albany towards Columbia or Camp Dick Robinson. My plan to get behind them and cut them off may be defeated; but Stanton's regiment has now left for Bowling Green, and Bridgman returned to Post Oak Springs. What has become of the two companies of Colonel Brazelton's battalion or of Captain Bledsoe's company neither explains. Perhaps the latter is with Colonel Murray's regiment at Camp Myers, in Overton County. This retiring of our forces may induce the Lincoln forces to return again. I wish the subsistence supply mentioned heretofore taken to Jamestown by the 25th instant; and you will order those cavalry companies to rendezvous in that neighborhood at the same time, that the subsistence stores may not be exposed. I must ask you to transmit from Knoxville the necessary orders to insure this and the inclosed letter to Colonel Murray.
Very respectfully,
F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Brigadier-General.
[Inclosure.]
BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS, Camp Ten Mile, Ky., October 16, 1861.
Colonel MURRARY, Camp Myers:
SIR: I am 10 miles on the march toward a camp of the enemy on Rockcastel River, having left Cumberland Ford this evening with the greater part of my command. I learned that the enemy at Albany has retired. My plan has been to fall in their rear and cut them off. Now that Colonel Stanton and our cavalry have left the neighborhood of Jamestown, the enemy may return in force near the line. I have ordered stores of subsistence for my troops to be placed at Jamestown by the 25th instant, and have ordered the same cavalry companies to return to that neighborhood almost the same time, to prevent the enemy from seizing and appropriating the stores. Perhaps the cavalry from above would not be sufficient to prevent an incursion. I except to pass down by Somerset and Monticello or by Columbia and Burkesville, in the down by Somerset and Monticello or by Columbia and Burkesville, in the hope of capturing any forces they may be threatening your position with. As secrecy is the element of success, I must beg of you not to mention to any solitary person this enterprise. My object in writing to you is to ask you, about the 25th, to move in such a way as to insure, by the aid of the cavalry, the safety of the stores, until I can reach the neighborhood. Inform General Caswell at Knoxville what you can do, and he will communicate with me.
Very respectfully,
F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Brigadier-General.
BOWLING GREEN, October 21, 1861.
General ZOLLICOFFER:
GENERAL: Your telegram from London received. The information we have of the enemy in your front is this: 10,000 at Camp Dick Robinson; of these 4,000 are in advance towards Cumberland Gap, but how far is not known; it is commanded by Garrard; and 10,000 dotted from Robinson to Cincinnati. General Polk ordered 2 howitzers, 1 Parrott, and 3 iron guns to be shipped for you to Knoxville October 15. A company to man this battery will be sent in a few days.
W. W. MACKALL, Assistant Adjutant-General.
