Excerpt from Cumberland Gap: A Paper Read Before the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, June 3, 1885 The result of his first essay on the mountain section of Kentucky proved to him that the passes into the State were better guarded than he was before aware of, and that the wrongs which had been perpetrated by prowling bands of midnight plunderers had roused in the people a spirit of stern and determined resistance to rebel misrule. Following his repulse at Wild Cat, Gen. Zollicoffer fell back on his reserves in Tennessee, and after reorgan izing his defeated force, he attempted at a lower point on the Cumberland river to enforce and carry out the pro gramme of the Confederate authorities in Kentucky by an occupation in force and a subjugation of the people to rebel military law. In pursuance of this policy, be met at Mill Spring, in Pulaski county, Ky., on the lgth day of Jan uary, 1862, the National forces, under command of Gen. George H. Thomas. Here the first signal defeat of a rebel army was encountered, in the overthrow and rout of an army corps, together with the death of its com mander, slain in battle - slain in the prosecution of a cause which had the approval of neither his judgment nor his con science. And here, too, was first revealed to the earnest gaze of the Nation the great qualities for command in the presence of embattled hosts, and the still rarer attribute ofstern and unyielding tenacity of purpose in the progress of battle, which are all possessed by Gen. Thomas in so eminent a degree, and which time has since developed into grand and majestic proportions. Recorded honors shall gather round his monument and thicken over him. It is a solid fabric, and will support the laurels that adorn it. The rebels still held possession of Cumberland Gap notwithstanding their defeat in the field. As a strategic point it was deemed an indispensable necessity by both of the parties to the great conflict in which the Nation had unfortunately become involved. On the organization of the Army of the Cumberland, under Gen. D. C. Buell, Gen. Thomas was assigned to one of its divisions. A portion of the troops previously under his command was still held in the mountain region to restrain and punish predatory incursions and raids into the State, and to support the loyal sentiment predominant in that section. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.