MILITARY MOVEMENTS IN EASTERN KENTUCKY. 193 about ten miles farther east, with a considerable force, and Mitchel's was held as a reserve to aid McCook in his contemplated attack on Hindman, at Cave City. General Thomas was at Columbia, midway between Bowling Green on the west, and Somerset on the east, and Crittenden was in the extreme eastern part of the State, in the direction of Cumberland Gap. a January, To General Thomas was assigned the duty of attacking the Confederates at Beech Grove and Mill Spring, where, at the middle of January, there were about ten thousand effective men, with nearly twenty pieces of artillery. If successful there, Thomas was to push on over the Cumberland Mountains into the great valley of East Tennessee, seize the railway that traversed that region, and afforded quick communication between the Confederate armies in the West and in Virginia, and liberate the East Tennesseeans from their terrible thrall. It was a great work to be performed, and Thomas was precisely the man for the task. He entered upon it with alacrity. He divided his force, giving a smaller portion to the care of General Schoepf at Somerset, while he led the remainder in person, in a flank movement from Columbia, by way of Jamestown. He reached Logan's Cross Roads, ten miles from Beech Grove, on the 17th, where, during the prevalence of a heavy rain-storm, he gathered his troops and made disposition for an immediate attack. In the mean time the Confederates had left their intrenchments, and had marched to meet him. General Crittenden, satisfied that Zollicoffer's position was untenable against superior numbers,' had determined to take the offensive. The Fishing Creek, which lay between the forces of Thomas and Schoepf, was so swollen by the rain that he hoped to strike the Nationals before these divisions could unite. He called a council of war on the evening of the 18th, when it was unanimously agreed to make the attack. Zollicoffer was immediately ordered to lead the column. He started at midnight, Carroll's Brigade following his. Following these as a reserve were the Sixteenth Alabama, Colonel Wood, and Branner's and McClellan's battalions of cavalry. The whole force was between four and five thousand strong. At early dawn, Zollicoffer's advance met the Union pickets. 3 1862. General Thomas had been advised of this movement. He had made dispositions accordingly, and the pickets, encountered by the Confederate vanguard, were of Woolford's cavalry. These fell slowly back, and Woolford reported to Colonel M. D. Manson, of the Tenth Indiana, who was in command of the Second Brigade, stationed in advance of the main body. That officer formed his own and the Fourth Kentucky (Colonel S. S. Fry) in battle order, at the junction of the Somerset and Mill Spring Roads, 1 The line of intrenchments was so extensive that the force was not sufficient to defend it thoroughly. The face of the country was such that there was bad range for artillery. At the same time, the country around the post could not furnish adequate subsistence for the army. At the time in question, the troops were reduced to a single ration of beef and a half ration of corn a day, the latter being parched, and not issued as meal. 2 Correspondence of the Louisville Courier, by an eye-witness, January 25th, 1862. * Zollicoffer's Brigade was composed of the Fifteenth Mississippi, and the Tennessee regiments of Colonels Cummings, Battle, and Stanton, marching in the order here named, with four guns commanded by Captain Rutledge, immediately in the rear of the Mississippians. Carroll's troops were composed of the Tennessee regiments of Colonels Newman, Murray, and Powell, with two guns commanded by Captain McClung, marching in the order named. Colonel Wood's Sixteenth Alabama was in reserve. Cavalry battalions in the rear; Colonel Branner on the right, and Colonel McClellan on the left. Independent companies in front of the advance regiments. Following the whole were ambulances, and ammunition and other wagons. VOL II.-51 194 BATTLE OF MILL SPRING. about five miles from the latter place, to await attack, and then sent a courier to inform Thomas of the situation. The commanding general hastened forward to view the position, when he found the Confederates advancing through a corn-field, to flank the Fourth Kentucky. He immediately ordered up the Tennessee brigade and a section of artillery, and sent orders for Colonel R. L. McCook to advance with his two regiments (Ninth Ohio, Major Kæmmerling, and Second Minnesota, Colonel H. P. Van Cleve) to the support of the vanguard. NATIONAL CAMPO TOWN STANDARTS 4TH KENTUCKY 2MINNESOTA LOGAN'S 10TH INDIANA www KINNEY'S The battle was opened at about six o'clock by the Kentucky and Ohio regiments, and Captain Kinney's Battery, stationed on the edge of the field, to the left of the Fourth Kentucky. It was becoming very warm when McCook's reserves came up to the support of the Nationals. Then the Confederates opened a most galling fire upon the little line, which made it waver. At that moment it was strengthened by the arrival of the Twelfth Kentucky, Colonel W. A. Hoskins, and the Tennessee Brigade, who joined in the fight. The conflict became very severe, and for a time it was doubtful which side would bear off the palm of victory. The Nationals had fallen back, and were hotly contesting the possession of a commanding hill, with Zollicoffer's Brigade, when that General, who was at the head of his column, and near the crest with Colonel Battle's regiment, was killed. The Confederate General Crittenden immediately took his place, and, with the assistance of Carroll's Brigade, continued the struggle for the hill for almost two hours. But the galling fire of the Second Minnesota, and a heavy charge of the Ninth Ohio with bayonets on the Confederate flank, com COFEDERATE CAVALRY ZOLLIGOPPER CONFEDERA ARTILLERY CAVALRY UNION MAP OF THE BATTLE OF MILL SPRING.1 pelled the latter to give way, and they retreated toward their camp at Beech Grove, in great confusion, pursued by the victorious Nationals to the summit of Moulden's Hill. From that commanding point Standart's and Wetmore's Batteries could sweep the Confederate works, while Kinney's Battery, stationed near Russell's house on the extreme left, opened fire upon the ferry, to prevent the Confederates from escaping across the Cumberland. Such was the situation on Sunday evening," at the close of the Jan. 19, battle, when Thomas was joined by the Fourteenth Ohio, Colonel Stedman, and the Tenth Kentucky, Colonel Harlan; also by General 1862. 1 REFERENCES.-The figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, refer to the first and succeeding positions of the Tenth Indiana Regiment in the battle; 8, denotes the second position of the Fourth Kentucky; 9, the second position of the Second Minnesota; 10, the third position of the same; and 11, the second position of the Ninth Ohio. RESULT OF THE BATTLE OF MILL SPRING. 1 195 Schoepf, with the Seventeenth, Thirty-first, and Thirty-eighth Ohio. Disposition was made early the next morning to assault the Confederate intrenchments, when it was ascertained that the works were abandoned. The beleaguered troops had fled in silence across the river, under cover of the darkness, abandoning every thing in their camp, and destroying the steamer Noble Ellis (which had come up the river with supplies), and three flat-boats, which had carried them safely over the stream. Destitute of provisions and forage, the sadly-smitten Confederates were partially dispersed among the hills on the borders of Kentucky and Tennessee, while seeking both. Crittenden retreated first to Monticello, and then continued his flight until he reached Livingston and Gainesborough, in the direction of Nashville, in order to be in open communication with head-quarters at the latter place, and to guard the Cumberland as far above it as possible. Thus ended the BATTLE OF MILL SPRING (which has been also called the Battle of Beech Grove, Fishing Creek, and Somerset), with a loss to the Nationals of two hundred and forty-seven, of whom thirty-nine were killed, and two hundred and eight were wounded; and to the Confederates of three hundred and forty-nine, of whom one hundred and ninety-two were killed, sixty-two were wounded, and eighty-nine were made prisoners. Among the killed, as we have seen, was General Zollicoffer, whose loss, at that time, was irreparable. The spoils of victory for Thomas were twelve pieces of artillery, with three. caissons packed, two army forges, one battery wagon, a large amount of ammunition and small arms, more than a thousand horses and mules, wagons, commissary stores, intrenching tools, 3 ARMY FORGE 1 Some accounts say that the Ellis was set on fire by the shells of the Nationals, but the preponderance of testimony is in favor of the statement in the text. The Confederates hoped to prevent immediate pursuit by leaving nothing on which their foe could cross the river. The Confederates suffered terribly in their retreat. "Since Saturday night," wrote one of their officers, "we had but an hour of sleep, and scarcely a morsel of food. For a whole week we have been marching under a bare subsistence, and I have at length approached that point in a soldier's career when a handful of parched corn may be considered a first-class dinner. We marched the first few days through a barren region, where supplies could not be obtained. I have more than once seen the men kill a porker with their guns, cut and quarter it, and broil it on the coals, and then eat it without bread or salt. The suffering of the men from the want of the necessaries of life, of clothing, and of repose, has been most intense, and a more melancholy spectacle than this solemn, hungry, and weary procession, could scarcely be imagined." 2 Zollicoffer was killed by Colonel Fry, of the Fourth Kentucky. That officer, according to his own statement in a letter to his wife, was leading his regiment in a charge upon the Mississippians, when he was mistaken for a Confederate officer by Zollicoffer. The latter rode up to Fry, saying, as he pointed toward the Mississippians, "You are not going to fight your friends, are you?" At that instant Zollicoffer's aid, Major Henry M. Fogg, of Nashville, fired at Fry, wounding his horse. Fry turned and fired, killing Zollicoffer, not knowing at the time his person or his rank. He was covered in a white rubber coat, and on the previous evening had his beard shaved off, so as not to be easily recognized. The aid of Zollicoffer was mortally wounded at the same time. Zo:licoffer's body was taken to Mumfordsville, and sent by a flag of truce to General Hindman. It was honored with a funeral salute at the National camp when it was carried over Green River. The army forge is a part of the equipment of a corps of artillery or cavalry in the field, and is portable. It consists of a four-wheeled carriage, with compartments in which a blacksmith's outfit of fuel and implements may be carried, and may be made ready for use in the course of half an hour. The fore and the hind wheels of the carriage may be separated-" unlimbered "-the same as those of a cannon. Attached to the fore wheels are 196 BEAUREGARD SENT TO THE WEST. and camp equipage. The men in their flight left almost every thing behind them, except the clothing on their persons.' This victory was considered one of the most important that had yet been achieved by the National arms. It broke the line of the Confederates in Kentucky, opened a door of deliverance for East Tennessee, and prepared the way for that series of successful operations by which very soon afterward the invaders were expelled from both States. The Government and the loyal people hailed the tidings of the triumph with great joy. The Secretary of War, by order of the President, issued an order announcing the event, and publicly thanking the officers and soldiers who had achieved the victory. He declared the purpose of the war to be " to pursue and destroy a rebellious enemy, and to deliver the country from danger;" and concluded by saying, "In the prompt and spirited movements and daring at Mill Spring, the nation will realize its hopes," and "delight to honor its brave soldiers." The defeat was severely felt by the Confederates; for they were wise enough to understand its significance, prophesying, as it truly did, of further melancholy disasters to their cause. The conspirators perceived the urgent necessity for a bold, able, and dashing commander in the West, and believing a Jan. 27, 1862. Beauregard to be such an one, he was ordered to Johnston's Department, and General G. W. Smith, who had been an active democratic politician in New York city, was appointed to succeed him at Manassas. Crittenden was handled without mercy by the critics. He was accused of treachery by some, and others, more charitable, charged the loss of the battle to his drunkenness. All were compelled to acknowledge a serious disaster, and from it drew the most gloomy conclusions. Their despondency was deepened by the blow received by the Confederate cause at Roanoke Island soon afterward;3 and the feeling became one of almost despair, when, a few days later, events of still greater importance, and more withering to their hopes, which we are about to consider, occurred on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.* So active and skillful had Johnston been in his Department, in strengthening his irregular line of posts and fortifications for nearly four hundred the boxes for supplies and tools, and to the rear wheels the bellows and forge, as seen in the engraving. When needed for use, the anvil is taken out and placed on a block made from any neighboring tree, and the work may be speedily begun. 1 Report of General Thomas to General Buell, dated at Somerset, Kentucky, Jan. 31, 1862; also the reports of his subordinate officers. 2 On leaving the army at Manassas, Beauregard issued a characteristic address to them, telling them he hoped soon to be back among them. "I am anxious," he said, "that my brave countrymen here in arms, fronting the haughty array and muster of Northern mercenaries, should thoroughly appreciate the exigency." Alluding to their disquietude because of long inaction, and the disposition to give up, he said it was no time for the men of the Potomac army "to stack their arms, and furl, even for a brief period, the standards they had made glorious by their manhood.” See page 178. 4 These are remarkable rivers. The Tennessee rises in the rugged valleys of Southwestern Virginia, between the Alleghany and Cumberland Mountains, having tributaries coming out of North Carolina and Georgia. It sweeps in an immense curve through Northern Alabama for nearly three hundred miles, from its northeast to its northwest corner, and then entering Tennessee, passes through it in a due north course, when, bending a little near the Kentucky border, it traverses that State in a northwesterly direction, and falls into the Ohio seventy miles above its mouth. It drains an area of forty thousand square miles, and is navigable for small vessels to Knoxville, five hundred miles from its mouth. The Cumberland River rises on the western slopes of the Cumberland Mountains, in Eastern Kentucky, sweeps around into Middle Tennessee, and turning northward, in a course generally parallel to the Tennessee River, falls into the Ohio. It is navigable for large steamboats two hundred and fifty miles, and for smaller ones, at high water, nearly three hundred miles farther. THE CONFEDERATES IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE. 197 miles across Southern Kentucky, and within the Tennessee border from Cumberland Gap to Columbus on the Mississippi, that when General Thomas had accomplished the first part of the work he was sent to perform, it was thought expedient not to push farther, seriously, in the direction of East Tennessee just at that time. It was evident that the Confeder ates were preparing to make an effort to seize Louisville, Paducah, Smithville, and Cairo, on the Ohio, in order to command the most important land and water highways in Kentucky, so as to make it the chief battleground in the West, as Virginia was in the East, and keep the horrors of war from the soil of the more Southern States. As Charleston was defended on the REGION OF MILITARY MOVEMENTS IN BASTERN KENTUCKY.1 Potomac, so New Orleans was to be defended by carrying the war up to the banks of the Ohio. Looking at a map of Kentucky and Virginia, and considering the attitude of the contending forces in each at that time, the reader may make a striking parallelism which a careful writer on the subject has pointed out.2 Governed by a military necessity, which changing circumstances had created, it was determined to concentrate the forces of Halleck and Buell in a grand forward movement against the main bodies and fortifications of the Confederates. Thomas's victory at Mill Spring had so paralyzed that line eastward of Bowling Green, that it was practically shortened at least onehalf. Crittenden, as we have observed, had made his way toward Nashville, and left the Cumberland almost unguarded above that city; yet so mountainous was that region, and so barren of subsistence, that a flank move As 1 For an account of other movements in Eastern Kentucky, see Chapter III. of this volume. 2 "If Washington was threatened in the one quarter, Louisville was the object of attack on the other. Fortress Monroe was a great basis of operations at one extremity, furnishing men and arms, so was Cairo on the west; and as the one had a menacing neighbor in Norfolk, so had the other in Columbus. What the line of the Kanawha was to Northern Virginia, penetrating the mountainous region, the Big Sandy, with its tributaries emptying also in the Ohio, was to the defiles of Eastern Kentucky. What Manassas or Richmond was, in one quarter, to the foe, Bowling Green, a great railway center, was to the other. As Virginia was pierced on the east by the James and the Rappahannock and the York, so was Kentucky on the west by the Cumberland and Tennessee; and as the Unionists held Newport News [Newport-Newce], a point of great strategic importance at the mouth of one of these streams, so were they in possession of Paducah, a place of equal or greater advantage, at the entrance to another."-History of the War for the Union, by E. A. Duyckinck. |