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appreciate how eagerly the whole field was being watched by President Lincoln and the authorities at Washington for some signs of ultimate victory. It was one of the gloomiest periods of the war; and when the news of the selection of Colonel Garfield for the expedition up the Big Sandy river to meet Marshall was announced to Mr. Lincoln, he sought Secretary Stanton, who was also a native of Ohio, and asked who the man was they were sending "into such dangerously close quarters." The President anxiously awaited General Buel's forward movement toward Bowling Green and Nashville; and seeing how important the defeat of the rebel's flank movements under Marshall and Zollicoffer had become, he followed the movements of Colonel Garfield and General Thomas with the deepest interest.

Colonel Garfield's orders to proceed up the Sandy Valley were delivered to him December 13th or 14th. A few days later, he collected the forces entrusted to him at the mouth of the Big Sandy river, and began his march up the valley. His command, which was called a brigade, did not number over twenty-three hundred available men, and consisted of the Fortieth and Forty-Second Ohio infantry, the Fourteenth and Twenty-Second Kentucky infantry, and eight companies of cavalry. To these he hoped to add a small force then stationed at Paris, and to which he sent orders directing its commander to join him near Paintville.

General Marshall had a force of five thousand men, and was in a country with which he was familiar,

while Colonel Garfield was in a strange region with about one-half that number of troops. If there had been any hesitation or delay on the part of the union forces it would have encouraged Marshall to attack them on their march, for the rebel general was among his friends, and all the people acted as spies and couriers in communicating the advance and condition of the invading forces. But so determinedly and steadily did the troops march on, that it seem to have created a fear of them in advance which went far toward giving them the victory when the battle came.

All the information which Garfield could gain seemed to locate Marshall near Paintville, and hence, he expected a contest at that point. But Marshall retreated to Prestonburg before Garfield arrived, but left a company of cavalry to hold the place and delay the union troops. Garfield finding the enemy, and supposing that the rebel army was immediately in front, notwithstanding the fatigue of his troops, moved immediately forward to attack them.

Directing his cavalry to engage the enemy in front, Garfield made a circuit with his infantry, hoping to reach Marshall's rear.

It is said that when he had given his orders to the cavalry, and had started forward on foot with the infantry, he took off his coat and threw it into a tree, and shouted back to the horsemen so soon to charge, "Give 'em Hail Columbia, boys!"

But before his troops reached the road in the rear, the vigorous charge of the union cavalry had

sent the enemy flying toward Prestonburg in such haste as to leave their canteens, haversacks, blankets and dead bodies strewing the highway.

This retreat was quite unexpected to General Garfield, and he had so confidently counted upon a battle at that point, that his brigade was not supplied with provisions for a march further into the interior. To supply the necessary provisions caused a day's delay, and compelled him to leave a portion of his troops at Paintville while, he pressed on after Marshall. At Paintville, however, he was joined by the troops from Paris, numbering about one thousand or twelve hundred.

On the following day, which was the 9th of January, Garfield followed Marshall to Prestonburg and found that the rebels were posted on a hill in a most advantageous position with their artillery in a most effective range. Garfield had been misinformed about Marshall's movements and was compelled to ascertain the enemy's position by skirmishing and feints. While awaiting the troops, which he decided to order up from Paintville, his troops were constantly engaged in skirmishing, and the whole command was under fire, many of the men for the first time.

It must have given a much more serious appearance to the art of war, to see the line of gray, and hear the shot and shell shriek over their heads. To the colonel, on whose word and judgment hung the lives of so many and, perhaps, the fate of a mighty nation, the feeling of responsibility must have been great, while the peculiar sense of danger and dread

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