Ohio, and placed him in command. General Buell with these orders
sent a letter of instruction, giving general directions as to the
campaign, leaving all matters of detail and the fate of the expedition,
however, largely to the discretion of the brigade commander. The
latter reached his command on the 24th of December, at Louisa, some
twenty-eight miles up the Big Sandy. He then proceeded to concentrate
his troops, the main body consisting of his own regiment--the
Forty-second Ohio--the Fourteenth Kentucky, and a battalion of Ohio
cavalry under Major McLaughlin, which was with him; but these gave
only some fifteen hundred men for duty.

The next largest portion of his command was stationed at Paris,
Kentucky, under Colonel Cranor, with his regiment, the Fortieth
Ohio, 800 strong. Cranor was ordered to join the main body as
expeditiously as possible, and to bring with him that portion of
Colonel Wolford's Kentucky cavalry stationed at Stanford, consisting
of three small battalions under Lieutenant-Colonel Letcher, and
to report at Prestonburg. The twenty-second Kentucky was ordered
from Maysville, and some three hundred men of that command reported
before Garfield reached Paintville. He was also joined by a battalion
of west Virginia cavalry under Colonel Bolles. After a toilsome
march in mid-winter, Garfield's command, on the 7th of January,
drove Marshall's forces from the mouth of Jenny's Creek, and occupied
Paintville. On the morning of the 9th, Cranor reported with his
command, footsore and exhausted, after a march of over one hundred
miles through the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. At noon of the 9th
Garfield advanced his command to attack Marshall with his cavalry,
pressing the rebels as they fell back. Reaching Prestonburg
some fifteen miles from Paintville, he learned that Marshall was
encamped and fortified on Abbott's Creek. Pushing on to the mouth