ing to await there the arrival of General Humphrey
Marshall, who was reported to be approaching (from Abingdon), with three
thousand men.

Captain Calvin Morgan volunteered to carry a message to Marshall, and
traveled (alone), the wild country between Hazelgreen and Pound Gap, a
country infested with a crowd of ferocious bushwhackers. About this
time, Cluke's whole force must have been badly off, if the language of
one of his officers be not exaggerated, who (in an account of the
encampment at Hazelgreen) declares that, "the entire command was
prostrated by a severe attack of erisipelas."

After the effects of this "attack" had somewhat worn off, Lieutenant
Colonel Stoner was sent back to Montgomery, and maintained himself there
for several days, with skill and gallantry. Threatening demonstrations
from the enemy induced Cluke to retreat from Hazelgreen and still
further into the mountains. He established himself on the middle fork of
Licking, near Saliersville. On the 19th, he found himself completely
surrounded. Fifteen hundred of the enemy had gained his rear, ten
hundred advancing from Louisa, were on his right, and eight hundred were
at Proctor, on his left. In his front was the garrison of Mt. Sterling,
five hundred strong, but likely at any time to be reinforced by the
forces then in Central Kentucky. The roads in all directions were so
well observed that he could not hope to escape without a fight.

His command was reduced to about three hundred effectives--the rest were
suffering from the erisipelas. In this emergency, Colonel Cluke
conceived a determination at once bold, and exceedingly judicious. He
resolved to march straight on Mount Sterling and attack it, at any
hazard. He trusted that the enemy would send no more troops there, but
would rather (anticipating that he would seek to escape southward), send
all that could be collected to intercept him in that quarter.

A tremendous march of sixty miles in twenty-four hours, over mountains
and across swollen streams, brought him to McIntyre's ferry of the
Licking, thirty miles from Mt. Sterling. Crossing on the night of the
20th and morning of the 21st, Major Steele was sent with his battalion
_via_, Owingsville (in Bath county), to take position on the Winchester
pike, beyond Mount Sterling, that he might give timely information of
the approach of reinforcements to the garrison. Colonel Cluke moved with
the rest of his command through Mud Lick Spring, direc