Repossessing the Gibraltar of America: The Confederates Retake Cumberland Gap

When General Edmund Kirby Smith’s army marched into Kentucky in August 1862, he passed the left flank of the Union garrison at Cumberland Gap, crossing at Roger’s, Wilson’s, and Big Creek Gap to drive towards the Bluegrass. General Carter Stevenson’s division was tasked with putting pressure on the Union division of General George W. Morgan that was holding the Gap. By mid-September, Morgan, with supplies fast running out, chose to abandon the Gap and retreat to the Ohio River.

          “Our supplies of food were rapidly becoming exhausted,” Morgan wrote. “Enveloped on every side by the enemy, absolutely cut off from my base of supplies and with starvation staring us in the face,” Morgan called a council of war with his senior subordinates. The generals all agreed: “A retreat was inevitable.”

          “During the night of the 16th of September, a long train of wagons was sent towards Manchester,” explained Morgan. “This entire night and the following day, every preparation was made for the retreat. Mines had been constructed to blow up the magazines and arsenal and fire the vast storehouses constructed and under construction. Everything moved with the precision of a well-constructed and well-oiled piece of machinery.”

          By 8 o’clock the night of September 17th, Morgan’s division was on the road and a group of picked men stayed behind the light the fuses. “Toward morning [of the 18th], Lt. Colonel George Gallup fired the vast buildings and trains leading to the mines. The shock of the explosion was felt 14 miles away, the flaming buildings lit up the sky as though the Gap and mountain crests were a volcano of fire. From time-to-time till after dawn we heard the explosion of mines, shells, or grenades,” Morgan recalled.

          Among the troops of Stevenson’s division who moved to take possession of the Gap was the following correspondent from Hilliard’s Legion.  “Night before last, large fires and heavy explosions gave notice to our army that the last deeds were being performed,” he observed. “Shortly after daylight our cavalry took possession of the abandoned works and pursued the enemy.”

          The Legion had been organized in Montgomery, Alabama in June 1862 and originally consisted of five battalions, one of which was cavalry along with an attached artillery battery. Both artillery and cavalry branches were later detached; the cavalry became the 10th Confederate Cavalry while the artillery became the Barbour Light Artillery.

          The following letter describing the destruction left in Morgan’s wake first saw publication in the September 27, 1862, edition of the Columbus Daily Sun.

 

The early morning explosion of the magazine at Cumberland Gap lit the skies for miles around and was heard 14 miles away. Our Confederate correspondent, on the Southern side of the gap, said that the explosion "gave notice to our army that the last deeds were being performed and shortly after daylight our cavalry took possession of the abandoned works." The Confederates would hold Cumberland Gap for about a year until General Ambrose Burnside's army marched into the area the following September. 

Cumberland Gap, Kentucky

September 19, 1862

          Several days ago, there were strong indications that the enemy was about to evacuate this place. Night before last, large fires and heavy explosions gave notice to our army that the last deeds were being performed and shortly after daylight our cavalry took possession of the abandoned works and pursued the enemy.

          During the day the whole army moved in and this morning the advance into Kentucky commenced. General Carter Stevenson conducts the forward movement while Hilliard’s legion will hold the Gap. Colonel [Jack] Thorington, now in command of the Legion with Colonel Hilliard being absent, holds this important post.

          The destruction of property by the enemy was very great. Hundreds of tents split into ribbons were left standing, quartermaster and commissary stores burnt, their heavy guns disabled and spiked, while thousands of small arms (no doubt designed for the Union men of eastern Tennessee) were consumed. Their sick, to the number of several hundred, were left in the hospital. They tried to explode their principal magazine but fortunately it was very badly prepared and there were many rounds of ammunition uninjured.

General Carter L. Stevenson

          Near where I now write, the boys are busy taking the boxes of ammunition from the ruins. The Yankees did an immense amount of work here in the construction of roads up this side of the mountain and in fortifying the south side of the Gap. No amount of force assailing in front could have taken it, if manned by resolute troops. The Confederacy is fortunate in repossessing this formidable place, the Gibraltar of America.

          That we have not starved the enemy into surrender is not the fault of the army under General Stevenson. General Kirby Smith’s forward movement into Kentucky left the country on that side open to them and they availed themselves of it to subsist their troops during their stay and to attempt their retreat. Whether they will escape to Ohio or be captured by some of our forces, I have no means of obtaining information. I expect to leave with the army for Kentucky this afternoon or tomorrow. If anything of interest should occur, I will drop you a line.

For a Federal perspective on the retreat from Cumberland Gap, check out this post:

With Morgan's Foot Cavalry: Taking and Losing Cumberland Gap

Source:

Letter from J.I.T., Hilliard’s Legion Alabama Volunteers, Columbus Daily Sun (Georgia), September 27, 1862, pg. 2

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

Image
     A common question that comes up in conversation about Civil War Buckeye regiments is "What were they armed with?" We are fortunate in that the state of Ohio kept good records of how the regiments were armed when they went into service, this being especially true for those regiments which went into service in 1861 and 1862. The state adjutant general's reports for 1861 and 1862 have been heavily drawn upon to construct this article, as well as consultation with Phil Spaugy who has done extensive research on how Ohio's troops were armed during the war.      Buckeyes carried a fairly wide variety of weapons into the field, and the below article breaks this down into weapons of both domestic manufacture and imported arms. The early days of the war found the state of Ohio practically bereft of longarms; as an example, when the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Militia left the state in late April 1861, they left unarmed, being armed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on t...
Read more

Bullets for the Union: Manufacturing Small Arms Ammunition During the Civil War

Image
       Civil War bullets are perhaps the most common item collected from the era; the two armies expended bullets by the millions during the four years’ conflict and spent or deformed bullets of all shapes and sizes have made fascinating and affordable collectibles since the guns went silent in 1865.       I recently acquired a display piece featuring 35 different types of small arms ammunition used during the Civil War, including everything from a small .28 caliber ball up to a .69 caliber three-ring Minie and it triggered some questions: how did the Federal army obtain its small arms ammunition during the war? Where did the lead come from to make the bullets, and where and how was the ammunition manufactured? This post seeks to answer those questions. A typical .58 caliber 3-ring Minie bullet   “Whenever the blasts of war blow in the ears of men who trade in the implements of destruction, they are apt to experience more joy than the true ...
Read more

Dressing the Rebels: How to Dye Butternut Jeans Cloth

Image
     In the early days of the Civil War,  the Southern states found themselves with an abundance of cotton but a shortage of cloth with which to make army uniforms. The trade in cloth prior to the war had largely been to send raw cotton or wool north to New England (or Great Britain) where it was converted into usable cloth; but now that trade was broken and the Southern states were thrown upon their own resources in their efforts to properly clothe the Confederate army.  This collection of Confederate enlisted men's frock coats and shell jackets gives some indication of the variety of shades of butternut worn during the war. All of them are shades of yellow brown, some heavier on the yellow and some heavier on the brown. The blue used around the collar or as rank insignia indicates that the soldier was in the infantry. Surviving Confederate uniforms are considered rather rare and command quite a healthy price in the collecting market. For an in-depth study of h...
Read more

The Wizard of Oz and the Civil War

Image
T he 1939 film The Wizard of Oz has delighted viewers for 85 years and ranks as a personal favorite, especially during the Halloween season. While watching it with the family the other night, I wondered if there were any connections between the film and the Civil War. Not surprisingly, the answer is yes and those connections touch both the blue and the gray.           Interestingly both “witches” in the film not only had Civil War ancestors but had connections with Civil War soldiers from Ohio. Margaret Hamilton, the “Wicked Witch of the West,” was born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 9, 1902, to attorney Walter Jones Hamilton and his wife Mary Jane Adams; Margaret’s grandfather was Judge Edwin Timothy Hamilton. Judge Hamilton had served as a private in Co. D of the 84 th Ohio Infantry during the summer of 1862. The 84 th Ohio, a three months’ regiment, served nearly the whole of its service attached to the Railroad District in western Ma...
Read more

The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

Image
     The English-made Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield Rifle Musket was widely regarded as the best infantry arm in the world at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Favorable international press describing its efficiency in the Crimean War and in suppressing the Indian rebellion led to the widespread desire of American infantrymen (both Federal and Confederate) to be armed with these accurate and well-made arms. The lock plate of this well-worn P1853 Enfield rifle musket produced in 1862 shows the typical markings of a British-made weapon that made it through the Federal blockade.  ( Army of Tennessee Relics ) Enfield-pattern weapons were imported into the states by the tens and hundreds of thousands during the war years; one estimate stated that the Federal government purchased 500,000 while the Confederates purchased another 400,000. The Confederate government dispatched Captain Caleb Huse to Europe in April 1861 to purchase weapons and Huse focused on se...
Read more

In front of Atlanta with the 68th Ohio

Image
  The arrow corps badge of the 17th Army Corps was worn by many members of the 68th Ohio in the latter days of the war.       Private Edward A. Bigelow of Co. F of the 68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry wrote this brief account of the Battle of Atlanta just two days afterwards to his father back home in Henry County, Ohio. The regiment formed a part of Colonel Robert K. Scott's three regiment all-Ohio brigade consisting of the 20th, 68th, and 78th regiments, being designated the Second Brigade of the Third Division of Frank Blair's 17th Army Corps. Bigelow's letter originally appeared in the Napoleon Press newspaper and was copied in the Toledo Daily Commercial which was providential as no known copies exist today of the wartime Napoleon Press.  
Read more

Charging Battery Robinett: An Alabama Soldier Recalls the Vicious Fighting at Corinth

Image
W riting 30 years after the Battle of Corinth, James A. McKinstry of the 42 nd Alabama recalled his experiences storming Battery Robinett with Colonel William P. Rogers of the 2 nd Texas and expressed guilt that it was perhaps his action that brought about the colonel’s demise. “On seeing a line of Federals approaching, and before giving the situation a thought, I immediately raised my gun and fired full into the breast of a Federal sergeant, who was in front of the column, and only a short distance from us.  'Twas then that Captain George Foster shouted, "Cease firing, men! cease firing!" and waved his handkerchief, then I realized the true situation. 'Twas too late! That fatal volley had been turned on our little band from the muzzles of 1,500 muskets. I was still standing just as I was when I fired my last shot, and within a few feet of Colonel Rogers, when a Minie ball went crashing through my left hip and turned me half round; another went tearing through my ...
Read more

Cook & Brother of New Orleans

Image
    The lockplate of a New Orleans-made Cook & Brother Enfield rifle produced in 1862 shows the fine craftsmanship that became the hallmark of the maker throughout the Civil War. Note the stars and bars flag at left, an emblem used on C&B's production throughout the war and the Cook & Brother, N.O. 1862 markings. Earlier production weapons at New Orleans had the flag located just above the maker's name while later weapons produced in Athens, Georgia would have a modified flag and Athens on the plate followed by the serial number.        In the spring of 1861, two English-born businessmen, Ferdinand and Francis Cook of New Orleans, perceived the need for the South to have its own domestic production of firearms and  set out to prove "that rifles could made here as well as in Yankee land or in Europe." The brothers  elected to produce copies of the British Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield rifle as this was considered the benchmark longarm...
Read more

I Want to See a Battle: A Hoosier at Shiloh

Image
W riting in his diary, Private Manius Buchanan of the 29 th Indiana recalled the eagerness with which his regiment marched towards Savannah, Tennessee with the sounds of the battle of Shiloh ringing in their ears.           “The forced march was kept up until 2 p.m. when we were halted until 4 p.m,” he noted. “The rest was really needed, but the continual question is ‘Why are we stopped here?’ The sound of battle increased in volume and anxiety to be up and doing grows more intense. As I am weak from a late sickness, I am urged to fall to the rear; but no, in common with all, I want to see a battle and fear this will be my only chance.” The regiment would go into action the following afternoon, and of the four neighborhood boys who had enlisted together in Co. B, only Buchanan escaped unscathed. One afternoon's exposure to the horrors of battle was all it took to satisfy this Hoosier's desire to see the elephant. “I wanted to see a battl...
Read more

An Interview with Forrest in May 1864

Image
  “The noise of battle is the only music that ravishes the senses of Forrest.” I t was May 1864. Back east, the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac were locked in the deadly dance of the Overland Campaign while in Georgia, General William Tecumseh Sherman's army squared off against General Joseph E. Johnston and the Army of the Tennessee in the campaign for Atlanta.       Based in relatively quiet northern Mississippi, General Nathan Bedford Forrest bided his time waiting for a Federal advance from Memphis. Earlier in the month, General Samuel Sturgis led a brief campaign into Mississippi but Forrest was sure Sturgis would venture out again. In the meantime, he tried to keep his reorganized command intact despite persistent demands from his superiors that he return the absentees and deserters who inflated his ranks (nearly 1,000 in number) to their original commands.      Around this same time,  an old acquaintance from Me...
Read more