Episode 5

Mill Springs.

On September 10, 1861, General Albert Sidney Johnston, who had resigned the Colonelcy of the Second United States Cavalry to engage in the service of the Confederacy, was assigned to the command of the Department of the West, embracing, with a large number of the Western States, the States of Kentucky and Tennessee.On the 18th Johnston directed Buckner to occupy Bowling Green, and ordered Zollicoffer to advance from Knoxville to Cumberland Gap.The rebels, under General Polk, occupied Columbus, Ky., September 7th, and the line of operations of the Confederates, under General Johnston, as then formed, had the Mississippi river at its extreme left, Cumberland Gap at its extreme right, with Bowling Green as the centre.

With the force at his command, no point in advance of Bowling Green could have been safely taken by the Confederate general, owing to the disposition of the Union troops in Kentucky at that time.

As we have seen, Zollicoffer with his command was driven from Rock Castle Hills and Wildcat, and taking a new position nearer Bowling Green, encamped at Beech Grove, where he fortified his position.

General Zollicoffer was a civilian appointment, without military training of any kind.He had been editor of a Nashville paper, had held a number of minor State offices, and served two terms in Congress prior to the war.Johnston, in ordering Zollicoffer to the Cumberland River at Mill Springs, intended that he should occupy a position of observation merely until he should be re-enforced, or his troops be incorporated in the main command.He could not have been located farther west without inviting the advance of the Federal forces into East Tennessee or to Nashville, flanking Bowling Green.Zollicoffer had no ability as a soldier to handle troops, and General George B.Crittenden, of Kentucky, a graduate of West Point, who had seen service in the Mexican War, and who held at the outbreak of the rebellion, a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel in the regiment of Mounted Riflemen, was, in November, assigned to the command of the district as Major-General, with headquarters at Knoxville.Great expectations were entertained in regard to Crittenden's military abilities; and about the first of the year 1862 he assumed command in person of the rebel forces at Beech Grove.The fact that Zollicoffer had established his camp on the north side of the Cumberland, "with the enemy in front and the river behind," was known to Johnston, and information given by him to Crittenden.General Johnston had written Zollicoffer that the interest of the service required him simply to watch the river, and that he could do this better from Mill Springs without crossing it.

Zollicoffer, however, had crossed the river before he heard from Johnston, and replied that, while from this letter he inferred that he should not have done so, it was now too late, as his means of recrossing were so limited that he could hardly accomplish it in the face of the enemy.On his reaching the Cumberland with his command, he had sent forward his cavalry to seize the ferryboats at Mill Springs.In this they failed, and the crossing was effected on one ferry-boat, seized lower down, and barges built by his troops.

General Thomas was ordered in November to concentrate his command in order to be prepared for any movement Zollicoffer might make, and, if necessary, to attack him in his camp.General Carter with his brigade was stationed at London, Colonel Hoskins was near Somerset, and Colonel Bramlette at Columbia, all watching Zollicoffer's movements, and reporting them to General Thomas, who endeavored to stop his advance at the Cumberland River.Five hundred of Wolford's Cavalry were ordered from Columbia to reinforce Colonel Hoskins;and General Schoepff, with the Seventeenth Ohio, the Thirty-eighth Ohio, and Standart's battery, to take position on the Cumberland River at Waitsborough, where he could command the crossing.Here he was to fortify and guard the river at this point and above and below, to prevent the enemy from crossing, or from obtaining the means for doing so.

On December 2d, Zollicoffer, while building his ferries, sent some troops to shell General Schoepff's camp.A brisk cannonading was kept up for some time, when the rebels withdrew.Schoepff regarding this as a feint, and anticipating a movement of Zollicoffer's troops to cross the river, ordered two companies of cavalry under Captain Dillon to guard the ford and to give timely notice of any attempt to effect a crossing.He also ordered the Seventeenth Ohio with three pieces of artillery and another company of cavalry, all under the command of Colonel Connell, to support the cavalry under Dillon.The latter proved wholly incompetent, and failed to comply with his orders in any particular.He went into camp two miles in the rear from where he was ordered, and neglected even to post his men to guard the ford, whereby Zollicoffer was enabled to occupy the north bank of the Cumberland without opposition and without Dillon's even knowing that the movement had been made.This was only discovered on the 4th, when the rebels drove back the Federal cavalry and attacked Connell, who was advancing on a reconnoissance.