The 49th Indiana and the Raid on Big Creek Gap

In the days after the Federal victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, the western armies pushed south along the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, eventually taking over control of much of middle Tennessee. But in eastern Kentucky, Union forces were also on the move and their sights were on Cumberland Gap.

          To that end, in early March 1862 General Samuel Carter directed a demonstration made at Big Creek Gap to draw Confederate forces away from Cumberland Gap and assigned the task to his brother, Colonel James Carter leading the 2nd East Tennessee, along with a portion of the 49th Indiana. The expedition across the mountains proved a trying affair for the troops as remembered by Lieutenant Colonel James Keigwin of the 49th Indiana.

          “After three days’ hard marching over muddy roads, we arrived at the foot of Little Cumberland Mountain late in the evening. An hour was allowed the boys to refresh themselves with hardtack and coffee, then we started with our guides up the mountains. These were so precipitous at several places, some of the boys who were not good climbers as the others had to be drawn up from 8-10 feet by their comrades. The latter bent saplings over against the bluff for temporary ladders upon which they would mount the bluff then reach down and draw their comrades up to the point they had reached,” he wrote. After an all-night march, the Hoosiers surprised the camp of the 1st Tennessee Cavalry at dawn and soon captured a set of colors.

Lieutenant Colonel Keigwin’s account of the raid on Big Creek Gap first saw publication in a lengthy article about captured Confederate flags that appeared in the September 5, 1893, edition of the Indianapolis News. Special thanks to Tony Meeks for sharing the article!

 

This postwar image of Big Creek Gap near modern day LaFollette, Tennessee gives some indication of the tough terrain in this section of the Confederacy. The railroad shown here was built after the war. 

          In the month of March 1862, my regiment the 49th Indiana, then part of General Sam Carter’s brigade of the Army of Ohio had wintered at Cumberland Ford [Kentucky] watching the enemy who were strongly entrenched at Cumberland Gap. General Carter ordered his brother Colonel James Carter, colonel of the 2nd East Tennessee Regiment, and a part of my regiment to make a raid into Powell’s Valley, Tennessee for the purpose of drawing a part of the enemy’s forces from the Gap with the determination of attacking them with the forces remaining at Cumberland Ford.

          Colonel Carter with his regiment and I with part of the 49th Indiana left the Ford on March 10, 1862. Forces pooled, we had about 800 men including a detachment of 30 men from Colonel Reuben Munday’s Kentucky cavalry. We took no transportation with us and only had what rations we could carry in our haversacks. Our objective point was Big Creek Gap in the Cumberland Mountains which at the time was guarded by the 1st Tennessee Cavalry [C.S.A.] Three companies were at the gap which they blockaded with stone and broken timber. The remainder of this regiment was at Fincastle and Jacksborough, two and five miles distant respectively from Big Creek Gap.

          After three days’ hard marching over muddy roads, we arrived at the foot of Little Cumberland Mountain late in the evening. An hour was allowed the boys to refresh themselves with hardtack and coffee, then we started with our guides up the mountains. These were so precipitous at several places, some of the boys who were not good climbers as the others had to be drawn up from 8-10 feet by their comrades. The latter bent saplings over against the bluff for temporary ladders upon which they would mount the bluff then reach down and draw their comrades up to the point they had reached.

Colonel James Keigwin
49th Indiana Infantry 

          After we had climbed the Little Cumberland Mountain and had reached the bottom of the other side of it, we found another obstacle staring us in the face. It was Big Creek, which at that time was very high and had to be crossed before we could cross the Big Cumberland Mountains through which the creek flowed. The water was very cold but it did not deter the gallant boys from plunging in and wading above their waist in the water. No horses could be passed at this point and the officers had to measure the depth of the water with the boys.

          After crossing the creek, the first place we struck the Big Cumberland Mountains was at a precipitous bluff about 8 feet high where we had to repeat the pulling up process of the men which caused delay in getting over the mountains. Many of the men did not get over until long after daylight. We climbed the mountains just to the verge of the Gap and when nearly to the top we could see the camps of the enemy hundreds of feet below us and no doubt would have been discovered by the enemy had not the rushing waters in the creek kept up such a mighty roar.

          A little before daylight [on March 14], Colonel Carter, myself, and two guides with about 200 men reached the foot of the mountain close to the camp of 5 companies of the enemy. The camps were a few hundred yards apart. Colonel Carter and myself held a consultation and agreed to divide the men and make a simultaneous attack upon two of the camps. Colonel Carter was to attack the company at the little brick schoolhouse and I was to attack the camp at Sharpe’s tanyard, about 200 yards in advance of the schoolhouse.

          We divided the men and cautioned them not to fire a shot nor to speak until the order was given to fire. If this order had been obeyed, we would have captured every one of them before they could have gotten out of their beds. But unfortunately, not all men are alike. Just before we reached the camp of the enemy, some excitable fellow fired his gun which started firing all along the line as we were charging into the camps.

          Many of the Rebels had time after the first shot to escape into the timber which was a short distance to their rear. The horses at the camp I charged were hitched to a line. At the camp charged upon by Colonel Carter, the horses were tied to the fence around the schoolhouse. When the first gun was fired, it seemed to me that every man began firing and the horses between us and the enemy met with terrible slaughter. A total of 75 horses met their death with only 3 men killed, 8 wounded, and 36 prisoners captured, one of them Lieutenant Colonel [John F.] White, a captain, and lieutenant [Hoyl]. In this raid there was the first blood seen by any of the troops engaged. The first spoils of war they handled (sugar, shotguns, tobacco, and other stuff) were a drug on the boys’ hands because we had no transportation to carry them.

          From Big Creek Gap we marched to Jacksborough where we found one company of the enemy quartered in the courthouse. We charged into the town with our little squad of cavalry commanding by Lieutenant Durham of Cincinnati and Lieutenant Conover of the 2nd East Tennessee and myself and captured Captain [Edward] Winton of the Rebel army [Corps of Sappers and Miners], a lieutenant, and several men. I remember an old bushwhacker named Gibson who was the finest looking old man I ever saw and who was a terror to the Union people in that section. He fell from his horse with a bullet through his body. We picked him up and carried his body to a vacant storehouse in the little town and left it for his friends to care for.

          Captain James W. Thompson and Lieutenant Barr of Co. B, 49th Indiana were in command of the men of the 49th. Captain Thompson captured the Rebel flag now in the State Library and turned it over to me. The flag was the colors of the 1st Tennessee Cavalry [C.S.A.]. I kept it for about one year after the war when I saw the order from Governor Morton that all flags captured during the war be sent to the State Library. I forwarded it to that place where it has remained ever since.

          In conclusion, I will say that the raid drew a large force of the enemy from the Gap which came very near swooping over our little command. General Carter marshaled his forces and marched up to the Gap which pulled the enemy back to the Gap and left us a gap to get back into Kentucky without the loss of a man.

         

Image from Indianapolis News of captured flag reportedly belonging to 1st Tennessee Cavalry

“Company B, 49th Regiment Indiana Volunteers was the captor of the flag from the Rebels in the fight at Big Creek Gap in 1862,” the Indianapolis News stated. “The regiment was commanded by Colonel James Keigwin. The flag is 3 x 6 feet in size and is in a fair state of preservation. The form is that of the regular Confederate flag [first national]. The two red bars are of a different shade and whole is pierced showing that material was scarce and that the necessity of having a flag had led some women, no doubt, to give dresses for the design. It has a silk fringe. It bears evidence of having been in the midst of hurtling bullets.”


Source:

“Captured Rebel Flags: Collection in Charge of Indiana’s State Geologist,” Indianapolis News (Indiana), September 5, 1893, pg. 18

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