288 Norra Carotina Troops, 1861-65.

tenant Garrett and the main column of the Confederates, thus
severing the rear guard completely from the main command.
Not being of sufficient force to cut their way through the
enemy’s lines, they were forced to withdraw to the side of a
steep mountain to escape capture. An effort was made to
flank the enemy and make their way to the command, then
engaged with the enemy in what appeared to be a bloody bat-
tle somewhere in the vicinity of Crab Orchard. This effort
was found to be impossible, as the whole country was overrun
with the enemy in all directions. Our forces were driven
back in the direction of Rockeastle river, and all hope of re-
gaining the command was, therefore, made impossible. A hur-
ried counsel was held. One of two alternatives was inevita-
ble: either surrender or fight their way back to our lines along
the Cumberland Mountain, fifty miles away and through an
enemy’s country. Viewed.in any light the situation was a
desperate one. Between them and the brigade was the whole
force of the enemy, while between them and the Cumberland
Mountains was a foe more dangerous than an army with ban-
ners—that irregular force known to the army as “bushwhack-
ers”—always on the alert, and doubly so on this occasion.
Tt was known that the brigade had passed through this sec-
tion only a few days previous, and the whole country was
aroused and on the lookout for our return. This section of
Kentucky was intensely union in sentiment, and nearly every
man in it was either a regular soldier, or a self-constituted
soldier, ready for battle at a minute’s notice. They were
thoroughly organized, and while they were not always a com-
pact organization in a body, the discharge of a gun, the blast
of a horn, or the flash of a rocket in the sky at night, would
bring together a military force, armed with the deadly Ken-
tucky rifle, ten times the strength of the little band grouped
on the mountain side discussing what was best to be done.
While they talked in whispers they saw the enemy hurrying
by along the country road, in the valley below, “and swiftly
forming in the ranks of war,” while in the distance could be
heard the boom of the cannon as the battle raged on the dis-
tant plain. When the vote was taken not a single voice was
heard for surrender, but all were unanimous in the resolve

Frrru Batra ion. 289

to fight their way to our lines south of the Cumberland Moun-
tains. With this resolve firmly fixed in their minds they
started on their perilous journey. Famished soldiers, and
broken down horses, their retreat was necessarily slow—slow
because they were physically unable to make it rapid; slow
because the safety of the detachment made it necessary to ex-
amine every defile and turn in the road to make sure it did
not conceal a deadly enemy. Learning that the crossing of
the Cumberland river was guarded by the enemy, the detach-
ment effected a crossing below the town of Barboursville, and
after three days ceaseless toil and constant vigils, the detail
ment reached our lines at Big Creek Gap. Just one week
previous the same men had marched through this narrow de-
file with buoyant hopes and animated expectations. Now be-
hold the return; starved and emaciated soldiers, with torn
and soiled uniforms, hatless, coatless, and blanketless. Some
of the detachment were mounted on impoverished horses that
limped along the mountain defile, with flopping ears and
drooping head, while others were so famished that they were
unable to carry the tired soldier on their festering backs, and
were allowed to stagger along as best they could, panting be-
neath the scorching rays of a July sun, while the hiner
owner trudged along the weary way footsore and tired. Such
was the return of the Fifth North Carolina Battalion of Cav-
alry, fifteen strong, all told, which one week previous had
marched out over the same roads with five full companies, as
fine looking a body of soldiers as could be found in any cont.
mand of the army. Thus terminated one of the hardest, and
for the numbers engaged, one of the bloodiest canipaipns of
the war. I never knew how many we lost in this campaign.
I read an account in a Cincinnati paper which purported to
give an account of the several engagements, and that fixed the
killed and captured at seven hundred. TI do not intend to
convey the idea that fifteen men were all that was left of the
battalion after the return of the brigade from Kentucky. It
is presumed that some of the men clung to the main force, and
in this way returned to their several companies; while share

ae in the hospital or on detail, while still others, were