Having recruited his men by a night’s rest at Paintsville, Colonel Garfield was preparing to start in immediate pursuit on the morning of the 8th, but receiving information of the superior force of the enemy, he awaited the arrival of the Fortieth Ohio regiment, and Wolford’s Kentucky cavalry, by way of Mount Sterling. These troops joined him on that day, raising his effective force to about two thousand four hundred men, after deducting Colonel Bolle’s Virginia cavalry, which, in obedience to orders, had returned to Guyandotte in that State. On the 9th, Colonel Garfield detailed from the Forty-second and Fortieth Ohio, and Fourteenth Kentucky each three hundred men, and from the Twenty-second Kentucky two hundred men, and taking the immediate command, supported, however, by Colonel Craner of the Fortieth, and Major Burke of the Fourteenth. After detaching Colonel Wolford’s and Major McLaughlin’s cavalry up Jennie’s Creek, he marched up the river road leading to Prestonburg. Early on the morning of the 10th, Colonel Sheldon of the Forty-second Ohio, in command at the camp, received a dispatch from Colonel Garfield, stating that he had found the enemy, and asking reinforcements. In compliance with the order, at six A. M. on the tenth, Colonel Sheldon marched with eight hundred men, who eagerly pressed forward on their way to the scene of action. As Colonel Garfield had stated, he had found the enemy two miles from Prestonburg, on Middle Creek, in a chosen position among the hills, with between four and five thousand men and four pieces of artillery. The Fifth Virginia regiment, Colonel Trigg, Colonel John S. Williams’ Kentucky regiment, Colonel Moore’s Kentucky regiment, Markham and Wicher’s cavalry, and the Fourth Virginia infantry, lay in full strength on the hills at the forks of the creek, while their battery seemed to forbid all approach. Nothing deterred by the formidable position and number of the enemy, Colonel Garfield, not fully aware of their exact locality, sent skirmishers forward with a view of drawing the enemy’s fire, and thus ascertaining his whereabouts. Not succeeding in this, about noon he sent forward his escort of cavalry, some twenty strong, in a headlong charge. This accomplished the object, for the enemy, thinking the whole Union force upon them, opened with musketry, shot and shell upon the cavalry, and a small party of the skirmishers under Adjutant Olds of the Forty-second, then in a cornfield immediately in front of the position of Colonel Williams’ Kentucky regiment, and flanked on the left by the artillery and Trigg’s Virginia regiment. The cavalry made a hasty retreat, and the enemy concentrated their whole fire on Adjutant Olds and his party, but without effect. After replying with some fifteen rounds of musketry, and observing a large force thrown out on his right, with intent to cut him off, he fell back upon the main body. The position of the enemy thus