iculars of General Smith's march
through Southeastern Kentucky, and of the fight at Richmond. General
Smith had collected at Knoxville, and other points in East Tennessee,
some twenty thousand men, and leaving eight thousand, under General
Stephenson, in front of Cumberland Gap, then occupied by the Federal
General G.W. Morgan, with eight or nine thousand men, he, with twelve
thousand men, and thirty or forty pieces of artillery, pressed through
the Big Creek and Rogers gaps (of the Cumberland mountains), and marched
rapidly for the Blue-grass country. Master of Lexington, he would have
the terminus of the two railroads, and, indeed, one half of the State of
Kentucky. A complete defeat of the forces, then in that region, would
clear his path to Louisville, in the one direction, and to Covington in
the other. He would be in no danger, until forces were collected and
organized in sufficient strength at Cincinnati, to march against and
push him away. As for Buell's army, it was General Bragg's duty to take
care of that. General Smith had with his army about one thousand
cavalry. This force, under Colonel John Scott, advancing some distance
in his front, fell upon Metcalfe's regiment, eleven or twelve hundred
strong, on the Bighill, fifteen miles from Richmond, and thoroughly
defeated and dispersed it. Even after this affair, the Federal commander
remained in ignorance of any force, besides the cavalry under Scott,
having approached in that direction, until General Smith, having pressed
on with wonderful celerity and secrecy, had gotten within a few miles of
Richmond.

Then every available man was concentrated at Richmond and pushed out to
meet the invading column. The collision occurred on the 29th of August.
General Smith had marched so rapidly, his men had fared so badly (having
subsisted for ten days on green corn), and their badly shod feet were so
cut by the rough stony way, that his column was necessarily somewhat
prolonged, although there was little of what might be called straggling.
Consequently, he could put into the fight only about six thousand men.
Heath was some distance in the rear. He attacked as soon as he came upon
the enemy, drove them, and although three several stands were made, his
advance was never seriously checked. The last stand, and hardest fight,
was made in the outskirts of the little town of Richmond itself, and
when the enemy was driven from the town, his route was complete. The
Federal comma