Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 4.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[48] position at Kingston: he was charged with watching the entire line of Walden's Ridge to the south-west of that town, and to open communications between the two armies which respectively occupied Knoxville and Chattanooga.

Buckner being in a position to arrest for an indefinite length of time the advance of his adversary at Cumberland Gap, the latter concluded to make a flank movement around the defile by traversing more to the south, in the State of Tennessee, the high table-land which on that side bears the designation of Cumberland plateau. The roads which Burnside would have to cross were long and difficult to travel, and that portion of the country was little known, besides being bare of resources; but the very difficult character of the roads warranted the belief that the Confederates would be illy prepared for defence in that region. No precaution was neglected to ensure the success of this laborious and perilous march. The greater part of the infantry was provided with horses, so as to enable the head of each column rapidly to gain the most important strategic points; the weak men and horses were left at the depot. The heavy train-wagons were replaced with pack-trains — a change contrary to usages in the American armies, but which was rendered necessary on account of the character of the campaign about to be inaugurated. In order to avoid crowding and to facilitate the distribution of provisions the army was divided, on leaving, on the 16th of August, Camp Nelson near Lexington, into four columns of infantry and one of cavalry, which, collecting some reinforcements on the way, formed in line on the 21st, to the north of the Cumberland Valley, on the different routes which each was appointed to take. To the first column on the right, which had the longest way to go, was assigned the best and surest route: it was entrusted with the heaviest part of the train. Leaving Glasgow, it made, via Tompkinsville and Livingston, for the village of Jamestown, where it was merged, on the 28th of August, with the second column, which had come from Columbia via Creelsborough and Albany. The two others, much more numerous than the preceding, united at Chitwood's on the 26th, the one having started from Somerset under the orders of Hartsuff, and the other, under the immediate direction of Burnside, having followed, after leaving Crab Orchard,