General Mahlon Manson's brigade had almost no combat experience. Its most seasoned regiment was the 18th Kentucky, whose detachments had fought at the Battle of Cynthiana in July and in skirmishes at Paris and Mount Sterling. The 55th Indiana, mustered in during June, had some training but no battle experience, and most of the other regiments in the brigade entered service less than a week before boarding trains for Kentucky on August 20, just ten days before the battle. Although a few regiments had been organizing and drilling for several months, most of the men arrived with virtually no military training, and Manson's officers began drilling them only after they reached Richmond. On August 29, 1862, Manson's Indiana regiments, the 71st, 69th, 16th, and 55th Indiana, fought well in their first action together as a brigade and drove Colonel John Scott's cavalry from the field, though for most of the men it was their first time under fire. The next day their inexperience became painfully clear as they faced an equally large but seasoned Confederate army whose men had fought together repeatedly, including at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. General Charles Cruft wrote that the men knew little of soldiers' duties and habits, could perform only some of the simplest manual movements, and knew nothing of company or battalion drill, though both officers and men were earnest and brave. Accounts from soldiers of the 12th Indiana and 95th Ohio recalled hurried rail travel in box and freight cars on the way to Kentucky. Manson led about 6,500 men, mostly inexperienced new recruits, against a similar number of veteran Confederates.