de. The third brigade was about eight hundred strong and
was commanded by Colonel D. Howard Smith. No artillery was taken--it
could not have been transported over the roads which General Morgan
expected to travel. The column reached Pound Gap on the 2nd of June and
found it occupied by a force of the enemy. Colonel Smith was ordered to
clear the path, and pushing his brigade forward, he soon did it. Several
horses were captured, which was accepted as a happy omen.

[Illustration: MAP SHOWING ROUTE TAKEN BY GEN. MORGAN ON HIS LAST RAID
INTO KENTUCKY.]

Sending a scouting party to observe the direction taken by the
retreating enemy, and to ascertain if they joined a larger force and
turned again, General Morgan pressed on, hoping to reach Mt.
Sterling--the general Federal depot of supplies and most important post
in that portion of Kentucky--before General Burbridge could return from
the extreme eastern part of the State. As Burbridge was incumbered with
artillery and would be two or three days in getting the news, General
Morgan confidently believed that he could reach Mt. Sterling first. The
mountainous country of Southeastern Kentucky, so rugged, steep and
inhospitable, as to seem almost impossible of access, had to be
traversed for this purpose. More than one hundred and fifty miles of
this region was marched over in seven days. The dismounted men behaved
heroically. Straining up the steep mountain sides, making their toilsome
way through gloomy and deep ravines, over tremendous rocks and every
formidable obstacle which nature collects in such regions against the
intrusion of man, footsore, bleeding, panting, they yet never faltered
or complained, and richly won the enthusiastic eulogy of their
commander. They marched from twenty-two to twenty-seven miles each day.
This march was terribly severe upon the mounted commands also. The
fatigue and lack of forage caused many horses to break down--and the
dismounted brigade was largely augmented. Colonel Giltner stated that he
lost more than two hundred horses in his brigade.

On the 6th of June, Colonel Smith was transferred to the command of the
second brigade. Lieutenant Colonel Martin was then assigned to command
of the third. On the 7th, finding that he would succeed in anticipating
Burbridge at Mt. Sterling and that he would not require his whole force
to take the place, General Morgan dispatched Captain Jenkins with fifty
men to destroy the bridges upon the Frankfor