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

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[202] and kill the mules, after having appropriated the finest. But soon the reports of Wheeler's skirmishers come in to interrupt his work of destruction. If McCook had not marched slowly, he would have arrived first at Anderson, for this point is only about sixteen miles distant from Jasper, and twenty-six from Pikeville, where Wheeler was the evening before. At last, toward one o'clock, McCook's march was accelerated by a dense smoke of which he easily divined the cause. Leaving one regiment on the Dunlap road, with the two other regiments he gains the left bank of the Sequatchie, falls upon the Confederates who were still engaged in pillaging the wagons, defeats them, and captures about sixty of their number. The pillagers, driven toward the main part of their division, rally near it beyond Anderson; but Wheeler, having no longer any motive to continue the fight, promptly falls back, notwithstanding the superiority of his forces. For the blow is struck, the wagon-train is destroyed, and subsistence for several days is captured from Rosecrans. It is necessary to hasten elsewhere and join Wharton's troops. In the morning of the 3d the two Southern columns meet in front of McMinnville.

A few hours later, Wheeler, at the head of Wharton's column, gallops into that town, whose garrison allows itself to be surprised, as the garrison at Holly Springs was surprised by Van Dorn in the preceding year. No one is found at his post; nearly six hundred men in uniform fall for a few hours into the hands of the Confederates, who systematically destroy the depots of subsistence, ammunition, and equipments, all the rolling stock belonging to the railroad, the railway-station, and the neighboring bridges. Martin remained behind at Thompson's Cove to keep back the Federals. For Crook has rapidly followed up Wharton's tracks by Pikeville, through which he passed in the afternoon of the 2d, and by the road known as Robinson's Trace, which in the evening brought him up to the top of the Cumberland Mountains. On the 3d, toward evening, Miller and Minty make a sharp attack upon Martin at Thompson's Cove. But the character of the ground is favorable for defence, and when, in the midst of night, Martin abandons the brook to the Federals, rendered very thirsty after a long march, his retreat is not molested.

On the following day, the 4th, Crook enters McMinnville