could have been safely taken by the Confederate general, owing to
the disposition of the Union troops in Kentucky at that time.

As we have seen, Zollicoffer with his command was driven from Rock
Castle Hills and Wildcat, and taking a new position nearer Bowling
Green, encamped at Beech Grove, where he fortified his position.

General Zollicoffer was a civilian appointment, without military
training of any kind. He had been editor of a Nashville paper,
had held a number of minor State offices, and served two terms in
Congress prior to the war. Johnston, in ordering Zollicoffer to
the Cumberland River at Mill Springs, intended that he should occupy
a position of observation merely until he should be re-enforced,
or his troops be incorporated in the main command. He could not
have been located farther west without inviting the advance of
the Federal forces into East Tennessee or to Nashville, flanking
Bowling Green. Zollicoffer had no ability as a soldier to handle
troops, and General George B. Crittenden, of Kentucky, a graduate
of West Point, who had seen service in the Mexican War, and who held
at the outbreak of the rebellion, a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel
in the regiment of Mounted Riflemen, was, in November, assigned
to the command of the district as Major-General, with headquarters
at Knoxville. Great expectations were entertained in regard to
Crittenden's military abilities; and about the first of the year
1862 he assumed command in person of the rebel forces at Beech
Grove. The fact that Zollicoffer had established his camp on the
north side of the Cumberland, "with the enemy in front and the
river behind," was known to Johnston, and information given by him
to Crittenden. General Johnston had written Zollicoffer that the
interest of the service required him simply to watch the river,