 Buell quickly assigned Garfield the task of driving Confederate forces out of eastern Kentucky , giving him the 18th Brigade for the campaign which , besides his own 42nd , included the 40th Ohio Infantry , two Kentucky infantry regiments and two cavalry units . They departed Catlettsburg , Kentucky , in mid @-@ December , advancing through the valley of the Big Sandy River . The march was uneventful until Union forces reached Paintsville , Kentucky , on January 6 , 1862 , where Garfield 's cavalry engaged the rebels at Jenny 's Creek . Confederate troops under Brigadier General Humphrey Marshall held the town in numbers roughly equal to Garfield 's own , but Garfield positioned his troops so as to deceive Marshall into believing that rebel forces were outnumbered . Marshall ordered his troops to withdraw to the forks of Middle Creek , on the road to Virginia ; Garfield ordered his troops to pursue the Confederates . They attacked the rebel positions on January 9 , 1862 , in the Battle of Middle Creek , the only pitched battle Garfield personally commanded . At the end of the fighting , the Confederates withdrew from the field , and Garfield sent his troops to Prestonsburg to reprovision . 
