Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. III.djvu/210

 172 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS by Gens. Granger and Sheldon, when Marshall gave way, leaving Garfield the victor at Middle Creek, January 10, 1862, one of the most impor tant of the minor battles of the war. Shortly after ward ZollicofFer was defeated and slain by Gen. Thomas at Mill Spring, and the Confederates lost the state of Kentucky. Coming after the reverses at Big Bethel, Bull Run, and the disastrous fail ures in Missouri, Gen. Garfield s triumph over the Confederate forces at Middle Creek had an encouraging effect on the entire north. Marshall was a graduate of West Point, and had every ad vantage in numbers and position, yet seems to have been out-generaled at every point. He was driven from two fortified positions, and finally completely routed all within a period of less than a fortnight in the month of January, 1862. In recognition of these services, especially acknowledged by Gen. Buell in his General Order No. 40 (January 20, 1862), President Lincoln promptly made the young colonel a brigadier-general, dating his com mission from the battle of Middle Creek. During his campaign of the Big Sandy, while Garfield was engaged in breaking up some scat tered Confederate encampments, his supplies gave out, and he was threatened with starvation. Going himself to the Ohio river, he seized a steamer, loaded it with provisions, and, on the refusal of any pilot to undertake the perilous voyage, because