Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies

While he was here drilling the Rebels made their feint on Cincinnati, and suddenly, on the night of September 3d, the One Hundred and Sixth was ordered into Kentucky, badly armed and imperfectly equipped and disciplined. Company A, however, as being the best drilled, was actively employed in scouting and picketing. On the 13th of September their station was Tunnel Batteries, Kentucky, near Cincinnati. On the 23d they went from Covington to Louisville, which they found in chaos, owing to the disorderly arrival of Buell's retreating army. In four days the regiment was placed in as many different brigades, and with poor tents, no overcoats, and Austrian rifles, the One Hundred and Sixth fared hardly.

On the 1st of October Gholson left Louisville for Columbus on business, and wrote from the latter place on the 3d, having just heard by letter of the death of his classmates Doolittle and Almy. From Columbus he returned immediately to Louisville, but found the pursuit of Bragg begun and the regiment flown. At short notice he took the cars to Frankfort, and was obliged to make the last twenty miles of the journey on horseback, and the same day marched (‘I was too proud to ride,’ he says) twenty-five miles with his regiment.

He was detailed Captain of Provost Guard in South Frankfort, and his first act was to arrest his brigade commander, Colonel G. F. Linberg, One Hundred and Eighth Ohio, on a charge of horse-stealing. This officer's successor, Colonel Moore, One Hundred and Fourth Illinois, promised Gholson the place of Brigade Adjutant, and the latter so acted on the ten days forced march to Bowling Green. But here Colonel J. K. Scott, Nineteenth Illinois, replaced Colonel Moore, bringing his own Adjutant; yet Gholson was made Aid-de-Camp and Chief of Staff, October 26th. This change was most grateful, for Gholson had been sadly disappointed in the officers of his regiment (all Germans except