Ohio. General Marshall thought that he could bring all eastern Kentucky under the Confederate Government.

James A. Garfield was at Columbus, Ohio, a young colonel, who was born in a log-cabin with a bark roof, a stone fireplace, and mud chimney.

His parents were poor; they had a frying pan, a bake - pan, and some wooden plates, and a few other things in the kitchen-the one room in the cabin. He began life by driving mules to tow a canal-boat. He

chopped wood, helped a farmer make potash, and by hard work made his way through college. He had taught school, and had been president of a college in Ohio. He was colonel of the Forty-second Ohio Regiment, at Columbus. He received a despatch from General Buell, who was at Louisville, to send his regiment to Prestonburg, on the Big Sandy River, while he was to hasten to Louisville.

"If you were in command of the sub-department of eastern Kentucky, what would you do? Let me know to-morrow morning," said General Buell.

Through the night Colonel Garfield studied the map of Kentucky, the Big Sandy, the valleys, the gaps in the mountain-ranges leading to Virginia and Tennessee. He went over the census tables to see where he could find forage and supplies for troops, laid his plan before General Buell, and was appointed to command a brigade. He was directed to "drive the enemy back or cut him off." He had his own and the Fortieth Ohio and the remnant of the Fourteenth Kentucky-a half-organized regiment, poorly supplied with arms and clothing. He had no cannon. Rain was falling, but the soldiers marched through deep mud up the valley of the Big Sandy. They had no tents; at night they bivouacked in the woods, kindling great fires.

A steep and wooded hill, with rocky ledges at the summit and a creek winding through a narrow valley at its base, was the position selected by Marshall. With his four cannon he could sweep the valley. The valley was so narrow, and the hills so steep and high, that the Union troops could not turn his flank; they must attack in front.

On the evening of January 9, 1862, the Union troops found themselves face to face with the Confederates. A few shots were fired; but the cold gray winter night was set

Creek

2ND POSITION

MAP OF MIDDLE CREEK.

ting in, and the soldiers of both armies lay down to sleep in the mud and rain, which changed to sleet, and beat pitilessly upon Union and Confederate alike. No fires were kindled. Garfield was in the valley, the Confederates on the hill, with every advantage of position, outnumbering him two to one, with four cannon, while he had not a single piece of artillery. In the morning the Union troops advanced.

General Marshall was getting ready to charge, but suddenly changed

his mind, for down the valley he beheld twelve hundred Union troops coming as fast as they could run. They had been marching all day, and had come twenty miles through the mud since daylight. They had heard the thunder of the Confederate cannon rolling down the valley, and had hastened to take part in the fight.

General Marshall fears that he is to be flanked, and gives the order to retreat. The frightened Confederate soldiers throw away their guns and flee through the woods.

Night is closing in. Suddenly a bright light illumines the sky: General Marshall has set fire to his stores and supplies, and is fleeing through the mountain-passes towards Virginia. There has been little fighting, but that little has brought about a great result; it has secured all eastern Kentucky to the Union. It is the first break in the Confederate line of defence west of the Alleghanies.

Let us go up now to the head-waters of that beautiful stream, the Cumberland River. From its mountain springs it gurgles over a rocky bed westward to the town of Waitsboro. Just below that town the water is deep enough for small steamboats, which can come all the way from the Ohio, past Nashville, to that point.

A little farther down, on the south side of the Cumberland, is a grist and saw mill, also springs which gush from the hill-side. The place is known as Mill Springs.

General Zollicoffer was there with nine thousand troops. He had been a member of Congress from Tennessee, but had given heart and soul to the Confederate cause. He knew little about military affairs, and General George B. Crittenden was sent to take command. General Crittenden was a Kentuckian; his brother was a general in the Union army, and his father, who had been a Senator in Congress, was giving the strength of his declining years to maintain the Union.

Before General Crittenden arrived, General Zollicoffer, eager to advance, by using two steamboats and some flat-boats crossed the Cumberland and threw up intrenchments at Beech Grove, on the north bank of the river.

There was a brigade of Union troops at Somerset, under General Schoepf, twenty miles from Beech Grove, and another brigade at Columbia, thirty miles north-west, under General George II. Thomas, both moving towards Mill Springs.

While the Union troops are making their toilsome march along the miry roads, let us see how things look at Beech Grove. General Crittenden finds nine thousand men, but so many are sick that only six thousand are fit for duty. They have little to eat. The country around is poor;

the mire is so deep that the wagons which bring provisions and supplies cannot move. Many of the soldiers are armed with shot-guns; they are destitute of overcoats; their shoes are wearing out. Why have they left their homes to become soldiers? Because they have been led to believe that they owe allegiance to the State in which they were born rather than to the nation, and because they have dreamed of winning glory on the field of battle. There is no glory in remaining in camp. General Zollicoffer does not wish to wait for the Union troops to attack; he would rather march out and attack them. General Crittenden opposes the plan; but the colonels, the captains, the men-all are eager to advance. A council of officers decided in favor of the plan. General Thomas is only nine miles away. They will make a night march, attack him at daylight, rout him, then move on to Somerset and rout the troops under Schoepf. By one vigorous stroke they will sweep the Union troops back to the Ohio River.

The night is cold and dreary, the rain falling; but the Confederate soldiers hail with joy the news that they are to move out and attack General Thomas. They will eat breakfast in his camp upon rations supplied by the United States.

The war has become more than a conflict between two sections of the country. In Kentucky it is a war between old neighbors and friendsa civil war. Union soldiers from Tennessee are to fire into the faces of Confederate Tennessee soldiers. Though Kentucky has not joined the Confederacy, hot-blooded young men have left their homes to enlist in the Confederate service.

General Thomas, commanding the Union troops, was born in Virginia. He was in the battle of Buena Vista, in Mexico. He is clear-headed and self-possessed. His soldiers love him, for he is kind-hearted, brave, and looks after their comfort and welfare. He always has his eyes open. To guard against surprise, he stations his cavalry pickets out on all the roads leading to his camp, and behind them infantry pickets.

He reached Logan's Cross-roads on the night of January 17th. The troops pitched their tents on Mr. Logan's farm, and the cavalry pickets went two miles out on all the roads, with infantry behind them.

We see the Confederate cavalry mounting their horses at midnight at Beech Grove. Zollicoffer's brigade moves first-two cavalry battalions, one Mississippi and three Tennessee regiments, and Rutledge's battery, four guns. General Carroll follows with two Tennessee regiments, two cannon of McCluny's battery, then the Sixteenth Alabama and two cavalry battalions.

The dim light of the winter morning is dawning (January 19th) when the foremost cavalryman comes upon the Union pickets.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

The answer is a Confederate pistol-shot.

A Union cavalryman goes down the road as fast as he can ride to Colonel Manson's tent. In an instant the drum is beating the long-roll.

General Thomas has four thousand men: the Tenth Indiana, Colonel Kise, and Fourth Kentucky, Colonel Frye, from Colonel Manson's brigade; the First and Second Tennessee and Twelfth Kentucky, from General Carter's brigade; the Ninth Ohio and Second Minnesota, from Colonel McCook's brigade. The three batteries are commanded by Captains Kenny, Randall, and Wetmore. He has only one battalion of cavalry. Besides these he has a battalion of engineers from Michigan and one company of the Thirty-eighth Ohio Regiment, who are ordered to guard the camp. Out from their tents leap the soldiers of the Tenth Indiana and Fourth Kentucky, and form in line across the road.

Ten minutes, and both regiments are ready and waiting the word of command. The Tenth Indiana is on the west side of the road in the woods, the Fourth Kentucky on the east side, both facing south. The men in blue, as they stand there with their muskets loaded and capped, see the skirmishers falling back, and in the dim and misty light the flashes of the muskets. And now they catch a glimpse of an advancing line of Confederates, who halt, raise their guns, and fire. It is a regiment from Mississippi. Behind the Mississippians come the Nineteenth Tennessee upon a run through a field. The battle furiously begins; volley after volley rolls from the opposing lines. The Fourth Kentucky is in rear of the Tenth Indiana. "Where shall I go into position?" Colonel Frye asks.

"Go out and take position in those woods," Colonel Manson replies. The Fourth Kentucky passes through a field, enters a piece of woods, and comes out into Mr. Logan's field. The men leap over a rail-fence and form once more. Suddenly from the other side of the field there comes a volley.

"Back to the other side of the fence!" Colonel Frye gives the order. "Ha! ha! they are retreating!" the Confederates shout; they think that the Union troops are panic-stricken. Across the fields they rush, but suddenly five hundred muskets flame in their faces, and Kenny's Battery sends shell after shell through the advancing line, which comes to a stand-still.

The air is misty and the smoke so thick that the men in blue and the men in gray can see only the quick flashes of one another's guns.

Colonel McCook comes with his brigade. The Second Minnesota