A junction of the forces (consisting of two battalions 2nd Michigan Cavalry, Lieut. Col. Campbell; the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Major Russell; and one battalion 7th Ohio Cavalry. Major Raimey) was made near the mouth of Goose Creek, Clay County, Kentucky. As ordered by Gen. Burnside, Col. Charles J. Walker of the 10th Kentucky Cavalry was placed in command of the cavalry brigade. The troops were ordered to move without baggage, with ten days rations, and 100 rounds of ammunition; but as it was feared some difficulty would be met with in obtaining forage, a supply train was ordered to proceed some 60 miles on the route and then transfer forage and rations to a train of pack mules. On the 22nd December Gen. Carter, who left Lexington on the 20th, came up with the two battalions of the 2nd Michigan and the 9th Pennsylvania at McKee, Jackson county, Kentucky, and after one day’s necessary detention, they effected a junction on the 26th with the remainder of the troops, (1st Battalion of 7th Ohio Cavalry) at Heard’s on Goose Creek. The whole force amounted only to about 1,980 men, and of that number a considerable portion were in the field for the first time. The marches, owing to the roughness and narrowness of the roads, (being merely bridle paths along the banks of creeks and over steep and rugged mountains) were of necessity slow and tedious, and their length had to be governed by the distance to the several points at which forage could be obtained. It was not until about meridian of the 28th, that they reached the foot of the Cumberland mountain (on the north side,) opposite “Crank’s Gap,” 12 miles to the southward and eastward of Harlan Court House. The pack train was sent back in charge of a detachment of the Kentucky State Guard. A little before sunset they reached the summit of the Cumberland mountain, and had the field of their operations, with its mountains and vallies spread out before them. Gen. Carter then consulted with the officers of his command, and it was the unanimous opinion that the force was entirely too small to venture on a division according to the original plan. This decision seemed to be the more necessary from the news they had received through East Tennessee refugees at the foot of the mountain, relative to the disposition of the rebel forces along the line of the railroad.