Let's take a look at things from the point of view of Knoxville. Diplomatic negotiations are breaking down, and you doubt the Kingsportians are stupid enough to march to war over tiny little Sneedville. Yet caution dictates that you formulate a plan just in case the Kingsport War Party gets their way. Here is a map that shows the distribution of your forces, as well as the likely mustering points of the enemy (the flags).
As this post goes live, my initial thoughts on mustering Knoxville are presented in the "Armies of Knoxville" page. Plan MW had them getting the biggest possible armies together in Tazewell and Jefferson City as fast as possible, with a reserve force up in Pineville and a strong counter-punching force in Kodak.
Looking at the situation again, a couple of possibilities present themselves:
- Harlan and Evarts can throw together an understrength regiment of foot (600 men) with two full regiments of horse (1500). Why not send all those men and half the horse on a wild left hook into Big Stone Gap? A small spoiler force would take a long time to develop, but the run down to Kingsport would force the enemy keep a big part of his force behind.
- Consolidating everything from Tazewell North into the fortress behind the Cumberland Gap. (For those who don't know, the city of Middlesboro sits right at the mouth of one of the more important passes through a 1200-foot high ridgeline.) Pull everything in the south into two groups - one in Jefferson City and one in Kodak. That would provide three strong forces to begin the arduous task of pushing the enemy out of Knoxville territory, instead of four smaller forces.
