OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE. [CHAP.XII.
JACKSBOROUGH, November 15, 1861.
General S. COOPER, Adjutant-General:
Attack on Churchwell's picket only by few hostile citizens. Enemy has four regiments at Loudon, a few cavalry at Barboursville, three regiments at Somerset, and battalion of cavalry; one regiment at Crab Orchard, Rockcastle Camp, and one at Camp Robinson. Hope soon to have tories crushed in Central and Lower East Tennessee. Regiment at Chattanooga from Pensacola; one from Memphis. Colonel Williams retreated through Pound Gap to Big Stone Gap.
F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Brigadier-General.
SMITH'S CROSS-ROADS, TENN., November 15, 1861.
MAJOR COMMANDING, Second Battalion, Sixteenth Alabama Regiment:
I arrived at Washington on yesterday with my company, and there found about 250 citizens, armed as best they could be under the circumstances. Upon information that I gained from scouts and citizens living near Clift's camps, I learned that his probable force at Salt Creek camp ground (which is 15 miles below Washington) was from 300 to 500, and there was a force of from 500 to 1,000 somewhere on the mountains at no great distance from his camp. I also learned that citizens from Bradley, Bledsoe, and other counties, who have heretofore acted with the Union party, have visited Clift's camps, with the ostensible purpose of getting them to disband immediately.
I deem it necessary to move my command to Smith's Cross-Roads, 7 1/2 miles below Washington, that I might be the better enabled to picket and watch their movements. I did so, and my command, numbering 325 men, arrived here late last evening. I immediately dispatched a small force to take possession of Blythe's and Daughtie's Ferries. Since my arrival here I have further information that a part of Clift's force in the valley have gone, but there still remain with him about 180 men, who say they are determined to fight. If the programme, as I have it, is carried out, we have them completely cut off, except by the way of the mountains. Our cavalry force is sufficient to stop them in that direction, but I deem it prudent to await your orders.
G. W. McKENZIE, Captain.
GENERAL ORDERS, } HDQRS. SECOND KENTUCKY DIVISION, Numbers 18. } Bowling Green, Ky., November 15, 1861.
Brigadier General John C. Breckinridge is hereby assigned to the command of the First Brigade, Second Division, composed of the following regiments, viz: The Second Kentucky, Colonel R. W. Hanson; Third Kentucky, Colonel A. P. Thompson; Fourth Kentucky, Colonel R. P. Trabue; Fifth Kentucky, Colonel T. H. Hunt; Sixth Kentucky, Colonel J. H. Lewis.
General Breckinridge will assume command on to-morrow, the 16th instant.
By command of General S. B. Buckner:
G. B. COSBY, Assistant Adjutant-General.
