The Battle of Mill Springs occurred on 19 January 1862 during the American Civil War, when the Union army of George Henry Thomas defeated a Confederate offensive into eastern Kentucky. The battle was the first significant Union victory of the war, but it was soon eclipsed by Ulysses S. Grant's victories at the Battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, which furthered the Union war effort in the West.
Background[]
In 1861, the critical border state of Kentucky declared neutrality in the American Civil War, but, on 3 September 1861, the Confederate general Gideon Johnson Pillow violated Kentucky's neutrality by occupying Columbus, followed by the Union general Ulysses S. Grant's occupation of Paducah two days later. The Confederate commander in the West, Albert Sidney Johnston, sent Major-General Leonidas Polk to hold Columbus with 12,000 troops as Lloyd Tilghman's 4,000 troops held Forts Henry and Donelson in the center (in both Tennessee and Kentucky), Brigadier-General Simon Bolivar Buckner held Bowling Green with 4,000 troops, and Major-General George B. Crittenden led 4,000 troops to defend the Cumberland Gap, the gateway for entering the pro-Unionist East Tennessee. Felix Zollicoffer, commanding the 1st Brigade of Crittenden's army, decided to advance west into Kentucky to reinforce the garrison of Bowling Green from Somerset, believing that the Cumberland Gap was adequately defended.
At the same time, the Union general George Henry Thomas was sent with 4,400 troops from the Army of the Ohio to drive the Confederates across the Cumberland River and break up Crittenden's army. Thomas marched from Lebanon, Kentucky and arrived at Logan's Crossroads on 17 January 1862, preparing to assault the Confederate winter quarters at Somerset. Crittenden realized that his subordinate was in danger at Mill Springs, so he marched his army from Knoxville to reinforce Zollicoffer and attack the Union camp at Logan's Crossroads on 19 January 1862.
Battle[]
The Confederate attack on Logan's Crossroads
The Confederate army engaged in a night march through the rain and mud, and their troops arrived at the crossroads cold and miserable. Many of their Napoleonic-era flintlock muskets became useless in wet weather, and their slow march had cost them the element of surprise. Lieutenant-General Gabriel Milliner's I Corps was holding Logan's Crossroads and preparing to assault Mill Springs, when they received reports of rebel patrols in the woods. Milliner decided to hold the crossroads until reinforcements could arrive. Jamie Tower and Adam Loomis' Union brigades were soon faced by Martin, Stephens, Gibson, Anderson, and Pond's Confederate brigades from the north and south, and it became apparent that the nearby Confederate forces were not mere patrols.
The Union counterattack at Mill Springs
The few Union forces held out with artillery support until the rest of the Union corps could arrive, and the ensuing battle saw the Union army hold out against superior numbers. During the battle, Zollicoffer accidentally rode towards Speed S. Fry's Unionist Kentucky regiment while mistaking them for his men, and he was shot dead by Fry himself. Just then, Thomas arrived and ordered a general counterattack, and the Confederates were routed, leaving behind most of their artillery, supplies, dead, and wounded. They withdrew to Carthage, 50 miles east of Nashville, and Crittenden's military career was ruined. The Confederate defensive line in eastern Kentucky was broken, and the Union was able to carry the war into middle Tennessee in February 1862.