Today in History:

16 Series I Volume XXXII-III Serial 59 - Forrest's Expedition Part III

Page 16 KY.,SW.,VA.,TENN.,MISS.,ALA.,AND N.GA. Chapter XLIV.

Quallatown, and Murphy, thence to Benton. It was expected at Murphy to-night. Campbell's brigade of cavalry has reached Calhoun.

G. GRANGER,

Major-General.

CALHOUN, March 4, 1864 - 5 p. m.

Lieutenant-Colonel FULLERTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

SIR: I have the honor to report that I have just arrived here.

A. P. CAMPBELL,

Colonel, Commanding First Brigade, First Division Cavalry.


HDQRS. SECOND Brigadier, SECOND DIV., CAVALRY CORPS,
Wallace's Cross-Roads, March 4, 1864.

Brigadier General E. E. POTTER,

Chief of Staff, Knoxville, Tenn.:

GENERAL: Presuming that you are not fully aware of the condition of this brigade, I ask permission to allude to a few facts.

We have been in the saddle almost without cessation for one year. You are familiar with the arduous duties of the cavalry since our arrival in East Tennessee. We have been compelled to subsist, both man and beast, on the country. The same policy which marked our advent into and progress in Tennessee still clings to us. So long forage, and commissary supplies, we were content. But the time has arrived when this can no longer be done. We have been eking out a miserable existence for some weeks anxiously awaiting relief. Our stock is unfit for service because of the scarcity of forage. On the march horse are abandoned from sheer exhaustion and men are dismounted.

True, where we now are some forage is secured, but it is at a terrible sacrifice on the part of the citizens. Before we came in here, as elsewhere, all the surplus forage had been taken. The small quantity we now secure is wrung from the people. If you could but hear, general, one-half of the lamentations of good Union men, because their all is taken from them, I feel assured your sympathy would be awakened. Could they by any possible chance secure subsistence, the case would not seem so cruel. If we were of any service subsistence, the case would not seem so cruel. If we were of any service here and the stock which we are feeding would rapidly improve, there would seem to be some excuse for grinding the people. To make the stock now on hand serviceable for another campaign would require months of kind care and attention. Aside form animals and forage, commissary supplies for the men are not forthcoming, even at a time when it seems there should be no excuse for their absence. My command is now without bread and meat, and although a division train arrived from Knoxville last evening with small-stores, not one pound of meat or bread was brought with it. The arms of the brigade are also in had condition, many of them form frequent use having become worthless.

Whether the service performed by the cavalry is or is not appreciated, I know its labor has been great. The men are becoming disheartened


Page 16 KY.,SW.,VA.,TENN.,MISS.,ALA.,AND N.GA. Chapter XLIV.