[CHAP. XVII.

join the Army, so the war may be hurried to the banks of the Ohio. It cannot rest here with any safety to us.

I hope you will telegraph me what you can do-what you will do. My advice is emphatic and earnest to you to hold Pound Gap and Stone Gap at any expense of men and means. If you do not, expeditions will be formed behind the mountains which will constantly threaten the very heart of the Confederacy; if you do not, Kentucky must pass from your hands in all probability. If you do, she can never be safe in their hands, and your expeditions may be prepared here and move into Kentucky at any time and season that will sit your convenience.

I hope the Department will wight well the suggestions, and that some mode will be adopted without delay to enable me to take a decisive stand. In my letters I write freely because I feel earnestly. I think the existing condition of things hold not be tolerated. I have asked several questions from time to time without eliciting a reply:

1st. Have I, as brigadier-general of the Confederate States Army, a right, without direction from the Department, to call out the militia of the neighborhood or surrounding States when, in my judgement, the emergency demands it?

2nd. Have I the right to prevent supplies which are necessary to my army from passing out of the country I occupy by exchange or sale between private persons?

3rd. Have I the right to prevent individuals professing friendship to the Southern Confederacy from passing into Virginia from Kentucky, or vice versa, now that Kentucky is one of the Confederate States?

I await your reply, general, and am ready to obey your orders.

Meanwhile I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. MARSHALL,

Brigadier-General, C. S. Army.

CAMP NEAR CARTHAGE, TENN.

February 11, 1862.

Captain A. J. LINDSAY:

SIR: I have duly received your note with Assistant Adjutant-General Mackall's dispatch. You will please telegraph General Johnston that I am encamped between Chestnut Mound and Carthage, having two regiments, Stanton's and Murray's, with a company of cavalry at Gainesborough, with orders to take post at Stanton [Livingston] immediately. Should this disposition not suit the general's views, he will inform me. I will take position a few miles back, at Chestnut Mound, on to-morrow.

I have no news of the enemy that can be relied on. It is reported that two or three companies of the enemy's cavalry made their appearance on the north bank of Obey River a few days since. This may not be true. I will keep the general duly informed as far as practicable of the enemy's movements.

In haste, yours,

G. B. CRITTENDEN,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS NEAR CARTHAGE,
Division Commissary Office, February 11, 1862.

General A. SIDNEY JOHNSTON:

GENERAL: At the time of leaving Mill Springs, on the 19th of January, the army under your command was entirely destitute of supplies