Salt River, which we found had been burnt; whether to prevent Buckner coming into Louisville, or us from going out, was not clear.  Rousseau’s Legion forded the stream and marched up to the State Camp of Instruction, finding the high trestles all secure.  The railroad hands went to work at once to rebuild the bridge.  I remained a couple of days at Lebanon Junction, during which General Anderson forwarded two regiments of volunteers that had come to him.  Before the bridge was done we advanced the whole camp to the summit of Muldraugh’s Hill, just back of Elizabethtown.  There I learned definitely that General Buckner had not crossed Green River at all, that General Sidney Johnston was fortifying Bowling Green, and preparing for a systematic advance into Kentucky, of which he was a native, and with whose people and geography he must have been familiar.  As fast as fresh troops reached Louisville, they were sent out to me at Muldraugh’s Hill, where I was endeavoring to put them into shape for service, and by the 1st of October I had the equivalent of a division of two brigades preparing to move forward toward Green River.  The daily correspondence between General Anderson and myself satisfied me that the worry and harassment at Louisville were exhausting his strength and health, and that he would soon leave.  On a telegraphic summons from him, about the 5th of October, I went down to Louisville, when General Anderson said he could not stand the mental torture of his command any longer, and that he must go away, or it would kill him.  On the 8th of October he actually published an order relinquishing the command, and, by reason of my seniority, I had no alternative but to assume command, though much against the grain, and in direct violation of Mr. Lincoln’s promise to me.  I am certain that, in my earliest communication to the War Department, I renewed the expression of my wish to remain in a subordinate position, and that I received the assurance that Brigadier-General Buell would soon arrive from California, and would be sent to relieve me.  By that time I had become pretty familiar with the geography and the general resources of Kentucky.  We had parties all over the State raising regiments and companies; but it was manifest that the young men were generally inclined to the cause of the South, while the older men of property wanted to be let alone—­i.e., to remain neutral.  As to a forward movement that fall, it was simply impracticable; for we were forced to use divergent lines, leading our columns farther and farther apart; and all I could attempt was to go on and collect force and material at the two points already chosen, viz., Dick Robinson and Elizabethtown.  General George H. Thomas still continued to command the former, and on the 12th of October I dispatched Brigadier-General A. McD.  McCook to command the latter, which had been moved forward to Nolin Creek, fifty-two miles out of Louisville, toward Bowling Green.  Staff-officers