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CUMBERLAND GAP.

scape goat for their own military blunders, is left to conjecture.

Cumberland Gap, which General Morgan, as before stated, had captured in the Spring, by a flank movement through Rogers' Gap, and immediately fortified, preparatory to a movement on Knoxville, was evacuated this September. The advance of Bragg into Kentucky, which compelled Buell to fall back rapidly to Nashville, left the enemy at liberty to push across the Cumberland Mountains, by various routes, and effectually cut Morgan off from his base of supplies, thus leaving him alone, to save himself as best he might. Strong a his position; he felt able to hold it against all odds, if ne could be kept from starvation. He contested every fool of the advance of the enemy, and foraged the country in every direction that his forces could penetrate. In the meantime, he sent to Halleck, and General Wright of Ohio, for sup plies, saying that if his communications could be kept open, he would hold the Gap against the whole rebel army. At different times he sent out five expeditions, in which he killed and captured seven hundred of the enemy, with a loss to himself of only forty men. For more than two months, he saw the storm gathering thicker and darker around him, for as Buell fell back towards Nashville, the rebel flood poured like a deluge into Kentucky, so that by the 21st of August, Morgan found Kirby Smith on the north side, and Stevenson on the south side of the Gap. Still, he kept buoyant and cheerful. Not a desponding word escaped him-he always wrote in a confident tone, but said that his supplies were getting shorter and shorter, and that even his animals were failing for want of forage. He would not stir from his position, he declared, though he had to kill his mules for food, if he could see any movement set on foot to open his communications. The country became alarmed for his safety. The very stubbornness with which he held the grim fortress..

A DESPERATE POSITION.

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only ensured his destruction, if no relief should reach him. He at length put his army on half-rations, and still clung to his position, though he knew a hundred thousand men environed him, and held the entire country from the Gap to the Ohio.

Thus, for thirty days, his brave soldiers were kept on halfrations; a great part of the time without bread, rice, flour or potatoes. The overwhelming enemy continued to draw closer and closer around him, every day narrowing his field for forage, until at length, starvation began to stare him in the face. What now was to be done? He could hear of no movement for his relief, and he staid, waiting for it, until every known avenue of escape was closed against him. The rebel General telegraphed to Richmond, that Morgan's army might be considered prisoners of war, for its fate was sealed. True, one route was still left open-the wild, desolate region stretching for two hundred miles directly to the north-but this was reported by the engineers impossible for any army with artillery, if indeed it were possible for an army of ten thousand men, to be supported there at all, in the length of time it would take to traverse such a country. Yet the rebels seemed to think; that a man who had dragged siege guns up and over the cliffs of Cumberland Mountains, might attempt to escape by this route; and so Humphrey Marshall was sent to block it up, and, early in September, was making his difficult way through the sterile region to the north-east. In this painful dilemma, Morgan called a council of war, in which it was decided that the only alternative was an immediate evacuation or an unconditional surrender. This being decided upon, Morgan determined to make a desperate effort to save both his army and artillery, all but the siege guns, which he resolved to destroy. It was a dreary pros pect at best-that frightful march of two hundred miles, with ten times ten thousand men before, behind and on

1

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DECEIVING THE ENEMY.

every side of him. But he had tried his officers and men, and knew they would do anything short of a miracle, while he himself resolved to be annihilated, before he would surrender. Sending out officers to buy provisions along another route by way of Mount Sterling, who were purposely taken prisoners, he completely deceived the enemy as to his intentions. In the meantime, preparations were rapidly made to leave. The mountain was 'mined so as to tumble the cliffs upon the road in his rear, the heavy siege guns were destroyed, and, on the 16th, a large train started for Manchester. All that night, and the next day, the work went on. At evening, the pickets were quietly withdrawn, and Lieutenant-Colonel Gallup, with two hundred chosen men, was directed to hold the enemy in check, and, if he attempted to follow, to give the alarm by blowing up the magazine. Before he should finally leave the Gap, he was ordered to fire the military storehouse, commissary's and quartermaste.s' buildings, and tents, and then spring the mine that would unseat the cliffs, and hurl them into the road behind the retreating army. Five picked men were stationed at each magazine, to which the trains were already laid, and five more at a pit in which were piled several thousand stand of arms mostly loaded, who at a given signal were to apply the torch, and set the volcano in motion. Gallup, having stationed his pickets, went forward with a flag of truce, and by adroit management effectually deceived the enemy respecting Morgan's designs. When he knew, by certain signs, that the army was well in motion, he took his leave, saying that he would call in the inorning and get the answer to his flag of truce. He then visited his pickets, telling them to dispute every inch of ground, and repaired to Baird's head-quarters, where he found Morgan sitting on his horse, and with a serious, anxious face, watching his retiring columns. It was now ten o'clock at night, and the crisis of the fate of the army was

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A

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A GRAND SPECTACLE.

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The

fast approaching. Turning to Gallup, Morgan said: "You have a highly important duty to perform; this ammunition and these arms and military stores must not fall into the hands of the enemy. I hope you will not be captured." "Farewell," he added, and bowing, rode off into the gloom. night wore on, and Gallup, sending off his small force to a place of safety, directed three men-Markham, O'Brien and Thad. Reynolds as he was called-the boldest scout and spy in the army-to kindle the conflagration. As the flames. rolled heavenward, he gave the signal to fire the trains. To his astonishment, no answering explosion followed, and waiting a sufficient time, he put spurs to his horse and galloped to the spot. Not a soul was to be found-all had gone forward to the main column. Seizing some burning fagots, he fired the trains with his own hands, and mounting his horse, dashed down the Gap. He had barely reached a safe distance, when the first explosion followed, sending the huge rocks in every direction. The conflagration in the valley below was now in full headway, and the scene became in describably grand. The savage precipices reddened like fire in the sudden illumination, and the whole midnight gorge shone brighter than at noon-day. Gallup, sitting on his horse, that glowed like a fiery steed in the intense glare of the flames, gazed with silent awe on the wild work his hands had wrought. Said he: "Every fissure and opening in the cliffs around me, was visible. The trees and rocks upon their sides, at any time picturesque and interesting. were now grand in their beauty. It was a scene more like enchantment than reality. I gazed, lost in admiration. But suddenly the scene changed. The large magazine, with its rich stores of powder and fixed ammunition, exploded. The explosion shook the mountains like a toy in the hands of a monster. The air was filled with dense smoke, so that I could scarcely breathe. Huge masses of rock, cartridge

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A COMPLETE RUIN.

boxes, barrels of powder, and other materials, were blown to an indescribable height, and went whirling through the air in wild confusion, falling, in some instances, more than a mile from the exploding magazine. A moment after, the burning roof of a building a hundred and eighty feet long, used as a store-house on the mountain, fell in, and set fire to the shells stored there." Before the blazing embers that shot in a fiery shower heavenward had descended to the earth again, the explosion took place, sounding like a thousand cannon let off there at once, in the trembling gorge. Lighted on its way by such a sea of flame, and keeping step to such stern and awful music, did that gallant army move off into the night, and turn its face towards the distant Ohio.

But the terrific fusilade made by the discharging guns and bursting shells, was kept up there among the solitary crags until noon. The rebels beyond the ridge were filled with consternation, as they gazed on the lurid sky, and felt the earthquake shock, and knew not what the strange uproar meant. When, at last, they were informed, by an inhabitant of the region, that Morgan had evacuated the Gap, they dared not approach it till three o'clock the next day, for fear of exploding shells and mines. When they did venture near, they gazed around in blank astonishment. Silence and desolation reigned throughout the gorge, while the rocks lay piled along it, in one wild wreck, heaved there by the exploding mines.

Morgan had done his work thoroughly and well, but the mighty task before him was only just commenced. Two hundred miles of such a country. as lay before him, were never before marched over, by ten thousand men, with artillery and no supplies, while a vast army was closing in upon them on every side. As if to cloud the beginning of his great endeavor with increasing gloom, towards morning a pelting rain set in, accompanied with fierce gusts of wind that swept mournfully over the swiftly advancing columns. Ten ladies,