army. They are only fourteen
hundred men, worn out with marching, but boldly they move down upon
Marshall. False scouts have made him believe they are as strong as he:
and they are; for every one is a hero, and they are led by a general.
The Rebel has five thousand men,--forty-four hundred infantry and six
hundred cavalry,--besides twelve pieces of artillery,--so he says in a
letter to his wife, which Buell has intercepted and Garfield has in his
pocket. Three roads lead to Marshall's position: one at the east,
bearing down to the river, and along its western bank; another, a
circuitous one, to the west, coming in on Paint Creek, at the mouth of
Jenny's Creek, on the right of the village; and a third between the
others, a more direct route, but climbing a succession of almost
impassable ridges. These three roads are held by strong Rebel pickets,
and a regiment is outlying at the village of Paintville.

To deceive Marshall as to his real strength and designs, Garfield orders
a small force of infantry and cavalry to advance along the river, drive
in the Rebel pickets, and move rapidly after them as if to attack
Paintville. Two hours after this force goes off, a similar one, with the
same orders, sets out on the road to the westward; and two hours later
still, another small body takes the middle road. The effect is, that the
pickets on the first route, being vigorously attacked and driven,
retreat in confusion to Paintville, and dispatch word to Marshall that
the Union army is advancing along the river. He hurries off a thousand
infantry and a battery to resist the advance of this imaginary column.
When this detachment has been gone an hour and a half, he hears, from
the routed pickets on the right, that the Federals are advancing along
the western road. Countermanding his first order, he now directs the
thousand men and the battery to check the new danger; and hurries off
the troops at Paintville to the mouth of Jenny's Creek to make a stand
there. Two hours later the pickets on the central route are driven in,
and, finding Paintville abandoned, flee precipitately to the fortified
camp, with the story that the Union army is close at their heels and
occupying the town. Conceiving that he has thus lost Paintville,
Marshall hastily withdraws the detachment of one thousand men to his
fortified camp; and Garfield, moving rapidly over the ridges of the
central route, occupies the abandoned position.

So affairs stand on the ev