The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South
Alexander Kelly McClure, Ed.

[764] of Burnside's, being lowest in rank of all the brigadiers in the department. He commanded a division in the Twenty-third Army Corps, which corps and “Burnside's force” for active field duty were at that time identical. He was not only a subordinate, but out of favor at headquarters, and was given a meaner and less important part to play in the pursuit of Morgan than any officer of his rank. In the invasion of East Tennessee; which began some time after the destruction of Morgan's force, General Judah was denied any post-being sent into retirement by Burnside on account of what his superiors considered his blunders on the Morgan campaign. The “ten or twelve thousand troops on the Tennessee border under Judah” consisted solely of his division, made up of three brigades-two of infantry and one of cavalry, and two batteries. He had less than six thousand men for duty when Morgan crossed the Cumberland. General Duke says:

At Pomeroy, where we approached the river again, a large force of regular troops appeared, but, although our passage by the place was one sharp, continuous skirmish, we prevented them from gaining a position that would have forced us into decisive combat. * * * General Morgan knew that he would be attacked on the following day. He at once, and correctly, conjectured that the troops which had been at Pomeroy were a portion of the infantry which had been sent from Kentucky to intercept us, and that they had been brought by the river from Cincinnati to Pomeroy.

Judah's command arrived at Pomeroy about the middle of the afternoon of that day. There was not an infantry soldier in the town from the time we got there until we left. We went into the town slightly ahead of Morgan's advance. By order of the general, I purchased forage for our horses of lion. V. B. Horton. The command lay and rested and fed until nearly night. The “sharp, continuous skirmish,” mentioned by Duke, was with O'Neil's squad of fifty men and a few soldiers, not more than a score, who happened to be home on furlough. I was with O'Neil a part of the evening, and am not surprised that General Duke thought, at the time, that he was “a host,” for he certainly made the most possible, both of show and noise, out of his limited force. But I am surprised that the general should set down such an error of fact as veritable history. It is not to be wondered at that General Morgan should have fallen into the error of “conjecturing” that a large infantry force had been sent by river from Cincinnati to intercept him, first at Pomeroy, and, failing there, higher up; but General Morgan's historian should not set down “conjectures” unless they are borne out by the facts. Morgan's men were so worn down that they could