26 



ARMY OPERATIONS. 



SECOND DESPATCH. 



To Capt. J. B. Fry, Assistant Adjutant- General: 



I left Paintsville on Thursday iioon with 1,100 men, 

 and drove in the enemy's pickets two miles below 

 Prestonburg. The men slept on their arms. At 4 

 o'clock yesterday morning we moved toward the main 

 body of the enemy at the forks of Middle Creek, under 

 command of Marshall. Skirmishing with his outposts 

 began at 8 o'clock, and at 1 p. M. we engaged his force 

 of 2,500 men and 3 cannon, posted on the hill fought 

 them until dark, having been reenforced by 700 men 

 from Paintsville, and drove the enemy from all their 

 positions. He carried off the majority of his dead and 

 all of his wounded. 



This morning we found twenty-seven of his dead 

 on the field. His killed cannot be less than sixty. 

 We have twenty-five prisoners, ten horses, and a quan- 

 tity of stores. The enemy burned most of his stores, 

 and fled precipitately. To-day I have crossed the 

 river, and am DOW occupying Prettoqburg. Our loss 

 is two killed and twenty-five wounded. 



(Signed) J. A. GARFIELD, 



Col. commanding Brigade. 



This was a rapid and spirited movement on 

 the part of Col. Garfield, and it resulted in 

 forcing Col. Humphrey Marshall with his 

 troops to retire from eastern Kentucky. 



On the 16th of January Col. Garfield issued 

 the following address to the inhabitants : 



HEADQUARTERS EIGHTEENTH BRIGADE, ) 

 PAIXTSVILI.E (K.Y.), January 16, 1S62. J 

 Citizen* of the Sandy Valley : 



.1 have come among you to restore the honor of the 

 Union and to bring back the Old Banner, which you 

 all once loved, but which, by the machinations of evil 

 men and by mutual misunderstanding, has been dis- 

 honored among you. To those who are in arms against 

 the Federal Government I offer only the alternative of 

 battle or unconditional surrender. But to those who 

 have taken no part in this war, who are in no way 

 aiding or abetting the enemies of the Union even to 

 those who hold sentiments averse to the Union, but 

 yet give no aid and comfort to its enemies I offer the 

 full protection of the Government, both in their per- 

 sons and property. 



Let those who have been seduced away from the 

 love of their country to follow after and aid the de- 

 stroyers of our peace lay down their arms, return to 

 their homes, bear true allegiance to the Federal Gov- 

 ernment, and they shall also enjoy like protection. 

 The army of the Union wages no war of plunder, but 

 comes to bring back the prosperity of peace. Let all 

 peace-loving citizens who have fled from their homes 

 return and resume again the pursuits of peace and in- 

 dustry. If citizens have suffered from any outrages 

 by the soldiers under my command, I invite them to 

 make known their complaints to me, and their wrongs 

 shall be redressed and the offenders punished. I ex- 

 pect the friends of the Union in this vallev to banish 

 from among them all private feuds, and let a liberal- 

 minded love of country direct their conduct toward 

 those who have been so sadly estranged and misguided, 

 hoping that these days of turbulence may soon be 

 ended and the days of the Republic soon return. 

 J. A. GARFIELD, 

 Col. commanding Brigade. 



But the most important action of the month 

 was fought at a place called Webb's Cross Roads 

 on the 19th. It is known as the battle of Mill 

 Springs, although this place is about five miles 

 distant from the spot where the battle was 

 fought. For three months previous the Fed- 

 eral General Schoepff had been stationed at 

 Somerset, a small town in south-eastern Ken- 

 tucky, with a force of about 8,000 men. The 



object -was to prevent the advance of the Con- 

 federate force any further north. At the same 

 time the Confederate General Zollicoffer, with 

 nearly the same force, was intrenched directly 

 south on both banks of the Cumberland river, 

 for the purpose of defending the approach to 

 the Cumberland Gap and the road into east 

 Tennessee against any Federal force. About 

 two weeks previous to the action, Gen. Zolli- 

 coffer was reenforced by the division under 

 Gen. Crittenden, which had been previously 

 stationed at Knoxville, Tennessee. Gen. Crit- 

 tenden took command, and issued the following 

 proclamation : 



DIVISION HEADQUARTERS, MILL SPRINGS. KT., ) 

 January 6, 1862. J 

 To the People of Kentucky : 



When the present war between the Confederate 

 States and the United States commenced, the State of 

 Kentucky determined to remain neutral. She regard- 

 ed this as her highest interest, and, balancing between 

 hope for the restoration of the Union and love for her 

 Southern sisters, she declared and attempted to main- 

 tain a firm neutrality. 



The conduct of the United States Government 

 toward her has been marked with duplicity, falsehood, 

 and wrong. From the very beginning, the President 

 of the United States, in his Messages, spoke of the 

 chosen attitude of Kentucky with open denunciation, 

 and on the one hand treated it with contempt and 

 derision, while on the other hand he privately prom- 

 ised the people of Kentucky that it should be respect- 

 ed. In violation of this pledge, but in keeping with 

 his first and true intention, he introduced into the 

 State arms which were placed exclusively in the hands 

 of persons known or believed to be in favor of coer- 

 cion, thus designing to control the people of Kentucky, 

 and to threaten the Confederate States. Then the Gov- 

 ernment of the Confederate States, in self defence, ad- 

 vanced its arms into your midst, and offer you their 

 assistance to protect you from the calamity of 'Northern 

 military occupation. 



By the administration of your State Government, 

 Kentucky was being held to the United States, and 

 bound at the feet of Northern tyranny. That Gov- 

 ernment did not rest upon the consent of your people. 

 And now, having thrown it off, a new Government 

 has been established and Kentucky admitted into 

 the Southern Confederacy. Can Kentuckians doubt 

 which Government to sustain ? To the South you 

 are allied by interest, by trade, by geography, by 

 similarity of institutions, by the ties of olood, and 

 by kindred courage. The markets of the North do not 

 invite your products your State is, to the centre of its 

 trade, society, and laws, but a distant province, de- 

 spised for its customs and institutions your heroic lin- 

 eage forbids association in arms with th'eir warriors of 

 Manassas, of Leesburg, and of Belmont ; and your for- 

 mer devotion to the Union must intensify your hatred 

 toward that section which has, in its Abolition crusade, 

 broken to pieces the Constitution, and which is now 

 vainly endeavoring to destroy the liberty of the South- 

 ern States ! 



At first you may have been deceived as to the pur- 

 poses of the North. They talked of restoring the 

 Union. Do you not see that it is hopelessly lost in the 

 storm of war, and that, while the rotten Government 

 of the North is shaking over its ruins, the South has 

 erected out of them a new, powerful, and free constitu- 

 tional republic ! And now, indeed, the mask is thrown 

 off, and you find the North, through its President, and 

 Secretary of War, and public journals, and party lead- 

 ers, giving up the claim of Union, and'proclaiming the 

 extinction of slavery and the subjugation of the South. 

 Can you join in this enterprise? The South would 

 never in any event consent to a reconstruction. She 

 is contending with unconquerable spirit, with great 



