Surgeon Gammage's True and Faithful Record of Kirby Smith's Kentucky Campaign
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| Cavalry guidon belonging to the 11th Texas (Dismounted) Cavalry which served in Churchill's Division during Kirby Smith's 1862 campaign in Kentucky. |
“General
E. Kirby Smith’s Campaign in Kentucky”
By Surgeon Washington Lafayette Gammage, 4th Arkansas Infantry
“We give all our available space this morning to the
publication of any elaborate and interesting history of the late campaign of
the army under General E. Kirby Smith into Kentucky. The writer endeavors,
without doing injustice to others, to separate the chain of events which marked
the track of this expedition from the more stupendous campaign into which it
was subsequently merged. In this we are not sure but that the writer has
performed an act of simple justice which the impartial mind will unhesitatingly
approve. The brilliant and bold expedition which General Smith led through the
long, narrow, and difficult mountain passes that separate east Tennessee and Kentucky
is excelled by no campaign of the kind, either viewed in its plan, execution,
or results.”
“There is one standpoint from which the view of General Smith’s
Kentucky campaign is most thrillingly gratifying and especially so to Tennesseans.
It lies in the fact that the blood of the daring Zollicoffer was avenged not
far from the field of his disaster. He and his brave soldiers who fell at Fishing
Creek were vindicated at the Battle of Richmond and their blood was nobly
avenged. Crittenden’s defeat in the first campaign into Kentucky inaugurated a
sad series of reverses to our arms in the west. The triumphs of the second
campaign, while they fully atone for the misfortune of the first, will, by the
help of God, introduce yet bigger successes this winter of our armies in the
west.”
“Kirby Smith is one of the successful generals of the Confederacy. And another fact, which the history of this war has made almost without exception, that invariable accompaniment if not the explanation of the fact first mentioned. Kirby Smith is a Christian general. He is a devout believer in Christ Jesus our Lord. He is a faithful communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church and an earnest man of prayer. He is one of our leaders who brings more than his own brave heart and wisdom to the republic’s cause. He brings Heaven’s help. Health and long life to Lieutenant General Smith.” W.T. Helms, editor, Winchester Daily Bulletin
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| Major General Edmund Kirby Smith, commanding the Department of East Tennessee |
Camp near
Chattanooga, Tennessee
November 20, 1862
Editor Bulletin,
Having never seen up to this date a
faithful and just history of the recent campaign of the Confederate army under
General E. Kirby Smith into Kentucky and being aware of the many diversified
opinions as to the results of that campaign, I have determined to give the
public through the medium of your journal the facts as they came under my
observation.
About the 7th day of August
last, General John P. McCown, under the orders of General E. Kirby Smith, moved
his division, the Second, from Loudon to Knoxville in east Tennessee. It was commanded
by Brigadier General Thomas J. Churchill which was composed of the Arkansas
brigade under then Colonel Evander McNair and a Texas brigade commanded by
Colonel McCray. From here we moved by rapid marches up to about one half mile below
Rogers’ Gap in the Cumberland Mountains. The wagons trains and artillery were
sent back to cross the mountains through Big Creek Gap.
The division started at 9 o’clock in the night to cross the
mountains at Rogers’ Gap, carrying with us four days’ rations. At the end of 24
hours, we had made a march of 32 miles over the roughest and hilliest road your
correspondent ever remembers to have traveled. I had almost forgot to say that
General Cleburne’s division joined is just at the lower Gap and was ordered
through with the trains and artillery. [Editor: General Henry Heth’s division
marched through with the trains and artillery, not Cleburne’s.]
From this time on we made forced marches until we reached
Barboursville at which place we arrived about 3 p.m. the next day, though too
late to catch the enemy’s train which had only been gone about two hours and
from some unaccountable cause the whole train was allowed to escape.
Barboursville is on the main thoroughfare by which the Federals received their
supplies at the Gap by way of Lexington. Here we found some valuable and much
needed hospital and commissary stores. Unfortunately, we found neither flour
nor bacon, both of which we needed very much as the four days’ rations were
about out and our troops were living on green corn with a scanty supply of
green beef without salt. We also captured about 100 wagons and 500 horses and
mules which had been left behind when our friends the Feds concluded to get
away in a hurry.
We scarcely halted here long enough to get water but pushed on
to the Cumberland Ford, General Cleburne’s division having reached the town
just as we passed through. At the Ford for a few days rest, the first we had
had since we started from Loudon; this somewhat recuperated our bare-footed and
leg-wearied soldiers though the fare we were getting was poorly calculated to
strengthen or encourage our little army for it consisted of roasting ears and a
very small supply of very poor beef without bread or salt.
At this point, General McCown, to the great regret of our
army, left us for Knoxville. About the time we got into Barboursville, Colonel
John Scott of Louisiana with his cavalry composed of his old Louisiana regiment
and Colonel Starnes’ Tennessee cavalry (about 900 strong altogether) marched
into London, [Kentucky], drove the Federals out, capturing and burning their
wagons, and taking 60-70 men prisoners. From this point we marched on to Big
Hill, attacked and routed Metcalfe’s cavalry and about 500 infantrymen, and
drive them back towards Richmond.
We followed as rapidly as it was possible for foot soldiers
to march and on the night of the 29th of August we encamped at the
foot of Big Hill in striking distance of the enemy with whose advance our
cavalry had a light skirmish just about sunset. The next morning our column
moved forward with General Cleburne’s division in the advance. About 9 a.m. the
ball opened. Captain James P. Douglas of Tyler, Texas and Captain Martin from
Florida took position with their batteries and opened upon the enemy whose
cannons returned our fire with spirit and with a good deal of effect. In less
than a half hour from the first firing, Captain Martin was wounded and removed
from the field. Captain Douglas assumed command of both batteries, leaving
First Lieutenant Boren in charge of his own battery. Boren and Bob Waters were
killed by a cannon ball.
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| General Patrick R. Cleburne |
General Cleburne’s division advanced and attacked the enemy
on the right whilst Colonel McCray with his Texas brigade engaged them on the
left. General Cleburne was wounded in the face by Federal sharpshooters before
his division engaged the enemy and General Preston Smith took command of the
division. With the assistance of our cannons (the gallant Captain Humphries
having brought up his Arkansas battery and participated in the fight) drove the
enemy from their position with great slaughter. It was during this part of the
engagement that Colonel Fitzgerald of the 154th Tennessee was
killed. In this first fight, Texas lost three as brave boys as have ever been
sacrificed on the altar of our common country. I mean Lieutenant Boren, Bob
Waters, and Jim McCoy, the latter of whom was mortally wounded. All of them
were from Good’s old battery and had enlisted in the service early after the
war began.
The Federals having been repulsed and driven in confusion
from this part of the field might have retreated without risking another passage
at arms but for one of those singular mistakes which sometimes occurs. General
Smith having ordered the cavalry to go around to the north of Richmond and
attempt to cut off the retreat of the enemy. Our gallant cavalry leader
withdrew his troops; about the same time our artillery ceased firing and the
enemy, thinking our army was preparing for a retreat, had the foolhardiness to
attempt a charge upon the Texas boys under McCray who, to the great
astonishment of the enemy, instead of running away met them on the halfway
ground and in a little while had the tables completely turned.
The Federals broke and in the wildest confusion and disorder
ran for life, leaving knapsacks, swords, pistols, hats, and canteens enough
scattered along the route they traveled even if their dead and dying had not
too plainly showed the way. 400 prisoners and several cannons were captured in
this part of the engagement.
The enemy met reinforcements near Richmond and formed for battle
again when Colonel McNair with his brigade attacked them and pursued them into
the edge of Richmond. In fact, the 4th Arkansas and 1st
Arkansas [Mounted Rifles] commanded by Lieutenant Colonels Bunn and Reynolds
would have pursued them through the town but for the peremptory orders of
Colonel McNair who said that a white flag had been raised and hostilities must
cease as the enemy had proposed to surrender. This last brigade captured over
600 prisoners and probably killed and wounded as many more. By this time the shades
of night began to close in upon the two contending parties or doubtless the
whole force of the enemy would have been captured. As it was, Colonel Scott,
who passed around the north of Richmond on the early part of the engagement
captured over 4,000 of them and brought them back into Richmond the next
morning about 9 o’clock, thus completing one of the most extraordinary and
glorious victories in the history of modern warfare. At night, we camped in the
edge of Richmond having marched 14 miles, fought three battles, and finally
destroyed an army of over 12,000 of the enemy. [Editor: The Federal army at
Richmond numbered roughly 7,000 officers and men, the vast majority of which
were killed, captured, or wounded.]
The actual fruits of this victory may be summed up in a few
words. We lost only 84 killed on the field and 365 wounded. We killed 402 men
dead on the field, wounded over 1,500, captured 5,200 along with 9 cannons,
about 15,000 stands of arms, over 100 wagons and their teams, together with
about $7 million worth of quartermaster, commissary, ordnance, and hospital
stores. But the remote and probably advantages of the battle were far greater
for we broke the chains of despotism which bound Kentucky and her people to a
hated and tyrannous union. We drove the enemy almost out of the state and
unlocked the gates of a more than golden treasury to our people when we
consider the immense granaries, the thousands of fat bullocks, horses, the
great abundance of meat and bread and clothing that has flowed into the South since
then. And last but not least the universal gladness which filled every Southern
heart when the telegraphic wires carried as if upon the wings of the wind the
glorious news that “Kentucky was at last about to be free!”
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| Brigadier General Evander McNair |
Where every soldier did his duty, it would seem unfair to
make distinctions but there is one commander whose gallant conduct upon this
occasion is sufficiently attested by the fact that he has since been made a
brigadier general for “gallantry and bravery upon the battlefield of Richmond,
Kentucky.” I allude to General Evander McNair, commander of the Arkansas
brigade of General McCown’s division of the army of East Tennessee. We remained
at Richmond one day for the purpose of exchanging our old guns for new one,
getting the wounded of both armies into hospitals, burying the dead, and
gathering together the public property captured from the enemy.
On the 1st day of September we took up the line of
march for Lexington. When we reached the Kentucky River, we found encamped on
the opposite bank the 94th Ohio regiment. Captain Douglass and
Captain Humphreys took two cannons each and began to play upon them when they
skedaddled in the most approved fashion, leaving their blankets, knapsacks, and
some half dozen killed and wounded behind them. Amongst other things was a nice
warm breakfast prepared at a good Union house for the special comfort of their
officers. You may rest assured it didn’t spoil for want of somebody to eat it
up as some of us hungry fellows could testify if we were put into the witness
box.
We pursued them for 8 miles but we never got in musket range
of their column. About 70 of their stragglers fell into our hands. At night we
camped within 8 miles of Lexington. Here, General Smith, hearing that the enemy
had evacuated the city, sent in a flag of truce demanding the surrender of the
place which was readily agreed to. On the next day, the 1st Arkansas
regiment of dismounted riflemen under Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds was sent in
to guard the city.
On the morning of the 4th of September, our whole
army consisting of Churchill’s division, Cleburne’s division, and Heth’s
division, all under the command of General Kirby Smith, marched through the
city amidst the hearty and generous welcome of thousands of men, women, and
children. Our entrance into and march through the city was a perfect ovation-
streets, windows, and gardens were filled with ladies and little girls with
streamers of red and blue ribbons and flags with stars, beautiful women seizing
the hard brown hands of our rough and ragged soldiers and with tears and smiles
thanked them again and again for coming into Kentucky and freeing them from the
presence and insults of the hated and insolent Yankees.
For hours, the enthusiasm of the people was unbounded. At
every corner of the streets lay baskets of provisions and buckets of water
which were placed for the refreshment of our weary soldiers and hundreds of our
men were presented with shoes, hats, coats, and tobacco from the grateful
people. Private residences were turned for the time into public houses of
entertainment, free to all who could be persuaded to go and eat.
But if the reception of the infantry was enthusiastic, the
tears, smiles, shouts, and cheers of wild delight which greeted General John
Morgan’s cavalry as they came dashing through the streets amidst clouds of dust
was without a parallel. The wildest joy ruled the hours- the bells of the city
peeled forth their joyous welcome whilst the waving of thousands of white
handkerchiefs and tiny Confederate flags attested to the gladness and joy of
every heart. Such a scene! I shall never look upon its like again! At Lexington
we found over $150,000 worth of the finest hospital property besides as much
more in medicines. The entire value of the public property captured at this place
of every kind was estimated at $7 million.
We rested at Lexington only one day when we pushed on to
Cynthiana, thence on to Williamstown, Crittenden, Walton, and finally made a
halt at the Five Mile House in front of Covington in the very face of the enemy.
Long lines of bluecoats with their bright new guns and flashing sabers could be
seen marching backwards and forwards in front of their rifle pits. After menacing
them for three days, we, in imitation of the Arabs of old, “folded our tents
and silently stole away.”
This retreat, if such it might be called, was continued with
only the loss of a few stragglers until we reached Walton where we encamped for
three days. While we were here resting, General Churchill ordered Lieutenant
Colonel Bunn to move his 4th Arkansas and two cannons from Captain
Humphrey’s battery down to Hamilton, a landing on the Ohio River about 22 miles
below Covington, for the purpose of intercepting a small gunboat which it was
known was to be at that point about that hour, acting as convoy for the mail packet
from Louisville.
Lieutenant Colonel Bunn reached the landing at about 2:30
a.m. after a march of 13 miles, getting there about 30 minutes too late as the
boat got wind of the intended surprise just in time to save itself. I have alluded
to this incident for the purpose of showing what energy and zeal characterized
the troops which the Confederacy sent into Kentucky. This handful of men made
of march of 30 miles in 22 hours, went to the banks of the Ohio River, and
safely returned to their command, though at any time they were liable to be
surrounded by the enemy and captured. They were at one time within a mile and a
half of a large picket guard of the enemy.
From Walton, our forces moved to War Eagle Creek, thence to
Georgetown and from there passed on in double quick to Mount Sterling, a
distance of 33 miles with the expectation of meeting [the Federal] General
George Morgan in his retreat from Cumberland Gap, but this wily general turned
up into the mountains through a more northerly route. Hence, we were ordered
back to Georgetown. Here we got two days rest again. From this latter place we
marched to Frankfort.
General Bragg and staff having joined us at this city, we
only tarried long enough to inaugurate the Provisional Governor of Kentucky,
Mr. Hawes, when we were ordered to Versailles and thence to Salvisa south of
the Kentucky River. One more day for rest and then we marched back to
Versailles. Here it was announced that the enemy had penetrated as far as
Lawrenceburg, 28 miles below Frankfort, and General Smith’s army was ordered to
march down and join General Withers’ division for the purposes of bringing on a
fight. General Heth’s division with all our artillery went to Lawrenceburg direct.
McNair’s and McCray’s brigades, under General Churchill,
marched through a wild and rocky country along the bed of a dry creek with here
and there a blind mountain path to guide the soldiers. We were without wagons,
artillery, or ambulances. At 11 o’clock we camped in sight of the fires of
General Withers’ division. At 2 o’clock we were in line of battle, expecting
every moment to hear the music, but we tramped 8 weary miles before the roar of
the cannons announced to our expectant troops that the fun was at hand.
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| Brigadier General Thomas J. Churchill |
The cannonading continued about two hours and ceased. When we
reached the scene of action, we learned to our great disappointment that the
game had slipped through our hands, leaving only a beggarly account of 700-800
prisoners and 13 loaded wagons to pay us for two days marching and two nights
bivouacking on the hard ground without blankets and almost without food. Sad
and weary we turned our faces towards the starting point and at nightfall we
were greeted by the pleasant sight of our canvas-covered wagons. Here, however,
we were only allowed a few short hours to rest for ere the morning’s light had
come to dispel the darkness, we were en route to join General Bragg’s army
which had just fought the Battle of Perryville and was then at Harrodsburg.
The Battle of Perryville was, even according to Northern
accounts, a decided victory, but all must feel and think that much of the
fruits of victory were lost by not maintaining our ground and renewing the
engagement on the next day. Of the battle I know but little. Great personal
courage and gallant fighting, such as has not been excelled by any troops
during the war, is universally accorded to the Confederate troops in this
fight.
General McCown assumed command of our division and when our
forces joined General Bragg at Harrodsburg, we were ordered to march four miles
to the southwest of the town and take position in line of battle, expecting to
meet the enemy the next morning. We arose about daybreak the next day from our
fitful and uneasy slumbers, cold, wet, hungry, and worn out from the past week’s
hard marching and to our great sorrow and disappointment, we were ordered to
take up the line of march to Lancaster. Here was the first dawning upon our
minds of that terrible truth that we were beginning to evacuate Kentucky.
Sad, weary, and gloomily we turned our faces southward- no
cheerful smile greeted the passerby as he rode along the silent lines of
infantry- no quick retort nor spirited joke greeted the country citizen as he
sat listless and idle watching in sadness the long columns of glittering
bayonets as they filed down the road which led the Southern army eastward.
Alas, this was a sad day for the army of brave hearts who, bare-footed, ragged,
and half-starved, had marched day and night with blistered feet, without blankets
or tents, to free Kentucky from the clutches of the enemy.
It was an unhappy day for the noble and patriotic men Kentucky
men and women who had, in the fullness of their hearts, “flung out their
banners upon the outer wall” at our coming. But it was a thousand times sadder
for the South when a brave and victorious army, flushed with unparalleled
success and justly esteemed the “Flower of the Southern Troops” was called upon
to give up all the hard-earned fruits of their past two months work and hurry
precipitately out of a country which abounded in every comfort and article of
necessity that our people needed so much.
In reviewing this campaign, the question naturally suggests
itself: if the force sent into Kentucky was not sufficient to sustain itself,
why was it not reinforced in time? It will be answered that the forces of Generals
[Sterling] Price and Breckinridge were expected there in time to assist in
keeping the Federals out, but by unexpected reverses were detained until it was
too late. But it might be asked, why were these contingencies not provided
against? If the Confederacy could not spare the troops, would it not have been
better to have kept General Bragg back in Tennessee with his force and let
General Smith return from Lexington? These are grave questions which better
military men than I have failed to answer satisfactorily and I shall not
attempt it. If General Bragg had been strong enough to successfully meet the troops
under Buell before he reached Louisville, all would have been well. As it was,
we were compelled to yield to a great and unavoidable “military necessity” and
evacuate the country.
In this evacuation, it was highly necessary and important
that we should bring away all of our valuable property captured from the enemy
and keep the Gap out of their possession, which we did. Our retreat was
continued from Harrodsburg, day after day, until our entire force got to
Cumberland Gap where the army was shipped to different points in east
Tennessee. General Smith was entrusted with the very important and responsible
task of covering the retreat and securing the safe passage of our immense train
laden with public property of great value out of Kentucky, which he succeeded
in doing in a manner that stamps him as a great and successful soldier.
In the history of this expedition, I have endeavored to
comment as little as possible upon the movements of General Bragg and the
troops under his command, but as far as General Smith and his command are
concerned, I claim to have given in this short sketch a true and faithful
record. And in future years, when the history of this war comes to be written,
it will be acknowledged that General Smith’s campaign into Kentucky was one of
the most brilliant and successful military expeditions that the world ever saw.
From the time that we started from Loudon, Tennessee on the 7th day of August until our return back to Cumberland Gap on the 22nd day of October, a period of 76 days, we marched 994 miles, making an average march of 13-1/2 miles per day. We captured 900 wagons besides a number of others which were burnt. We captured over 9,000 horses and mules; public property of over $15 million in value at Northern prices. We fought one large battle and over a dozen smaller ones, killing, wounding, and capturing at least 12,000 of the enemy. We brought away nearly 400,000 yards of jeans to clothe our soldiers and what is, perhaps, better than all: this campaign did not cost the Confederacy over 1,200 soldiers in killed, wounded, and prisoners.
W.L.G. [Surgeon Washington L. Gammage]
Source:
“General E.
Kirby Smith’s Campaign in Kentucky,” by Surgeon Washington Lafayette Gammage, 4th
Arkansas Infantry, later Medical Director, McNair’s Brigade, Churchill’s/McCown's Division, Winchester Daily Bulletin (Tennessee), December 2, 1862, pgs.
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