The Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky

Stuart W. Sanders

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781609498290
• eBook ISBN: 9781614239659
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

On January 19, 1862, Confederate and Union forces clashed in the now-forgotten Battle of Mill Springs. Armies of inexperienced soldiers chaotically fought in the wooded terrain of south-central Kentucky as rain turned bloodied ground to mud. Mill Springs was the first major Union victory since the Federal disaster of Bull Run. This Union triumph secured the Bluegrass State in Union hands, opening the large expanses of Tennessee for Federal invasion. From General Felix Zollicoffer meeting his death by wandering into Union lines to the heroics of General George Thomas, Civil War historian Stuart Sanders chronicles this important battle and its essential role in the war.

Chapter 1

At the end of September 1861, Ellen Wallace of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, wrote, “War and nothing but war is the order of the day.” The Bluegrass State’s short-lived neutrality had just ended, and Union and Confederate troops swarmed into the commonwealth. For those familiar with Kentucky’s political fathers, including Henry Clay and John J. Crittenden, neutrality seemed to be a sensible stance. In the past, Kentucky leaders had forged compromises to avert sectional conflict. After the 1860 election of Kentucky-born Republican president Abraham Lincoln, however, words of conciliation failed. Southern states seceded, civil war erupted and, in May 1861, Kentucky officially declared neutrality. Politicians scurried to find a solution as hundreds of Kentuckians slipped out of state to join the contending armies.⁶

In August 1861, after Unionists won a majority in the state legislature, Federal officer William “Bull” Nelson established Camp Dick Robinson, a recruiting ground in Garrard County. Nelson also distributed muskets to pro-Union residents, and these actions convinced Southerners that the Bluegrass State was slipping from their grasp. Confederate General Leonidas Polk then took Columbus, Kentucky, a strategic point on the Mississippi River. In response, Union General Ulysses S. Grant seized Paducah. On September 7, the Unionist legislature ordered the Stars and Stripes hoisted over the state capitol. Four days later, they demanded that all Southern troops leave the commonwealth.⁷

Despite legislative directives, the Confederate commander in East Tennessee, Brigadier General Felix Kirk Zollicoffer, advanced into the Bluegrass State. Born in Maury County, Tennessee, on May 19, 1812, Zollicoffer was a former newspaper editor and publisher. In 1835, he became state printer of Tennessee and married Louisa Gardner (who died in 1857, leaving Felix to raise their six children). A year later, Zollicoffer served as an officer in the Second Seminole War. Politically connected and horrifically nearsighted, Zollicoffer was Tennessee’s adjutant general, the state comptroller, a Whig legislator and a six-term congressman. In 1860, he helped organize the Constitutional Union party, supported John Bell for president and was a representative to the Washington Peace Conference, which failed to prevent the Civil War.⁸

Located in Garrard County, Kentucky, Camp Dick Robinson was an early Unionist recruiting ground. When Confederate General Felix Zollicoffer seized the Cumberland Gap, President Abraham Lincoln told a Northern governor, “I rather infer he did it because of his dread of Camp Dick Robinson.” Some of the troops organized at the camp later fought at the Battle of Mill Springs. Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society.

Confederate General Leonidas Polk seized Columbus, Kentucky, a move that Unionists believed violated Kentucky’s neutrality. Polk’s position at Columbus, a strategic point on the Mississippi River, represented the left flank of a Confederate defensive line that spanned across Kentucky. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Zollicoffer ultimately embraced secession, writing, “We must not, cannot, stand neutral and see our Southern brothers butchered.” In May 1861, he was appointed brigadier general in the Provisional Army of Tennessee. Shortly thereafter, he was sent to East Tennessee, where he worked to consolidate Confederate control of the Unionist area.⁹

Zollicoffer recognized his lack of experience. That September, he wrote that “the responsibility is great. I feel my want of experience and knowledge of war for so large a command.” Despite service in the Seminole War, Zollicoffer embodied the Civil War’s numerous “political generals,” who were, thanks to their antebellum political influence, appointed as officers. Historian Stanley Horn noted that the Tennessean “was totally lacking in military experience, and he had no formal training in that art…Zollicoffer was a valiant, magnetic, patriotic man, but as a commanding officer he was in a role for which he was unfitted.” Despite his inexperience, Zollicoffer took the offensive.¹⁰

Confederate General Felix Zollicoffer was a prominent newspaper editor and politician in Tennessee before the Civil War. Zollicoffer commanded Rebel troops in East Tennessee and eastern Kentucky. He was killed at the Battle of Mill Springs. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

When Kentucky’s neutrality ended, Unionists worked to gain control of the state. The Federal army moved its regional headquarters from Cincinnati to Louisville, and on September 10, Brigadier General George H. Thomas replaced “Bull” Nelson as commander of Camp Dick Robinson. Union soldier John Tuttle wrote, “The men had come to love General Nelson with all his brusque manners and were not well pleased with the change.”¹¹

Because of Thomas’s Southern birth, Unionists eyed him with suspicion. Born in Southampton County, Virginia, on July 31, 1816, Thomas graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Appointed second lieutenant in the 3^rd U.S. Artillery, Thomas fought Seminoles in Florida and was recognized for gallantry during the Mexican War. Later, Thomas taught at West Point and fought Native Americans on the frontier. Although he was a Virginian, he remained loyal to the Union and led a brigade in his home state in early 1861. That August, he was appointed brigadier general and was sent to the Bluegrass State. Upon his arrival at Camp Dick Robinson, he whipped the recruits into shape and prepared for a campaign into East Tennessee.¹²

Union General George H. Thomas led the Federal army at the Battle of Mill Springs. A Virginia native, Thomas’s loyalty to the Union was confirmed after he led his troops to victory there. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston commanded Department No. 2, a massive territory that spanned from the Appalachian Mountains beyond the Mississippi River. Johnston was later killed at the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The Confederates also worked to strengthen their influence in Kentucky. On September 10, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston was named commander of Department No. 2, a massive territory that spanned from the Appalachian Mountains beyond the Mississippi River. Four days later, Zollicoffer fortified the Cumberland Gap, the mountain pass that linked Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia. He then moved troops to Cumberland Ford, located at present-day Pineville. Aware that Union troops were “threatening the invasion of East Tennessee,” Zollicoffer told Kentucky governor Beriah Magoffin that he had seized the gap as a “precautionary movement” for “the safety of Tennessee.” President Lincoln understood Zollicoffer’s motives, telling a Northern governor, “I rather infer he did it because of his dread of Camp Dick Robinson.”¹³

The Confederates soon advanced into Kentucky en masse. With Polk on the Mississippi River and Zollicoffer at Cumberland Ford, Johnston ordered General Simon B. Buckner to seize Bowling Green. The move established a Confederate defensive line across southern Kentucky. Polk held the left flank at Columbus, Buckner protected the center at Bowling Green and Zollicoffer held the right flank in eastern Kentucky with four thousand soldiers. Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River in Tennessee provided extra support. Because the Confederates guarded a wide front, their four-hundred-mile line was tenuous at best. Moreover, Zollicoffer’s position was weakened because many of the troops were poorly armed. In fact, antiquated weaponry helped doom the Confederate army at Mill Springs.¹⁴

Zollicoffer, who commanded 128 miles of the line, did not maintain a defensive posture. On September 19, he sent eight hundred Confederates to Barbourville, drove off the Union Home Guard and destroyed their camp. Shortly thereafter, Zollicoffer’s troops bested Unionists in Laurel County and advanced into Clay County, where they sacked the Goose Creek Salt Works and took two hundred barrels of salt back to Cumberland Ford.¹⁵

After the Rebels struck Goose Creek, Thomas sent the 7^th Kentucky Infantry and the 1^st Kentucky Cavalry to the Rockcastle Hills near London, roughly thirty miles northwest of the salt works. There, they established Camp Wildcat. Located on a mountain near the road that connected the Cumberland Gap to central Kentucky, the troops at Camp Wildcat were to blunt any Confederate advance.¹⁶

In late 1862, artist Henry Moesler described the camp. “The scenery here is so beautiful and picturesque that my feeble thoughts and language cannot express,” Moesler wrote. “Lofty & high Hills with beautifull [sic] Cliffs, nearly upright now and then sprinkled with a spot of Beautifull foliage.” Nearly twelve months earlier, crackling volleys of musketry had shattered this idyllic scene.¹⁷

Zollicoffer decided to rout the enemy at Camp Wildcat before advancing into central Kentucky. With more than 3,500 troops, he fortified the passes around Cumberland Gap and then marched northward. On October 14, Brigadier General Albin Schoepf and the 14^th Ohio, 17^th Ohio and 33^rd Indiana infantry regiments, and Battery B of the 1^st Ohio Artillery reinforced Camp Wildcat. One member of the 1^st Kentucky Cavalry called Schoepf “a Hungarian by birth, [and] a fine looking man, rather youthful looking for the position, and clean shaven, with the exception of a long waxed moustache parted in the middle, which gave him, notwithstanding his pleasant manners, a fierce warlike appearance.” The Union troops needed more than looks, however, for the Confederates appeared at Camp Wildcat on October 21.¹⁸

Schoepf kept most of his command at the main campsite, but he posted four companies of the 33^rd Indiana and the 1^st Kentucky Cavalry on a ridge a half-mile away. Trooper Eastham Tarrant recalled that “a deep hollow” separated the two Union positions. When Zollicoffer reached the base of the mountain, he attacked the 33^rd Indiana and 1^st Kentucky Cavalry with the 11^th and 17^th Tennessee infantry regiments. Tarrant peered down into “a narrow valley…[and] the whole bottom field…seemed to be swarming with live Rebels, on the march to attack our position.” Repulsed, the Southerners then struck the main Union camp. Although the Confederates got to within fifty yards of the Federal line, they failed to take Camp Wildcat.¹⁹

Confederate General Felix Zollicoffer seized and later fortified the Cumberland Gap, the mountain pass that links Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. This image shows the Cumberland Gap in 1862. Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society.

Ample cover in the mountainous terrain kept casualties low. It is likely that the Confederates lost eleven killed and forty-two wounded while the Federals suffered six killed and twenty-three wounded. Although Zollicoffer cancelled his invasion of central Kentucky, he hoped to renew the offensive. Tuttle remarked that Thomas assumed that Zollicoffer “had only fallen back to take a fresh start” and that the Rebel commander would “invade the state at some part farther west.” Therefore, Thomas shifted his command to meet that threat. The Union officer moved his headquarters from Camp Dick Robinson to Crab Orchard, twenty-five miles to the south. He also deployed Schoepf to Somerset to watch Zollicoffer.²⁰

This map from Harper’s Weekly details important points related to the Mill Springs campaign, including Camp Dick Robinson, Somerset, London and Mill Springs. Courtesy of the author.

Having returned to Tennessee, Zollicoffer thought that the Federals would advance toward Albany or Monticello, Kentucky. Therefore, he shifted his command westward. He wrote to Johnston, “I propose to take and strengthen a position between Monticello and Somerset, Kentucky, giving us facilities for commanding the Cumberland River, the coal region supplying Nashville, &c.”²¹

On November 12, Brigadier Gene...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Notes
• A Note on Sources
• About the Author