another horseman rode up to the Union camp. He was a
messenger direct from Gen. Buell. He brought with him an intercepted
letter from Marshall to his wife, revealing the important fact that the
Confederate general had five thousand men--forty-four hundred infantry
and six hundred cavalry--with twelve pieces of artillery, and that he
was daily expecting an attack from a Union force of ten thousand.

It was clear that Brown had been true, and that it was from him Gen.
Marshall had received this trustworthy intelligence of the strength of
the Union army.

Garfield decided not to communicate the contents of this letter, lest
his officers should be alarmed at the prospect of attacking a force so
much superior. He called a council, however, and put this question:

"Shall we march at once, or wait the coming of Craven?"

All but one were in favor of waiting, but Garfield adopted the judgment
of this one.

"Forward it is!" he said. "Give the order."

I will only state the plan of Garfield's attack in a general way. There
were three roads that led to Marshall's position--one to the east, one
to the west, and one between the two. These three roads were held by
strong Confederate pickets.

Now, it was Garfield's policy to keep Marshall deceived as to his
strength. For this reason, he sent a small body to drive in the enemy's
pickets, as if to attack Paintville. Two hours after, a similar force,
with the same orders, were sent on the road to the westward, and two
hours later still, a small force was sent on the middle road. The first
pickets, retreating in confusion, fled to the camp, with the
intelligence that a large body of Union troops were on their way to make
an attack. Similar tidings were brought by the two other bodies of
pickets, and Marshall, in dismay, was led to believe that he was menaced
by superior numbers, and hastily abandoned Paintville, and Garfield,
moving his men rapidly over the central route, occupied the town.

Gen. Marshall would have been intensely mortified had he known that this
large Union army was little more than one-fourth the size of his own.

But his alarm was soon increased. On the evening of the 8th of January,
a spy entered his camp, and reported that Craven, with _thirty-three
hundred men_, was within twelve hours' march at the westward.

The big general (he weighed three hundred pounds) was panic-stricken.
Believing Garfield's force to number ten thousand, this reinforcement
would