supplies, but the assorted diseases that spread through the camps like wildfire were taking their tolls. By the end of the month, only about 600 men from the regiment were fit for duty. By late October 1861, General Zollicoffer was receiving reports that a Union invasion somewhere between Cumberland Gap and Bowling Green was impending. His brigade returned to Tennessee, leaving a large garrison at Cumberland Gap, and the rest, including the 19th marched to Jamestown. Indeed, also believing that invasion was imminent, Unionist guerillas had stepped up actions in East Tennessee, including the burnings of several key railroad bridges, but the revolt was soon suppressed by Confederate reinforcements in the region. Mill Springs With the local rebellion under control, Zollicoffer's forces, including the 19th Tennessee, returned to Kentucky in late November to establish winter camp near the tiny hamlet of Mill Springs on the south bank of the Cumberland River. The Union's Army of the Ohio responded by sending a brigade under the command of General Albin F. Schoepf to nearby Somerset to prevent Zollicoffer from crossing the river and advancing into Central Kentucky. Zollicoffer committed a potentially grave tactical error by crossing the Cumberland and established a fortified position on the north bank at Beech Grove—he had a numerically superior force on his front, and a flood-prone river to his rear. Camp Beech Grove appeared quite formidable with the river guarding its flanks, and breastworks and chevaux de frise protecting its front, but the appearance was deceiving. The entrenchments could not dispel a determined attack, and disease was continuing to deplete the brigade's manpower. By the middle of December, President Jefferson Davis replaced Zollicoffer as commander of the Department of East Tennessee, though he remained in command of his brigade, with Maj. Gen. George B. Crittenden, but it would be almost a month before Crittenden arrived. By the time he took command in January, the river was flooded and the brigade was backed into a tactical corner if the Yankees attacked. Before arriving, Crittenden had ordered Zollicoffer to move to the south bank, but he continued to hold his position. Union reinforcements were on their way into the area and so Crittenden, having been reinforced as well, chose to attack them before the two groups could unite. His troops set out at about 11:30 P.M. on January 19, 1862, marching through mud sometimes over a foot deep. Zollicoffer's