MARSHALL AND GARFIELD IN EASTERN KENTUCKY.
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two forces. The next month General Marshall sent the bulk of his commandsouth of the Cumberland Mountains, to go into winter quarters, because allsupplies were exhausted in the mountains of Kentucky. General Marshall ’sforces would probably have been compelled to return to Virginia in order tosecure supplies, even if they had not been opposed by an enemy. Theoccupation of the Sandy Valley by a largely superior force so crippledhis resources that he could hardly have subsisted his troops among theimpoverished mountains. Indeed, Colonel Garfield could not have main-tained his position a week, without the aid of the river, by which sup-plies were brought on steamboats. On the 16th of March, 1862, Garfieldwith 750 men made an attack on a battalion of Virginia militia, occupyingPound Gap, and drove them away and burned the log-huts built for win-ter quarters. Soon after this he was ordered to report to General Buell,who had gone to the relief of General Grant at Pittsburg Landing. Thishe did on the 7th of April, 1862, in time to take part in the second day’scontest.
General Marshall was born January 13th, 1812, in Frankfort, Ky. , andcame of a most distinguished family, which included Chief-Justice JohnMarshall of Virginia, the historian Humphrey Marshall of Kentucky , and theorator and lawyer Thomas F. Marshall. He was four times elected to Congress from the Louisville District, and was Minister to China under President Fill-more. In his profession of law Humphrey Marshall had probably no superiorand few equals among the jurists of Kentucky . As an orator he fully inheritedthe talent of a family which was famous in the forum. As a soldier he enjoyedthe confidence of General Lee , who wrote him frequently in reference to mili-tary operations, and earnestly opposed his retirement from the army. Hewas a graduate of West Point, and both he and General Williams had wondistinction in the Mexican war—Marshall at Buena Vista and Williams atCerro Gordo.
General Marshall personally was not adapted to mountain warfare, owing tohis great size; nor was he qualified to command volunteers, being the mostdemocratic of men. Moreover, his heart was tender as a woman’s. For thesereasons he could not enforce the rigorous discipline of an army. So wellknown was his leniency, that an officer of his staff made a standing offer toeat the first man the general should shoot for any crime. Speaking to Col-onel Leigh about military dignity and discipline, Marshall said he “ regardedthese things as the decrepitudes of the military art.” General Williams, whowas his ablest lieutenant, was a man of very different mold, proud, imperi-ous, a born soldier, who believed in discipline to its last extremity.
With his little command Marshall afterward successfully defended the vitalinterests of the Confederacy in south-west Virginia , so long as he remainedin the service. In the summer of 1863 he was transferred to the MississippiDepartment, but resigned his commission because he believed that he hadbeen badly treated by President Davis in not having received the govern-mental support which he thought he deserved and which the necessities ofhis command required.