Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Chapter XXII: Operations in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Mississippi, North Alabama, and Southwest Virginia. March 4-June 10, 1862., Part II: Correspondence, Orders, and Returns.
Lieut. Col. Robert N. Scott, Ed.

[204] are being purchased for two regiments as rapidly as possible, and new levies are being made, part of which are for Kentucky and Tennessee.

My line of posts extend more than 400 miles. My own personal attention cannot be given to all the troops under my command.

The most terrible outrages — robberies, rapes, arsons, and plundering — are being committed by lawless brigands and vagabonds connected with the army, and I desire authority to punish all those found guilty of perpetrating these crimes with death by hanging.

Wherever I am present in person all is quiet and orderly, but in some instances, in regiments remote from headquarters, I hear the most deplorable accounts of excesses committed by soldiers.

I beg authority to control these plunderers by visiting upon their crimes the punishment of death.¹

The enemy occupies Cumberland Gap, 14 miles in my front, with twenty cannon and 4,500 infantry, several artillery companies, and a few hundred cavalry. He occupies Jacksborough, 40 miles on my right flank, with seven regiments of infantry, 600 cavalry, and eight pieces of cannon, while Kirby Smith occupies Knoxville, which in point of time is nearly equidistant from the two other points.

I am constructing a road which will pierce the Cumberland Mountains 20 miles from Cumberland Gap and 19 miles from Jacksborough. It will require three days to reach Powell's Valley, but once there, I can strike at Jacksborough or at the Gap in the rear. I incline to the former plan, but in either case I may be compelled to oppose a force numerically much superior to mine. On the third day after I am on the march General Carter, with one battery and four regiments of infantry, will make a feint upon Cumberland Gap, driving in the picket, and remaining in a threatening position during that night and the following day. Brigadier-General Spears, with three regiments, is at the foot of Pine Mountain, 18 miles in front of Jacksborough. He will be ordered to pass through a narrow defile, and gain Barton's rear the moment he hears our cannon. My own command will consist of seven regiments of infantry, two batteries of artillery, two 20-pounders, and about 150 cavalry — making an effective force of 4,450 men. I have not supplies to advance with a large force. If General Mitchel were to draw Kirby Smith toward Chattanooga the problem would be of easy solution. The above dispatch has been sent to General Buell.