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[765] not do very effective scouting, hence his information as to our forces and movements was limited, and, it also seems, erroneous.

General Duke's error regarding the number and character of our forces at Pomeroy on the 18th, is duplicated in some particulars, and thrown into the shade in others, by his curious account of the affair near Buffington ford on the 19th. Telling what happened after our advance was stampeded, the General says: “The Federal infantry, eight or ten thousand strong, instantly deployed and advanced, flanked by three regiments of cavalry. Two pieces of our battery were taken at the first onset. * * * Upon the level and unsheltered surface of this river bottom we were exposed to a tremendous direct and cross-fire from twelve or thirteen thousand small-arms, and fifteen pieces of artillery.” I was in the whole affair, from first to last, only ceasing my active work in the field when night came on, and I was ordered to find guards for a large number of prisoners. I was in the little tilt which resulted in capturing two of the Confederate, and recapturing our cannon. I was from end to end, and through and through Judah's lines all that forenoon, and fell in with Hobson's forces about one P. M. If there was a single infantry soldier engaged I failed to see him. I was utterly unable to procure an infantry guard for my prisoners that night-though “by order of the general commanding” I had plenary power-and I had to put my jaded cavalry provost guard on duty. The next day I had to put up with a squad of Cincinnati militia — who arrived on the 20th-as guards for a large party of Confederate officers. They turned out to be a first-rate set of men for the duty, being all ex-soldiers who had been discharged on account of wounds and sickness. We had four pieces of artillery. The gunboat “Elk” carried five, three of which she could bring to bear on the enemy's lines. Neither we nor the “Elk” fired a cannon after Hobson attacked. All of that infantry and several of these cannon were in General Duke's eye.

None of our regular infantry came above Cincinnati, and the few militia who found their way so far as Buffington arrived the day after the fight and capture.

General Duke puts the force at Green river bridge — which his forces failed to capture-at six hundred. There were just one hundred and sixty men reported for duty to Colonel Moore that morning by his post adjutant. They were behind a hastily-constructed, but strong, parapet, in front of which they had made an ugly abattis, by cutting down trees. Artillery could not be brought to bear on Moore's position, and Colonel Johnson, who was ordered by Morgan to take it by storm, could only charge in a narrow front through

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