CHAP.XII.] ACTION AT ROCKCASTLE HILLS, KY., ETC.
CAMP RED SULPHUR, October 22, 1861.
General F. K. ZOLLICOFFER:
DEAR SIR: I am in receipt of yours of 16th instant. I am much pleased to learn that you are moving in direction of the interior of Kentucky. We are to-day within 32 miles of Burkesville; will reach and capture the Federal forces there by the 25th of this instant. We will then move to Albany by the 26th of this instant. Will you inform me of your position at Albany, as I will wait at that point for orders from you? I have no fears of our success at Burkesville. In the mean time our forces will prevent the Federal forces from capturing your supplies at Jamestown. Yours shall be strictly confidential.
I am, your obedient servant,
JOHN P. MURRAY, Colonel Twenty-eighth Regiment Tennessee Volunteers.
Numbers 6. Report of Colonel Taz. W. Newman, Seventeenth Tennessee Infantry.
NEAR ROCKCASTLE HEIGHTS, October 21, 1861.
As ordered, I formed my regiment from hill-top to hill-top at open intervals to move in rear of Colonel Rains' regiment and support him. Lieutenant-Colonel Miller was ordered to take command of the left wing, composed of Companies A, D, F, and I, commanded by Captains Hoyle, Finch, Hunter, and Mathews, and for the movements of said companies upon the field I refer you to the report of Lieutenant-Colonel Miller, which is hereto appended and made a part of my report.* The six companies, viz, B, C, E, G, G, and K, commanded by Captains Marks, McDearman, and Armstonrg, and Lieutenants Davis, Holden, and Harrison, constituting the right wing, were under my immediate command, and moved forward in line of battle in the direction of the heights in front of our position.
Upon reaching a point within eighty yards of the heights, we discovered a number of men ascending the heights and entering the fortifications, but supposing these men to be a portion of Colonel Rains' command, I did not order them to be fired upon.
At this point we received a heavy volley of rifles and musketry. The command moved on, however, without returning the fire, until within forty paces of the enemy's works, before we discovered they were not Colonel Rains' men, at which time the men were ordered to cover as well as they could and to return the enemy's fire. In this position we maintained a heavy fire for twenty-five minutes, when I ordered Captain Armstrong and Lieutenant Harrison to move their companies around to my extreme right, to prevent a flank movement of the enemy, which I saw they were about to make. These officers executed the order with promptness and alacrity under fire. The fire was kept up by all the companies for an hour and ten minutes, and seeing that it was impossible to fall back without great loss, I ordered the works to be charged. Four companies gallantly charged the works as ordered, officers and men seemingly viewing with each other as to who should be first to reach to the works of the enemy.
After the fortification was reached, and many of my men had got within the works, driving the enemy from the first parallel, not receiv-
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*Not found.
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