Alfred Roman, The military operations of General Beauregard in the war between the states, 1861 to 1865

[381] cavalry,¹ into middle Tennessee and Kentucky; there to cause as much damage as possible to the enemy's railroads, bridges, and telegraph lines. He was authorized to raise his battalion to a regiment and even to a brigade, if he could. General Beauregard supplied him with a sum of fifteen thousand dollars,² to start with, and carry him into Kentucky, where he was, eventually, to live on the enemy. This was the beginning of the brilliant career of that intrepid partisan officer. His usefulness was afterwards greatly impaired when General Bragg attempted to make of him and his renowned brigade part of a regular command of cavalry. Upon the recommendation of General Beauregard, he was promoted to the rank of colonel before he had organized his regiment; and when he left, with his four companies, upon his hazardous expedition, he was furnished by General Beauregard with one of the ablest telegraph operators in the service—Mr. Ellsworth—in order that he might bewilder the enemy—as he so effectually did—by sending false despatches from the various telegraph stations during his raids into Tennessee and Kentucky.

General Beauregard hoped that this expedition under Colonel Morgan, together with the operations in Kentucky suggested by General E. Kirby Smith, and strongly urged by General Beauregard on the War Department,³ would force General Halleck, who was plodding away slowly in his advance on Corinth, to send back a part, if not all, of General Buell's army into Tennessee and Kentucky. A third expedition of two regiments of cavalry, under Colonels Claiborne and Jackson, was also thought of and organized against Paducah, western Kentucky, to aid in the same purpose, and would halve been a great success but for the notorious incapacity of the officer in command.⁴ However, General Beauregard was not wholly disappointed in his expectations with regard to his diversion movements, for, immediately after the evacuation of Corinth by the Confederate army (May 30th), General