Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 31.djvu/174

 166 Southern Historical Society Papers.

commanded by General Felix K. Zollicoffer. This brigade was composed of the I5th Mississippi, Lieutenant-Colonel E. C. Wal- thall; the igth Tennessee, Colonel D. H. Cummings; the 2oth Ten- nessee, Colonel Joel A. Battle; the 25th Tennessee, Colonel S. S. Stanton. To it was attached a battery of four guns and two com- panies of cavalry. The second brigade was commanded by General William H. Carroll, composed of the iyth Tennessee, Lieutenant- Colonel Miller; the 28th Tennessee, Colonel John P. Murray; the 2Qth Tennessee, Colonel Samuel Powell; the i6th Alabama, Colonel W. B. Wood. It had two guns, a part of McClung's Battery, and two small battalions of cavalry.

The location on the north side of the Cumberland river, in Pu- laski county, was made by General Felix K. Zollicoffer, without the approval of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, then commanding the Department of Tennessee. At this late day it is difficult to under- stand why General Zollicoffer crossed the Cumberland river, leaving that uncertain stream unfordable at this point behind him, with nothing but a sternwheel steamboat and two barges to secure his transportatien in case of defeat, and to cross over to the north side of the river and engage in combat. It is but just to General Zolli- coffer and General Crittenden to say that a council of war had been called, and it had been the unanimous opinion of those who took part in it that the wise thing to do was to leave the intrenchments at Beech Grove, almost on the banks of the Cumberland river, and march ten miles towards Somerset and attack the Federal forces then at Logan's Crossroads, nine miles south of Somerset.

Neither the Confederates nor Federals at that time had much practical experience of war. Almost all of the Confederate troops were armed with flintlock muskets; some had ordinary percussion squirrel rifles and a few double-barrel shotguns. The Federal forces were commanded by General George H. Thomas. They consisted of about an equal number of men 4,000 and comprised the loth Indiana, ist Kentucky Cavalry (Wolford's), the 4th Kentucky In- fantry, 2d Minnesota Infantry, Qth Ohio Infantry, I2th Kentucky Infantry, ist Federal Tennessee, and 2d Federal Tennessee.

There were a large number of Federal soldiers at Somerset, but the roads were muddy, and Fishing creek, near Somerset, had been greatly swollen by rain, and it was throught at that time by the Confederate commander to be impossible for the reserve forces which were being hurried forward to support the other Federal troops already at Logan's cross-roads to ford this stream. This battle has