Here's another part of this story:

Col. Scott captured a black man near Tuscumbia and threatened to hang him as a Yankee spy. When the man pleaded innocence, Scott eventually agreed to release him. There was one condition: the fugitive must promise to say nothing about a strong Confederate force under Van Dorn and Price, just a few miles away and preparing to attack.

Shortly after the man's release, Federal troops in Tuscumbia reported a major Confederate column moving to strike them. Scott's bold attack simply confirmed this report. The Yankees made a forced march east across Town Creek and beyond, not feeling safe until they were across the Tennessee River at Decatur with the great railroad bridge in flames behind them. Loss of this bridge (and the one at Florence) greatly hampered Federal operations that summer. When Buell's army arrived during mid-June 1862, troops and supplies had to be transported over the Tennessee River by ferry, and not by rail.

Fear of Price and Van Dorn also helped to create another panic at Athens. On May 1st the boom of Scott's howitzers outside town convinced Col. Timothy R. Stanley of the 18th Ohio (a regiment organized in Athens OH) that unless his men left in great haste, they would be surrounded and captured. In the midst of the rout Stanley's division commander,Gen. Ormsby Mitchel, happened to arrive at the Athens depot. He ordered the engineer to make steam and reverse out of the station. Confederates pursued Mitchel's engine along the rail line: south towards Decatur, then northeast towards Huntsville. Scott's men burned the trestle over Limestone Creek, causing the bridge to collapse and wrecking one of Mitchel's trains that attempted to cross it.

The 18th Ohio actually outnumbered the force available in Scott's 1st Louisiana Cavalry, a fact not known to the Federals until later. In the language of that time, Stanley had been 'hurrahed' out of Athens, just as Mitchel had been 'hurrahed' into burning a bridge that would have been vital to the Union cause that summer.

A little explanation will follow in another post.

Gen. Mitchel and Col. Turchin recognized the ruse played on Stanley, leaving both men in a bad humor. Also, Mitchel was convinced that Scott's command was actually a band of local guerrillas, men pretending to be peaceful planters and farmers who took up arms for a few hours only. Mitchel described others who claimed to be Confederate volunteers as 'free-booters'.