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the rocks at the summit of the hill. The heartless way in which the rebels disposed of their dead made a strong impression upon the not yet callous-hearted boys from Ohio. At one place eleven of the confederate dead had been tumbled down into a large fissure in the rocks. They were taken out by the reconnoitering party next day, and decently buried. A squad of the Fourteenth Kentucky still further violated the decencies of war by stripping the corpses of their buttons and trifling valuables. There was abundant evidence that the confederate loss was by no means limited to the nineteen dead soldiers found on the hill. Seven graves were found at the foot of the mountain, near where the baggage had been burned. A native, whose hut was near the scene of the burning, professed to have filled the graves during the night, and said that they contained the bodies of officers. From his account, not less than fifty wounded had been carried away in wagons by the retreating enemy.

The remarkable disparity in losses is explained by the facts already stated. The federals had the better weapons, they fired up hill from behind trees, and fought from first to last with remarkable coolness and skill. The scars made by their bullets on the trees were mainly less than five feet from the ground. The bullet marks of the rebels, on the other hand, were wild, being often ten and twenty feet above the ground.

On the federal side, the battle of Middle Creek was fought by less than a thousand men. The prin

cipal fighting detachment was led by Captain Frederick A. Williams, of Company "A," Forty-Second Ohio, who six months before had been a student at Hiram. If there was a single man in his command who had ever before been under fire, that fact was not known then and is not known to-day. Colonel Garfield accepted battle from an enemy whom he knew to out-number his own force by at least three to one, and the fight was won by simply attacking the foe promptly in his own position, making intelligent use of whatever advantages the ground offered, and fighting with steady courage and skill as long as daylight lasted.

The Forty-Second regiment was engaged in many bloodier and more renowned battles during its three years of service, but it may be fairly questioned whether the regiment ever performed a day's duty of more timely and permanent value to the country. The battle of Middle Creek, skirmish though it may be considered, in comparison with later contests, was the first substantial victory won for the union cause. At Big Bethel, Bull Run, in Missouri, and at various points at which the union and confederate forces had come in contact, the latter had been uniformly victorious. The people of the North, giving freely of their men and their substance, in response to each successive call of the Government, had long and anxiously watched and waited for a little gleam of victory to show that Northern valor was a match for Southern impetuosity in the field. They had waited in vain since the disaster at Bull

Run, during the

previous summer, and hope had almost yielded to despair. The story of Garfield's success at Middle Creek came, therefore, like a benediction to the union cause. Though won at a trifling cost, it was decisive, so far as concerned the purposes of that immediate campaign. Marshall's force was driven from. Kentucky, and made no further attempt to occupy the Sandy Valley. The important victories at Mill Spring, Forts Donelson and Henry, and the repulse at Shiloh followed. The victory at Middle Creek proved the first wave of a returning tide.”

CHAPTER XII.

CAMPAIGNS IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE.

LACK OF PROVISIONS. THE GREAT FLOOD. DANGEROUS SITUATION OF THE TROOPS. GENERAL GARFIELD GOES TO THE OHIO RIVER. -PERILOUS VOYAGE UP THE BIG SANDY. RECEPTION BY THE HUNGRY TROOPS.- EXPEDITION AGAINST THE ENEMY AT POUND GAP.GENERAL ORDERS CONNECTED WITH HIS CAMPAIGN.HIS TRANSFER TO LOUISVILLE. HIS NEW COMMAND. - FORCED MARCHES.- THE BATTLE OF CORINTH. REFUSAL TO RETURN SLAVES TO THEIR MASTERS. -ELECTION TO CONGRESS. APPOINTMENT AS CHIEF OF GENERAL ROSECRANS' STAFF. - BATTLE OF CHICAMAUGA.- PROMOTION TO MAJOR-GENERAL.

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- RESIGNATION.

THE next day after establishing the brigade camp, a heavy rain storm came on which laid a large portion of Sandy Valley under water. It was impossible to march or to transport provisions over land. The river became so swollen that the steamboats were detained in the Ohio, and that source of supply was also closed. It was a most alarming condition of affairs, for it was impossible for the army to find sufficient food in the surrounding region, even if they transgressed the strict orders forbidding foraging. When they had rations for two days only the puzzled commander saw no way to save his little army from actual starvation. If the army had been able to march or wade through the mud, it would have been a disobedience of orders to leave the country to be again occupied by the enemy.

In his perplexity he decided to go for provisions himself, thinking that he might find some boat along the river which could be brought up in such an extremity.

But he went as far as the Ohio river before he found one. The great flood was so powerful that no one dared venture into its surges. He found two or three boatmen who said that a boat had once ascended the Big Sandy in a flood like that, but it was a miracle that it escaped destruction.

"Some boat must go up," said the general. "My men shall not starve!"

He found a rickety steamboat fastened to the bank of the stream awaiting a subsidence of the flood, and he ordered the captain to take a load of provisions up the river to the camp. The captain refused, saying that it would be as bad as suicide to undertake it. But Colonel Garfield insisted, and the captain and men, thinking they might as well be drowned as be shot for disobedience of military orders, allowed the boat, with themselves, to be taken by the general for the dangerous experiment. Finding no one he dared to trust to take the wheel or who was strong enough to manage it in the swift current, the general himself took the wheel, and for two days and the greater part of one night stood at his post. It required the most cautious steering to avoid the projecting banks and trees covered by the flood, and often the boat would graze an obstruction which would have sunk it, if it had struck near the prow.

Once the craft ran aground on a hard sandbank

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