OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE. [CHAP.XII.

follow. I regard the state of affairs, from all the information I possess, as perilous.

Would it be consistent with the interest of the public service elsewhere and the security of the army on the Potomac to send Colonel Vaughn's regiment, and indeed the brigade of which his regiment is one, to re-enforce General Zollicoffer? If not, could there be any other troops sent to East Tennessee from any other quarter?

Any volunteers that night be raised here would be wholly inefficient for want of arms.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

LANDON C. HAYNES.

TEN MILES FROM JACKSBOROUGH, November 8, 1861.

I am pressing on to meet the enemy somewhere between Montgomery and the foot of the mountain towards Kingston, supposing they are making for Loudon Bridge. A reliable citizen from Huntsville, Tenn., just in, reports there general impression that the enemy are sending in a force by Chitwood's, from Williamsburg and Cumberland Gap, in addition to the 6,000 by Monticello.

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER.

BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS AT OLIVER'S Twenty-three miles from Montgomery, November 8, 1861.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond:

SIR: On the 4th instant Lieutenant-Colonel McClellan sent me a dispatch, stating that he had information "entirely reliable" that 6,000 of the enemy-1,500 cavalry and the balance infantry and artillery-were encamped in 5 miles of Monticello, and were advancing towards Jamestown. He stated that the knew nothing of the whereabouts of Colonels Stanton and Murray, and that he had determined to retire with his cavalry force towards Pikeville, fearing he might be cut off if he attempted to retreat towards Montgomery.

I inferred that the enemy's force would advance towards Loudon Bridge, through Montgomery, and conceive the plan of intercepting them at Winter's Gap, in a mile of this place, or at the pass down the mountain, 18 miles from here, on the road from Montgomery to Kingston. I sent cavalry forward to pass up both roads and ascertain which way the were coming, I got the news two days ago at Cumberland Gap, and reached here this evening with my disposable force, a distance of 71 miles, one regiment having started from that gap and got up to within 15 miles of this position.

Just as I entered the road from Knoxville to Montgomery a messenger was passing from Colonel McClellan to Colonel Wood, at Knoxville, and I found he had a dispatch for me, stating that the information he had given on the 4th was founded in error. This letter is dated yesterday. He says there is a camp of the enemy 5 miles east of Monticello, but he does not know its strength or character. His pickets have been into Monticello. He is encamped at Camp McGinnins, 8 or 9 miles north of Jamestown. He says that he has not heard