Numbers 3. Reports of Brigadier General Humphrey Marshall, C. S. Army, commanding brigade, with instructions from War Department.

CAMP AT PAINTSVILLE, JOHNSON COUNTY, KY.,

December 22, 1861.

GENERAL: I had the pleasure to receive your favor ot the 10th instant* on last evening. In reply permit me to express my gratification that the misapprehension by my friend Major-General Crittenden of the extent 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 your 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 mater to a hearing. Fort 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 Witheville in person and went forward to the Richlands, in Taxewell (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 silence, 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 I heard 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,

---------------

*See "Correspondence, etc. - Confederate," post.

---------------