The Federal Counter-Attack
General George Thomas arrived to find Manson’s two regiments and Wolford’s Cavalry fighting an assault from a cornfield, their right about to be overlapped. Wolford rode up to him and shouted, “General, the men in your front are nearly out of ammunition!” Thomas responded, “Tell them to hold their line; that McCook is coming up on their right.” He furthermore made sure that the 9th Ohio, his best trained regiment, would anchor the critical right flank. The 9th Ohio consisted of German immigrants who had served in European armies. Colonel Robert McCook, their brigade commander, had in fact once personally created and led their regiment. He believed that a unit made up entirely of German military veterans would be among the best in the army. General George McClellan, who managed the Ohio and western Virginia theater at the start of the war, agreed and once stated that the 9th Ohio was the best he had “seen in either Europe or America.” In addition to advancing the infantry, Thomas masterfully redeployed his artillery. The general hurried forward Captain Kenny’s battery and placed it on the left of the 4th Kentucky. Kenny’s gunners “opened an efficient fire.” The bulk of the 10th Indiana replenished its ammunition. Now Thomas sent them to the left of the 4th Kentucky.[1]
The timing of Thomas’ arrival contributed to a controversy that arose after the battle. In his report Thomas said he arrived to find the 10th Indiana standing close to their camp while the 4th Kansas was fighting at the front. Colonel McCook negatively reported that the 2nd Minnesota found its path obstructed by scattered Indianans, all in need of ammunition. By contrast Manson claimed that the 10th Indiana held the enemy in check for an hour. He got this information from Kise, colonel of the 10th Indiana. Because Kise’s report contradicted other regimental reports, he actually faced a court-martial for falsifying his report. Veterans of the 10th Indiana, their own honor at stake, denied these accusations. Their regimental history of course made the boast that “for an hour and a quarter the regiment fought and no help from the rear.” Stuart W. Sanders, who wrote the sesquicentennial history of the battle, offered an explanation as to why the reports contradicted each other. He believes that other regiments tried to prop up their own roles in the fight while also evading criticism for not reinforcing Kise earlier. He points out that letters from soldiers right after the battle, as well as enemy reports, clearly established that the 10th Indiana held Zollicoffer at bay for at least 45 minutes. My limited research for this post leads me to agree, as several Confederate reports clearly mentioned that their advances were checked by the 10th Indiana. Also in the Hoosiers’ defense they were in desperate need of ammunition and in little condition to be holding the front at that point. They were close to camp because that was where more ammunition could be found.[2]
Going
back to the battle as it occurred, the 4th Kentucky pitted their
bayonets against the Mississippians and their knives. Their bayonets, fixed to
rifles, out-ranged the knives. In the back of the Confederate line Carroll’s
brigade finally marched into battle. Crittenden had been conspicuously absent
from the battle and had allowed Carroll to sit in reserve while Zollicoffer
made his series of failed assaults. Carroll finally made a move and put his
regiment into line southeast of the log cabin, the 17th and 27th
Tennessee in front and the 29th behind. The 17th
Tennessee got 90 yards within the Federal line and fired their muskets. They
had ended up in an open field with only stumps and fallen trees for cover. They
went into a prone position for the following shootout. A scared rabbit ran down
a lieutenant’s back and tried to hide in his shirt. The officer shouted in
terror until a soldier took the critter out and informed “it is only a rabbit,
and not a cannon-ball.”[3]
 |
| Colonel Robert McCook |
McCook’s
brigade finally came into line. Under Thomas’ direction, he sent the 2nd
Minnesota to the left to support Manson’s units. The right flank of the 2nd
Minnesota found itself within 10 feet of the enemy. McCook directed his favored 9th
Ohio through two corn fields to a fence on the right flank. Company K of the 9th
went into a skirmish line in the woods to prevent any possible flank attack
while Company G stayed in camp. The 9th Ohio prevented a flank
attack on the 2nd Minnesota, its left wing pushing the Rebels back
to piles of straw and fence rails.[4]
Immediately
after the reinforcements formed into position, “the enemy opened a most
determined and galling fire, which was returned by our troops in the same
spirit, and for nearly half an hour the contest was maintained on both sides in
the most obstinate manner.” Early on a bullet went through the right leg of
McCook, tearing part of it off. His horse was killed and he had to walk on his
wounded limb. A doctor reported that McCook acted completely unfazed by his
wound.[5]
The
2nd Minnesota fought the enemy along a rail fence. One veteran
described the scene. “The trees were flecked with bullets and the underbrush
was cutaway as with a scythe, the dead and wounded lay along the fence, on one
side the blue, on the other the gray.” The Minnesotans and Mississippians
collided along the rail fence. They poked guns between the rails to fire at or
bayonet each other. They were close enough that one Minnesotan was able to yank
an opponent’s rifle. While struggling over the gun, they both fired and killed
each other. The Minnesotans won this slugfest, though the enemy “retired in good
order” to rail piles and were replaced by the 20th Tennessee. The
Tennesseans also withdrew after a heavy fight. Bailie Peyton Jr., the Rebel son
of a prominent Tennessee Unionist, did not join his men, either ignorant or
audaciously brave. The Federals called on him to surrender. Peyton instead
raised his pistol and wounded Lieutenant Tenbroeck Strout. As Strout fell the
Minnesotans gunned down the defiant lieutenant, sending a bullet through his
left eye.[6]
Back
on the left, the reformed 10th Indiana worked with part of the 4th
Kansas to repel another assault. The Indianans had been ordered forward before
everyone got fresh ammunition so some men were again without the ability to
fire. The Confederates refocused their attack on the 4th Kentucky’s
right. General Thomas responded by shifting the Indianans back to the right of
Fry’s men. Thomas expected Carter’s brigade to arrive shortly and anchor the
left. This part of the battle was the heaviest in terms of numbers involved. No
unit had left the fight, with even pickets from the initial shooting still
engaged in battle. The rough terrain, thick brush, and morning fog created a
vivid scene for the combatants. The history of the 1st Kentucky
Cavalry poetically described, “Owing to the dark foggy morning, and the
thinness of the atmosphere, the smoke of the conflict hovered down over the
contestants like a pall, as if to shroud the bloody carnage.”[7]
To
the west, McCook decided that the log house and its accompanying structures
were the key to the Rebel line and ordered four companies of the 9th
Ohio to attempt a flanking maneuver against it. Carroll, commanding the
Confederate left, saw this attempt and moved to check it. He found the 19th
Tennessee from the deceased Zollicoffer’s brigade standing still and personally
assumed command of it. He had it move to the furthest left of his flank, so
that his line now equally matched the Federals’. Temporarily stymied,
Kammerling opted for a more frontal approach, a bayonet charge to put pressure
on the opposing left flank. “The order was given the regiment to empty their
guns and fix bayonets…Every man sprang to it with alacrity and vociferous
cheering, the enemy seemingly prepared to resist it, but before the regiment
reached him the lines commenced to give way.”[8]
 |
| A Currier & Ives lithograph based on the 9th Ohio's charge |
To the east Carter’s brigade finally arrived. The 1st Tennessee and 12th Kentucky led the way, the men in the former “imprudently” giving out a cheer and revealing their position in the woods. Confederate artillery fired in their direction, but missed. Carter urged his men forward, even asking them to traverse a steep ravine. Officers had to dismount their horses so they could work their way across with their men. Carter’s men fired into the right flank of the Rebel infantry and captured many prisoners, including a Lieutenant-Colonel Carter from the 20th Tennessee (CSA).[9]
The
Confederates’ failing line, in spite of larger numbers, could mainly be
attributed to their poor weaponry Rain continually came during the battle,
rendering the flintlocks in the Confederate ranks useless. Many soldiers,
finding their guns useless, walked off the field. The history of Company A, 20th
Tennessee stated, “Our men lost much time in drawing loads from their guns, the
powder having gotten wet in the rain. Many of them never fired a dozen shots.”
W.J. Worsham of the 19th Tennessee saw several break their useless
rifles over a fence in anger. The ruined ammunition further aided the big
Federal charge. Carroll sent up the 17th and 25th
Tennessee to stem the Union tide. However so many muskets were out of operation
that they quickly fell back.[10]
Kise
was reforming the 10th Indiana’s original line. As he did so he
ordered a cease-fire because he could not make out a collection of figures in
front. A “blast of wind” pushed back the smoke and revealed more Confederates
bunched around a flag. The Indianans fired and killed and wounded many of them.
Kise then ordered a bayonet charge and joined in the pursuit. They encountered
another Confederate line on a fenced hill. Another furious, close-quarters
struggle ensued. One corporal, Solomon Stafford, hit a Confederate with the
butt of his musket. The Rebel still showed signs of life and Stafford bayoneted
him. The man screamed, “for God’s sake don’t kill me.” Stafford, his blood up,
answered, “God damn you, it is too late to talk now.” Stafford later insisted
that “he would have killed me if I had not killed him.” The Confederates fell
back again and the Indianans came upon another terrible sight. Kise wrote, “when
we arrived at the fence in our front many of the enemy were found lingering in
the corners, and were bayoneted by my men between the rails.”[11]
Having
failed to halt the Federals with two of his regiments, Carroll now sent the 29th
Tennessee under Colonel Samuel Powell to a hill at the edge of the woods. They
waited for the arrival of the 9th Ohio. When the German-American
unit crossed the road and came within a short distance, the Tennesseans
unleashed a volley. Colonel Powell tried to join in the shooting, but learned
that his arm had been “shattered” and he thus could not raise his pistol. The
29th Tennessee bought time for the 15th Mississippi and
20th Tennessee to escape past their right, then retreated
themselves.[12]
Thomas
briefly halted his force so that it could reorganize and receive ammunition.
After they resumed their advance they encountered some cavalry which Standart’s
battery quickly dispersed. Wolford’s 1st Kentucky cavalrymen joined
the pursuit, but dismounted, likely because of the terrain. From the
Confederate side Wood’s Alabamans, which had been in reserve, rushed forward
and managed to provide some cover fire. Ultimately, however, they accomplished
little.[13]
The
Confederates were in such a rout that they left a trail of weapons and
equipment for the pursuers to follow. One Union Kentuckian, Green Clay,
excitedly wrote his father, “I suppose such a complete rout never was known to any army.” The famished Federals were
suspicious at the many haversacks they found along the route of retreat. Rumors
had spread that the Rebels liked to poison their food and water and leave them
for the enemy. However, seeing that there were so many haversacks of edibles,
Thomas’ men overcame their groundless fears and engorged themselves.[14]
The
disorganized Confederates were unable to mount another line of defense at
Moulden’s Hill, “a quite formidable” ridge already lined with entrenchments.
Worse for the defeated, the ridge overlooked their camp and the Federal
artillerists wasted no time in deploying their guns along the height. Upon
reaching the enemy’s camp, Thomas ordered his them to bombard the
entrenchments. Kenny’s battery formed on his extreme left near the Russell
House, from where he could bombard their ferry and hopefully prevent their
escape. The Federal guns briefly dueled with their Confederate opponents, their
16 guns against only a handful of opposing pieces. They aimed for the steamboat
Noble Ellis, but their shots fell
short. Crittenden later wrote that if they had succeeded in smashing the boat
apart, escape would have been impossible. The rest of Thomas’ force came up and
took position in the woods. Having missed out on the fighting, units such as
the 10th Kentucky awaited their taste of action in a morning
assault.[15]
Secession Leave Kentucky
With
low rations and malfunctioning weapons, Crittenden decided upon a retreat
across the Cumberland. The evacuation began that night. The extrication of the Confederate
force was difficult thanks to the steep and now very muddy bank and the scarce
number of boats. First he had the infantry cross, then the artillery, then
whatever supplies they could take with them. The cavalry would be able to cross
with their horses. The evacuation did not go to plan. Many of the cavalrymen
had to abandon their mounts, and eleven pieces of artillery in addition to much
other equipment were also left behind. Captain Siller of the cavalry took
charge of the flatboats, working nonstop to ferry men across even in the
morning when the Federals resumed their fire. The soldiers further lamented
that they were ordered across just as their hot biscuits and coffee was ready.
The Federals were not blind to the movement on the river, with the Noble Ellis too large to miss. The
darkness was thick enough that they could not tell if the steamer was
evacuating Crittenden’s men or bringing in more reinforcements from Tennessee.
The Noble Ellis was remembered fondly
by the Rebels, with one regimental history declaring “Her presence was our
salvation.” The fate of the various boats are unclear. The Federals claimed to
have devastated them with their artillery, while the Confederates stated that
they burned them to prevent any pursuit.[16]
The
next morning the guns continued to blast away at Beech Grove. Then the infantry
advanced. On reaching the entrenchments they found that “the enemy had
abandoned everything.” Manson reported, “the panic among them was so great that
they even left a number of their sick and wounded in a dying state upon the
river bank.” Some of the units pursued visible Rebels and fired into them,
collecting a few more kills. The Rebels also got some shots in. For many units
this was their only real taste of action during the battle.[17]
Thomas
listed an incredible windfall of captured goods: “Twelve piece of artillery,
with their caissons packed with ammunition; one battery wagon and two forges; a
large amount of ammunition; a large number of small-arms, mostly the old
flint-lock muskets; 150 or 160 wagons, and upwards of 1,000 horses and mules; a
large amount of commissary stores, intrenching tools, and camp and garrison
equipage, fell into our hands.” They also found six enemy flags for trophies.
The 2nd Minnesota, which captured many of the flags, also found copies
of all of Zollicoffer’s orders as well as the order book of the 15th
Mississippi.[18]
The
10th Indiana also spent time gathering their flags. They had been
“completely torn into shreds by the bullets of the enemy” and Kise ordered “its
scattered fragments gathered” so that they could be reassembled. One Union
soldier claimed to have found a letter to Zollicoffer from his daughter. She
had written him about her recently born child and hoped that he could see it.
With Zollicoffer now dead, the soldier realized the heartbreaking situation for
the Zollicoffer family and gave this sour trophy to his regimental adjutant.[19]
Some
officers realized they might have missed an opportunity to force Crittenden’s
surrender. Fry came up to Thomas and asked, “General, why didn’t you send in a
demand for surrender last night?” Silently mulling over the question, Thomas
then answered with an air of self-reproach, “Hang it, Fry, I never once thought
of it.”[20]Thomas
justified his failure to bag the enemy. They had burned their boats and their
retreat was so scattered that even if he could get at them they would be unable
to scoop up large number of prisoners. However, on the matter of earning
Kentuckian support, “there is no doubt but what the moral effect produced by
[the Confederates’] complete dispersion will have a more decided effect in
re-establishing Union sentiments.”[21]
Initial
casualty estimates put Thomas’ losses at 39 killed and 207 wounded. The 10th
Indiana suffered 10 killed and 75 wounded, the heaviest casualties of any
regiment. According to its regimental history, two of the wounded officers were
actually hurt when run over by cavalrymen (whether friendly or hostile it is
not said). Humorously one of the listed casualties is Colonel Kise, who “had
his hat shot from his head.” The 1st Kentucky Cavalry received 3
killed and 19 wounded, the 4th Kentucky 8 killed and 52 wounded, the
2nd Minnesota 12 killed and 33 wounded, and the 9th Ohio
6 killed and 28 wounded.[22]
The
history of the 1st Kentucky Cavalry has the following colorful
description of the battlefield:
“When the storm had
passed and calmness was restored, the scene of the conflict was sad to behold.
The ground was torn up, and for a large space around where the fiery blaze was
fiercest, the underbrush was peeled white from the many deadly missiles. The
fence along which the Union line was formed was riddled with bullets. The old
field through which the Confederates advanced was strewn with the dead and
dying. There were some forms and features of manly beauty among them, but the
rough cast of features predominated. The dead lay in all positions. Someday on
their backs with features stark and limbs rigidly extended; some were doubled
up. There were delicate forms whose beardless faces showed tender years. Some
had the horrid frowns of war still upon their features, others lay in calm
repose as if they were dreaming of the loved ones at home. One fine-looking
Confederate lay with features at rest, and the stump of a cigar on his bosom.
It was a strange time to enjoy the luxury of a cigar.”[23]
Chaplain
Honnell detailed an exchange between Wolford, a Kentuckian, and a captive
Georgia captain.
“Colonel,
this is a dreadful business!” said the Georgian.
“Yes,
and more dreadful to us than to you; for you count us as enemies, and we count
you only as deluded fellow citizens, whom we are compelled to whip back to your
allegiance to the best government on earth.”
“All
we want is to be left alone.”
“It
looks that way, when you have come all the way from Georgia here, and are
shooting down my men; many of whom are within hearing of their homes.”[24]
James
Fry, Buell’s Chief of Staff, relayed the fruits of victory: “The defeat of the
enemy was thorough and complete, and his loss in killed and wounded was
great…Fourteen or more pieces of artillery, some 1,500 horses and mules, his
entire camp equipage, together with wagons, arms, ammunition, and other store
to a large amount, fell into our hands.” Thomas put Manson in command of the
captured territory and also charged him with collecting and sending public
property to Somerset. McCook would encamp at Somerset.[25]
The
Confederates were of course in a much worse position and also had suffered more
casualties with 125 killed and 404 wounded. Like the 10th Indiana on
the Union side, the 15th Mississippi was in action the longest and
suffered the most as a result with 44 killed, 153, wounded, and 29 missing.
This was a total of 226. The 20th Tennessee suffered 33 killed, 59
wounded, and 18 missing; the 19th 10 killed, 22 wounded, and 2
missing; the 25th 10 killed, 28 wounded, and 17 missing; the 17th
11 killed, 25 wounded, and 2 missing; the 28th 2 killed, 4 wounded,
and 5 missing, and the 29th 5 killed, 12 wounded, and 10 missing.
The 16th Alabama’s brief participation garnered 5 killed, 12 wounded,
and 10 missing, while Captain Saunders’ cavalry suffered only 1 wounded.[26]
Many
Kentuckians and Tennesseans abandoned Crittenden. Carroll lamented that many of
his men, including some officers, fled into the mountains of East Tennessee. Crittenden
had to explain the dissipation of his force while putting an optimistic spin on
dire events. “A good many men have left me on account of the country through
which I have passed being the homes of a good portion of two regiments. I will
in a few days, however, have them all together, when I will proceed at once to
reorganize them.”[27]
The
battle had a major emotional impact in the North. The Federal leadership
recognized the importance of the victory and some even predicted that it would
greatly shorten the war. Senator John J. Crittenden, the father of the
Confederate commander, called for the victory to be commemorated with a reading
of George Washington’s Farewell Address. Another called for the Declaration of
Independence to be read as well. Horace Maynard, an East Tennessee congressman
who had castigated Thomas, along with Buell, for not quickly coming to the aid
of his homeland, wrote him, “You have undoubtedly fought the great battle of
the war… The country is still reverberating [with] the shout of victory.” The Cincinnati Daily Press hoped “it may be
that the recent brilliant success near Somerset is the real beginning of the
end.” A major in the 10th Kentucky called it the “first blow which
breaks the back of this rebellion.”[28]
Buell
advanced and took overall command. He brought along a metal coffin for Billie
Peyton’s body so it could be sent back to his grieving Unionist father. On
matters of business, he and Thomas marched into Tennessee. In a tragic irony
they went for the more strongly Confederate East Tennessee with the major
target of Nashville. East Tennessee Unionists, believing that their region was
the Federal Army’s next destination, began a major partisan uprising,
sabotaging bridges. The Confederate authorities cracked down and imprisoned and
executed many. Meanwhile, further north and east, Colonel James Garfield
(future president of the United States) drove Brigadier-General Humphrey
Marshall’s Confederate Kentuckians away from the Virginia border. Thomas
ordered the installation of telegraph lines to improve communications. Aside
from the first, small raids of John Hunt Morgan, later to be a famed
Confederate raider, East Kentucky for the moment was in Federal hands.[29]
The Battle of Mill Springs is not the best remembered battle, but it had a strong effect on its participants. For most it was their first major battle, if not their first fight at all. The battle also left its scars. Tenbroeck Strout, who had received a bullet from the now deceased Billie Peyton, Jr., received discouraging news at the field hospital. The bullet that Peyton had cast into his back was so close to his spine that surgery was deemed unfeasible. Eighteen years later, Strout died from lead poisoning. The bullet had slowly killed him over the years.[30]
Reenactment of Mill Springs, likely the part where the Confederates
are pushed away from a fence in the main battle's final moments.
Bibliography
Primary
Sources
Berry,
Mary Clay. Voices from the Century
Before: The Odyssey of a Nineteenth-Century Kentucky Family. New York:
Arcade Publishing, 1997.
Gibson,
F.T. “Reminiscences of the Seventeenth Tennessee Regiment.” Confederate Veteran 2 (January, 1894): 21.
Hancock,
Richard R. Hancock’s Diary: or, A History
of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry. Nashville: Brandon Printing
Co., 1887.
Kelly,
R.M. “Holding Kentucky for the Union” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War Vol. I. Century Company, 1887.
McMurray,
William Josiah. History of the Twentieth
Tennessee Regiment Volunteer Infantry, C.S.A. Nashville: The Publication
Committee, 1904.
Shaw,
James Birney. History of the Tenth
Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry: Three Months and Three Years Organizations.
Lafayette: Burt-Haywood Co., 1912.
Sherman,
William Tecumseh. Memoirs. Penguin
Books. 2000.
Tarrant,
Sergeant E. The Wild Riders of the First
Kentucky Cavalry: A History of the Regiment, in the Great War of the Rebellion,
1861-1865. Committee of the Regiment, 1894.
United
States. The
War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies Vol. VII.
Washington D.C. 1882.
Worsham, Dr. W.J. The
Old Nineteenth Tennessee Regiment C.S.A. Knoxville: Press of Paragon
Printing Company, 1902.
Secondary
Sources
Cist,
Henry Martyn. The Army of the Cumberland.
New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1882.
Harrison,
Lowell Hayes. The Civil War in Kentucky.
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1975.
Hess,
Earl J. The Civil War in the West:
Victory and Defeat from the Appalachians to the Mississippi. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 2012.
McPherson,
James. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil
War Era. Oxford University Press, 1988.
Sanders,
Stuart W. The Battle of Mill Springs,
Kentucky. Charleston: The History Press, 2013, hoopla edition.
Townsend,
William H. Lincoln and the Bluegrass:
Slavery and Civil War in Kentucky. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,
1989.
Warner,
Ezra. Generals in Gray: Lives of the
Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1959.
Wills, Brian Steel. George
Henry Thomas: As True as Steel. University of Kansas Press, 2012.
[1] OR VII, 80;
Sanders, 51, 55-56. Tarrant, 62; Willis, 138.
[2] OR VII, 79-80,
84, 93; Shaw, 139; Sanders, 36.
[3] Sanders, 50;
F.T. Gibson, “Reminiscences of the Seventeenth Tennessee Regiment,” Confederate Veteran 2 (January, 1894), 21.
[4] OR VII, 93, 96.
[5] OR VII, 80, 94;
Sanders, 55.
[6] OR VII, 93;
Sanders, 53-54.
[7] Sanders, 56; Tarrant, 59.
[8] OR VII, 94,
112-113.
[9] OR VII, 80, 97
99.
[10] OR VII, 108,
114; McMurray, 124; Worsham, 22; Sanders, 58.
[11] OR VII, 91;
Sanders, 58-59.
[12] Sanders, 60.
[13] OR VII, 80, 108; Tarrant, 60.
[14] OR VII, 91;
Berry, 280; Kelly, 390.
[15] OR VII, 80, 89, 109; Sanders,
62-63.
[16] OR VII,
109-110; Worsham, 27; Sanders, 64.
[17] OR VII, 80-83,
85, 89, 94.
[18] OR VII, 80.
[19] OR VII, 92, Sanders, 65.
[20] Kelly, 391.
[21] OR VII, 81.
[22] OR VII, 82;
Shaw, 139-140.
[23] Tarrant, 60.
[24] Tarrant, 63.
[25] OR VII, 83.
[26] OR VII, 78, 108.
[27] OR VII, 103, 114.
[28] Sanders, 8, 70;
Willis, 143.
[29] Kelly, 392;
McPherson, 305; Willis, 143; Sanders, 67.
[30] Sanders, 7.
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