tion of the work. On the 16th of August, the very day of the departure of General Rosecrans from Winchester, General Burnside started from Lexington. The route which he had chosen for his own march lay through Crab Orchard, Mount Vernon, London and Williamsburg, with other columns, under command of General Hartsuff, moving on his right flank by way of Tompkinsville, Albany and Somerset, and a column of cavalry under Colonel Foster upon the left, to march directly upon Knoxville by way of Jacksboro'. The design was to cross the mountains by unfrequented roads, and even by those hitherto deemed impassable by a large army, and therefore left undefended by the rebel forces. This would introduce an army into East Tennessee to the surprise of the commanding general there, force his surrender or the evacuation of the position, and give our own forces an undisturbed possession of the entire region. The design was admirably carried out. Sending a force, under Colonel De Courcy, to take position in front of Cumberland Gap and occupy the attention of the enemy, General Burnside crossed the Cumberland mountains at the more westerly gaps. It was a work of extreme difficulty and was performed with great rapidity, considering the obstacles which were overcome. Preparations had been made for forced marching and ready fighting. The troops were in light marching order. All unnecessary impediments were cast aside. Pack mules were procured for the transportation of supplies. A part of the army was mounted. Wagon trains were to follow on the more accessible roads, while the troops on foot and on horseback clambered the heights. On the 21st of August, General Burnside left Crab Orchard, and then followed fourteen days of as hard marching as was. done by any army in the course of the war. The soldiers climbed the rugged ways with indomitable persistence and courage. The horses and mules connected with the army were tasked to their utmost, and many of them gave out exhausted by the severities of the march. In several instances, the animals utterly failed to drag the artillery up the acclivities, and their places were filled by men, who, with hands upon the drag ropes and shoulders to the wheels, dragged or lifted guns, caissons and wagons from height to height. The road was in some places strewn with the fragments of the broken vehicles and harness. But the soldiers were in good heart and cheerful spirits. Their commander knew not what it was to yield, and together they surmounted every difficulty. Crossing the summit, they easily descended into the plain below, and stood at last the conquerors of East Tennessee without a battle. A little skirmishing upon the road was all that betokened the nearness of an enemy. The rebel General Buckner, surprised by the suddenness of the advance, bewildered by the strange appearance of a large army, as though it had dropped from the clouds into the midst of his lines, and exaggerating the forces as they approached by different roads, immediately evacuated the region, retreated and joined General Bragg, actually leaving the garrison at Cumberland Gap without orders or even information of his movement. A portion of the rear guard was encountered by our cavalry, under General Shackleford, near Loudon, but succeeded in escaping, after burning an important bridge at that point. General Burnside, after a march of two hundred and fifty miles in fourteen days, found himself completely master of the situation. Perhaps it may be well to place this march across the Cumberland mountains more in detail before the mind of the reader. The army of General Burnside, at the time, was composed of about eighteen thousand men. These were divided into five columns. The first marched from Glasgow, by way of Tompkinsville, Ky., to Livingston and Jamestown, Tenn.; the second from Columbia, by way of Creelsboro' and Albany, Ky., to Jamestown, Tenn., there joining the first; the third from Somerset, Ky., to Chitwoods, Huntsville and Montgomery, Tenn., where it was joined by the first and second; the fourth, which the commanding general accompanied, from Mount Vernon, by way of London and Williamsburg, Ky., over the Jellico mountains to Chitwoods, Huntsville- demonstrating towards Big Creek Gap-and Montgomery, Tenn., where the four columns formed a junction and pushed rapidly forward to Kingston. The fifth column, composed of cavalry, marched from Williamsburg directly on Jacksboro', passing through Wheeler's Gap, and occupied Knoxville on the same day upon which the infantry reached Kingston. Headquarters were at Crab Orchard on the 21st of August; at Mount Vernon on the 22d; at London on the 24th; at Williamsburg on the 25th; at Chitwoods on the 26th, 27th and 28th, delayed by the nonarrival of the supporting columns from Glasgow and Columbia, and of the supply trains; at Montgomery on the 30th; at Kingston on the 1st of September; and at Knoxville on the 3d of September. ness. Placing out of view the hardships of the road, the march over the mountains was not without beauty and picturesqueOne officer* declared it to be "the most beautiful march of the war." The scenery of Tennessee has many attractive points. The mountains are not too high, and, seen at a distance, their lines are harmonious and graceful. The valleys are green, fruitful and, in some instances, of enchanting loveliThe route travelled by the army lay through portions of the State that presented alternate beauty and wildness, and, as the troops emerged from the fastnesses of the mountain range, the valley of East Tennessee lay at their feet in all the luxuriance and mellowness of the early autumn. ness. But there was other business in hand than the enjoyment of the pictures which Nature offered to the contemplative eye. General Burnside entered East Tennessee as the deliverer of a cruelly treated and long suffering people. He was received as such. The troops were everywhere greeted with joyful accla-. mations. They were overwhelmed with kindness, and a generous welcome, was offered them on all sides. The old flag, concealed under carpets, between mattrasses, buried in the earth itself, was taken from its hiding place and floated to the *Captain W. H. Harris. breeze from every staff. "Bless the Lord! the Yankees have come !" "The old flag's come back to Tennessee!" were the shouts that gave expression to the people's abounding joy. Gray-haired men, with tears streaming down their cheeks, women who had lost their all, children whose tender age had not escaped the cruelty of the rebel rule, came forth to greet the General and his officers at every turn, and to express their gratitude for the redemption which he had brought. Dr. William H. Church, of General Burnside's staff, in a communication published at the time, gives a very interesting account of the reception of the troops. "The East Tennessee troops," he writes, "of whom General Burnside had a considerable number, were kept constantly in the advance, and were received with expressions of the profoundest gratitude by the people. There were many thrilling scenes of the meeting of our East Tennessee soldiers with their families, from whom they had been so long separated. The East Tennesseeans were so glad to see our soldiers that they cooked every thing they had and gave it to them freely, not asking pay and apparently not thinking of it. Women stood by the roadside with pails of water and displayed Union flags. The wonder was where all the stars and stripes came from. Knoxville was radiant with flags. At a point on the road from Kingston to Knoxville, seventy women and girls stood by the roadside waving Union flags, and shouting: Hurrah for the Union.' Old ladies rushed out of their houses and wanted to see General Burnside and shake hands with him, and cried : Welcome, General Burnside, welcome to East Tennessee !'"'* The people felt that it was the time of their deliverance. It was also a time for action. They begged for arms, that they might join our forces and drive from their land the oppressors whose tyranny had lasted already too long. General Buckner was only too willing to escape before the swelling tide of popular indignation should rise and overwhelm him with its surges. Rebellion Record, Vol. VII., pp. 407-8. On the 1st of September, General Burnside entered Kingston unopposed, and on the same day Colonel Foster with his cavalry occupied Knoxville without resistance. General Burnside, scarcely waiting for the thanks of an emancipated people, left Kingston, and passing through Lenoir's on the 2d, entered Knoxville, the objective point of his march, on the 3d of September. A considerable amount of public property, an arsenal, machine shop, cars, locomotives, pikes, &c., fell into his hands. From that day the rebel rule in East Tennessee was ended, the great Western line of rebel communication was taken from the hands that had abused its facilities, and the power of the Union became supreme. The frantic and desperate attempts which the rebels subsequently made to regain their lost authority were all completely foiled. Their season of triumph had passed. Their doom was sealed. It was no matter of surprise, therefore, that General Burnside and his troops who had thus successfully carried out this great enterprise, should be welcomed at Knoxville with a joy which baffles all attempt at description. Their progress had already been a complete ovation. But here the people seemed to surpass all former demonstrations. An hour like that compensated for all the toils and anxieties of the wearisome march. As the general sought his quarters at the close of the day, he had the satisfaction of feeling, that he rested in the midst of as loyal a people as could be found in the land, who looked upon him as their saviour from the terrible and grinding despotism of the insurgent government. East Tennessee was now free, and he who had restored her liberty was the almost idolized commander of the army of the Ohio. The joy of such a triumph might well repay for the disappointment and defeat at Fredericksburg! In the meantime the garrison at Cumberland Gap under General Frazer had fallen into direful straits. On the morning of the 4th of September, General Shackleford was sent forward from Knoxville to assist in capturing the garrison and occupying the Gap, and on the 7th General Burnside left Knox |