OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE. [CHAP.XII.

by way Lawrenceburg. I was informed to-day that they had taken possession of the State arms in that county for the purpose of taking them with them to the Southern Confederacy. I state these facts for the purpose of suggesting the propriety of sending a sufficient force on that line to intercept them. I send this by my friends H. C. McLeod, &c., and recommend them to your confidence.

Yours, truly,

J. E. HOPKINS, Captain, Woodford Home Guards.

FRANKFORT, KY., September 22, 1861.

HonorableR. BUCKNER:

Please send speakers [regiment], as desired by Mr. Gill. The track this side of Falmouth is torn up for 2 or 3 miles. Humphrey Marshall is assembling a force at Drennan Springs. Don't let General Thomas send too much force against Zollicoffer, but let him open the Covington and Lexington Railroad promptly. Our munitions must come that way. The mountaineers will whip Zollicoffer as soon as they get ammunition.

By all means send them lead, lead, lead!

Respectfully, yours,

JOHN F. FISK.

HEADQUARTERS FIRST KENTUCKY BRIGADE, Camp Dick Robinson, September 22, 1861.

Brigadier General ROBERT ANDERSON, U. S. A., Commanding Department of the Cumberland:

GENERAL: Mr. Corcoran arrived here last evening. I am constantly beset with importunities from citizens near the border to advance to their relief; and to do so with these troops in their present disorganized state will lead to certain disaster, and in that event we shall have to fall back upon the ohio, and lose all the advantages we now have by holding this place. I cannot think of it for a moment, unless I could have 4,000 well-drilled men a battery of artillery.

My latest advices from Barboursville are to this effect, that the enemy are concentrating in East Tennessee, both from Virginia and the far South. This look like an invasion of Kentucky in force, and we should be prepared to meet them; but my hands are completely tied, unless the Government will give me an organized force to work with.

It is absolutely necessary that an engineer, a quartermaster, and the four regiments of infantry, and a battery of artillery above referred to, all equipped for the field upon reaching here should be sent to me without a moment's delay.

I am assured by the most reliable people from East Tennessee than an invasion of Kentucky from that quarter is intended, and I beg that the Government will place me in a condition to defend this part of the State. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. H. THOMAS, Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers, Commanding.