Garfield Versus Marshall: The Civil War Battles and Skirmishes in the Mountains of Southeastern Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia

The American Civil War had been raging for just a few months when Federal Colonel James A. Garfield and Confederate Brigadier General Humphrey Marshall were assigned by their respective War Departments to proceed to Southeastern Kentucky to take command of Union and Confederate troops operating in that hotly contested area. Their assignments were remarkably similar in that each had orders to promote the peace and tranquility of the inhabitants, to defend the rivers, roads, and mountain gaps which were subject to be used as invasion routes by enemy forces, and to enlist new recruits to fill their ranks. Both adversaries soon realized that it took a Herculean effort to simply provide subsistence for their commands due to the treacherous roads, the frequent flooding of the rivers and streams, and lack of availability of needed supplies and foodstuffs for their troops. When the bitterly cold winter winds blew across the peak of the 2,387 foot high Pine Mountain, General Marshall’s Confederate troops engaged there in guarding Pound Gap suffered tremendously because of their lack of adequate clothing, especially winter coats. The epic struggle for control of this sparsely populated and deeply divided mountainous region and the extraordinarily contentious nature of the battle for territorial supremacy makes for fascinating reading.