This is a photograph taken about halfway up Mill Creek after a mild rain. The head of Mill Creek is in Kentucky while its mouth is in Virginia. This is pretty much what it looked like for the soldiers on scout during the early 1860's. The terrain is what made the war in the mountains different than the war in the East. There was not enough flat land to line up and face each other in formation. For this reason, mountain warfare resembles most closely modern guerrilla-style warfare; one side would wait in ambush, concealed on the hillsides, for the other "scouting" on horseback along the creekbeds. Civil War scouting patrols were similar to Viet Nam-era "search and destroy" missions. (Photo by Robert M. Baker)

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