Slavery and four years of war

by Joseph Warren Keifer

Sherman personally informed Secretary of War Cameron and Adjutant- General Lorenzo Thomas (October 16th) that the force necessary in his Department was 200,000 men.( 6) This was regarded as so wild an estimate that he was suspected of being crazy, and he was relieved from his Department November 13th.( 7) Thereafter, for a time, he was under a cloud in consequence of this estimate of the number of troops required to insure success in a campaign through Kentucky and Tennessee. We next hear of him prominently in command of a division under Grant at Shiloh.

As the war progressed his conception of the requirements of the war was more than vindicated, and he became later the successful commander of more than two hundred thousand men.( 8)

Brigadier-General Don Carlos Buell relieved Sherman of the command of the Department of the Cumberland, and was assigned (November 9th) to the Department of Ohio, a new one, consisting of the States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, that part of Kentucky east of the Cumberland River, and Tennessee, headquarters, Louisville.( 9)

The War Department ordered from the commands of Generals Cox and Reynolds in Western Virginia certain of the Ohio and Indiana regiments, and this order caused the 3d Ohio, with others, to counter-march over November roads via Huttonville, Beverly, Rich Mountain, and Buchannon to Clarksburg, from whence they were moved by rail to Parkersburg, thence by steamboat to Louisville. By November 30th, the 3d was encamped five miles south of the city on the Seventh Street plank road, and soon became part of the Seventeenth Brigade, Colonel Ebenezer Dumont commanding, and (December 5th (10)) of the Third Division, commanded by General O. M. Mitchel, both highly intelligent officers, active, affable, and zealous; the latter untried in battle.

Mitchel's division moved via Elizabethtown to Bacon Creek, where it went into camp for the winter, December 17, 1861.

McCook's division was advanced about six miles to Munfordville on Green River, and General George H. Thomas' division was ordered to Liberty, where he would be nearer the main army, and later his headquarters were at Lebanon, and his division, consisting of four brigades and some unattached cavalry and three batteries of artillery, was posted there and at Somerset and London.(11)

December 17th, four companies of the 32d Indiana (German), under Lieutenant-Colonel Von Treba, from McCook's command, on outpost duty at Rowlett's Station, south of Green River, were assailed by two infantry regiments, one of cavalry—Texas Rangers—and a battery of artillery. The gallantry and superiority of the drill of these companies enabled them to drive back the large force and hold their position until other companies of the regiment arrived, when the enemy was forced to a hasty retreat, both sides suffering considerable loss. Colonel B. F. Terry (12) of the Texas Rangers forced his men to repeatedly charge into the ranks of the infantry. In a last charge he was killed, and the attacking force retired in disorder. Great credit was due to Colonel Treba and his small command for their conduct.

Colonel James A. Garfield was placed in command of the field forces in the Big Sandy country, Eastern Kentucky, and General Humphrey Marshall, of Kentucky, who made pretensions to military skill, confronted him, each with a force, somewhat scattered, of about five thousand men. Inexperienced as Garfield then was in war, he, in mid-winter, in a rough country, with desperate roads and with a poorly equipped command, with no artillery, displayed much energy and ability in pushing his forces upon the enemy at Prestonburg and Paintsville, Kentucky. There were skirmishes December 25, 1861, at Grider's Ferry on the Cumberland River, at Sacramento on the 28th, at Fishing Creek January 8, 1862, and a considerable engagement at Middle Creek, near Prestonburg, on the 10th, the result of which was to drive Marshall practically out of Kentucky, and to greatly demoralize his command and put him permanently in disgrace.

Next in importance came the more considerable fight at Logan's Cross-Roads, on Fishing Creek, Kentucky, commonly called the battle of Mill Springs, fought January 19, 1862, General George H. Thomas commanding the Union forces, and General George B. Crittenden the Confederates. The Confederate troops occupied an intrenched camp at Beech Grove, on the north side of the Cumberland River, nearly opposite Mill Springs. General Thomas, with a portion of the Second and Third Brigades, Kenny's battery, and a battalion of Wolford's cavalry, reached Logan's Cross-Roads, about nine miles north of Beech Grove, on the 17th, and there halted to await the arrival of other troops before moving on Crittenden's position.

The latter, conceiving that he might strike Thomas before his division was concentrated, and learning that Fishing Creek divided his forces, and was so flooded by recent rains as to be impassable, marched out of his intrenchments at Beech Grove at midnight of the 18th, and about 7 A.M. of the 19th fell upon Thomas at Logan's Cross-Roads with eight regiments of infantry and six pieces of artillery. The battle lasted about three hours, when the Confederate troops gave way and beat a disorderly retreat to their intrenched camp, closely pursued. They were driven behind their fortifications and cannonaded by the Union batteries until dark. General Thomas prepared to assault the works the following morning. With the aid of a small river steamboat Crittenden succeeded during the night in passing his troops across the Cumberland, abandoning twelve pieces of artillery, with their caissons and ammunition, a large number of small arms and ammunition, about 160 wagons, 1000 horses and mules, also commissary stores.