Today in History:

566 Series I Volume XVI-I Serial 22 - Morgan's First Kentucky Raid, Perryville Campaign Part I

Page 566 KY.,M. AND E. TENN.,N. ALA.,AND SW. VA. Chapter XXVIII.

Question. Was it positively known on the 9th whether Bragg had gone to Harrodsburg or Danville or to any intermediate place between the two?

My best impression is that it was known; that was my information.

Question. With regard to the retreat of Bragg from Harrodsburg by way of Camp Dick Robinson and other places beyond there, is it to this day positively known what particular routes all the divisions of Bragg's army took?

I certainly do not know myself and I cannot say that it is positively known.

By General ORD:

Question. You were asked whether you are sufficiently acquainted with the details of the Army of the Ohio to know whether General Buell could not concentrate 50,000 men at some point to oppose the advance of General Bragg's army, and you stated in your answer that there was no such force there. Supposing such force had been there, does it or does it not necessarily follow that the best use of them would have been to concentrate them at some point in the mountains or elsewhere in front of or on such lines as General Bragg chose to pursue with his army?

I do not think it necessarily follows that if there had been such a force there it would have been the best use they could have been put to do place them or concentrate them in front of General Bragg. My opinion is that the best use to which the army could have been put at that time and under the circumstances was to cover and protect the line by which it received its supplies and to watch Bragg's army.

Question. Would or would not the movements for the concentration of such a force probably have been known beforehand and in time to have enabled the enemy to take another route?

I think so. The enemy always had information of our movements in that country.

Question. Is the nature of the country and the disposition of the people where General Buell and Bragg were operating at that time such that a movement might have been caused by feints or demonstrations or partly made before the concentration to meet it (where such concentration was desirable) could have been effected?

I think so.

Question. If General Buell could have concentrated 50,000 men in front of Bragg on the route he took to Tennessee or any route east of it, would or would he not have been compelled to draw in his detachments from guarding bridges, roads, depots, or strategic points.

Undoubtedly to have concentrated anything like such a force in front of General Bragg General Buell must have drawn in, in my opinion, not only all the troops he had on detached service in Tennessee, but he would have had to bring troops from Kentucky to make up 50,000 men. This is my opinion of the external position of the command.

Question. Were these troops guarding depots, bridges, roads, and important strategic points or not?

At the time that General Bragg crossed the Tennessee River to that time General Buell was guarding the road from Decatur to Nashville, the road from Decatur to Stevenson, the road from Stevenson to Nashville, some 300 miles of railroad. This shows that they were guarding bridges, roads, depots, that were of vital importance to the different portions of the army. General Buell was also, I suppose, guarding the road from Nashville to Louisville and from Cincinnati to Cumberland Gap, which would make some 300 or 400 miles more of roads that his entire army in Kentucky and Tennessee had to guard when keeping open their lines of communication, making in all some 600 or 700 miles.


Page 566 KY.,M. AND E. TENN.,N. ALA.,AND SW. VA. Chapter XXVIII.