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[492] find another branch of the same: the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which we have followed from the first of these two cities, resumes a southerly direction, and, after forming an angle toward the east leading to the village of Gallatin, it reaches the capital of Tennessee, on the banks of the Cumberland. The other line is the Memphis and Ohio Railroad, which, extending to the south-west, reaches the banks of the Tennessee by way of Russellville, Clarksville and Dover. The Federal general Gilbert was charged to protect these railway tracks. It was a difficult task in presence of such a foe as Morgan, who was at the head of more than three thousand mounted combatants. Gilbert had under his command, more or less directly, his old division, the Tenth, and a large number of depots, detachments and incomplete corps, which occupied a considerable extent of ground, but were imperfectly connected; these forces, comprising twenty-four regiments of infantry, nine regiments of cavalry and three or four batteries of artillery, did not amount to more than eight or ten thousand men in all. The important pass of Munfordsville, carefully fortified in remembrance of the disaster in September, was occupied by Colonel Hobson with six regiments of infantry and two of cavalry. The large stores collected at Elizabethtown, and the important tunnel which lies in the neighborhood, were only guarded by a single regiment, the Ninety-first Illinois, recently enlisted and commanded by Colonel Smith. The entrenchments and block-houses which were to cover this post and the bridge of Bacon Creek more to the south were not completed. The brigades of Craddock and Reed, with two regiments of cavalry, were at Lebanon under Colonel Hoskins. Baird's division, consisting of six regiments of infantry, was at Danville, and Woolford's brigade of cavalry at Greensburg, on Green River, above Munfordsville. Morgan, with his light and compact body of troops, fully relied upon his ability to pass through all these separate detachments and effect his escape before they had time to contrive any plan for crushing him.

The news of his arrival at Glasgow was brought to Munfordsville by a small body of mounted troops, the Second Michigan, which had followed in his tracks from Gallatin. Hobson immediately sent his three regiments of cavalry to watch him. They

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