| Battle of the Cumberland Gap | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the American Civil War | |||||||
 Cumberland Gap Defenses | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States (Union) |  CSA (Confederacy) | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| George W. Morgan | Carter L. Stevenson | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 4 brigades | 3 brigades | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 0 [2] | unknown [3] | ||||||
The June 1862 capture of the Cumberland Gap was a Union victory during the American Civil War leading to Union occupation of the Cumberland Gap for three months.
The Confederates held a long line of fortifications across Kentucky, Tennessee and into Missouri under Albert Sidney Johnston. The center of Johnston's defenses was Bowling Green, KY with the left flank anchored at Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River and the right held by Brig. Gen. Felix Zollicoffer at the Cumberland Gap. [4]
In early 1862 the Union Army had met with great success in the Western Theater. A string of victories at Mill Springs, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Island No. 10, and Shiloh had broken the Confederate defenses at several key points, and both Zollicoffer and Johnston had died in action (at Mill Springs and Shiloh respectively).
In March 1862 Brig. Gen. George W. Morgan sent a brigade under Brig. Gen. Samuel P. Carter against the eastern end of the Confederate defenses at the Cumberland Gap. These defenses were now held by Col. James Edward Rains after Zollicoffer's defeat and death at Mill Springs. The Confederate works were considered too formidable to be taken by direct assault [5] and Carter's force lacked sufficient artillery to match the well placed Confederate batteries.
By April, General Morgan was moving against the gap with the remaining three brigades of his division. Morgan's force now included the brigades of Carter, James G. Spears, John F. DeCourcy and Absalom Baird along with a brigade of artillery and cavalry. Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Carter L. Stevenson brought up the remaining brigades of Seth Maxwell Barton and T.H. Taylor to Col. Rain's defense. Morgan proposed to Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell that Chattanooga be threatened in order to force the Confederates to pull their strength away from the Cumberland Gap. At the same time General Edmund Kirby Smith, Confederate commander in eastern Kentucky, proposed a threat against Nashville to draw Union forces away from the gap. Only Morgan got his wish. [6] A Union division under Brig. Gen. James S. Negley attacked Chattanooga on June 7, 1862. This demonstration against Chattanooga was small but it proved the Union forces could strike where they wanted. [7] It was enough for Kirby Smith to reconsider Stevenson's position at the Cumberland Gap.
The Union advance against the gap was made over difficult terrain, particularly in regards to the artillery brought with. Morgan was also forced to abandon his supply lines and rely solely upon foraging. Through two weeks of maneuvering through enemy territory Morgan reached the gap without losing a single man. [8] Kirby Smith ordered Stevenson to withdraw to Chattanooga in response to Negley's attack. On June 18 Morgan reported to General Buell he had taken control of the "American Gibraltar". [8]
General Morgan praised his division for the efficiency of their actions in the face of logistical difficulties. Even though he held a strong defensive position, Morgan was far from any Union base with no established supply lines. His reports to Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck however remained full of optimism. As late as August, 1862 Morgan reported he had no intentions of evacuating the gap and "if the enemy attacks he will be crushed". [6] Kirby Smith's attention had been devoted to securing Chattanooga. It was not until Confederates under Braxton Bragg invaded Kentucky that Morgan found himself facing a serious Confederate threat. Morgan was forced to abandon the gap in September 1862, but managed to conduct a masterful withdrawal through enemy territory. The Cumberland Gap would remain in Confederate control until Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside recaptured it in 1863.
The Battle of Chickamauga, fought on September 18–20, 1863, between U.S. and Confederate forces in the American Civil War, marked the end of a Union offensive, the Chickamauga Campaign, in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It was the first major battle of the war fought in Georgia, the most significant Union defeat in the Western Theater, and involved the second-highest number of casualties after the Battle of Gettysburg.
The Battle of Lookout Mountain was fought November 24, 1863, as part of the Chattanooga Campaign of the American Civil War. Union forces under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker assaulted Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and defeated Confederate forces commanded by Maj. Gen. Carter L. Stevenson. Lookout Mountain was one engagement in the Chattanooga battles between Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Military Division of the Mississippi and the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by Gen. Braxton Bragg. It drove in the Confederate left flank and allowed Hooker's men to assist in the Battle of Missionary Ridge the following day, which routed Bragg's army, lifting the siege of Union forces in Chattanooga, and opening the gateway into the Deep South.
The Battle of Stones River, also known as the Second Battle of Murfreesboro, was a battle fought from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, in Middle Tennessee, as the culmination of the Stones River Campaign in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Of the major battles of the war, Stones River had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides. Although the battle itself was inconclusive, the Union Army's repulse of two Confederate attacks and the subsequent Confederate withdrawal were a much-needed boost to Union morale after the defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and it dashed Confederate aspirations for control of Middle Tennessee.
The Battle of Perryville, also known as the Battle of Chaplin Hills, was fought on October 8, 1862, in the Chaplin Hills west of Perryville, Kentucky, as the culmination of the Confederate Heartland Offensive during the American Civil War. Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Mississippi initially won a tactical victory against primarily a single corps of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's Union Army of the Ohio. The battle is considered a strategic Union victory, sometimes called the Battle for Kentucky, since Bragg withdrew to Tennessee soon thereafter. The Union retained control of the critical border state of Kentucky for the remainder of the war.
The Battle of Missionary Ridge was fought on November 25, 1863, as part of the Chattanooga Campaign of the American Civil War. Following the Union victory in the Battle of Lookout Mountain on November 24, Union forces in the Military Division of the Mississippi under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant assaulted Missionary Ridge and defeated the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by Gen. Braxton Bragg, forcing it to retreat to Georgia.
The First Battle of Chattanooga was a minor artillery battle in the American Civil War, fought on June 7–8, 1862.
The Tullahoma campaign was a military operation conducted from June 24 to July 3, 1863, by the Union Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans, and regarded as one of the most brilliant maneuvers of the American Civil War. Its effect was to drive the Confederates out of Middle Tennessee and to threaten the strategic city of Chattanooga.
The First Battle of Murfreesboro was fought on July 13, 1862, in Rutherford County, Tennessee, as part of the American Civil War. Troops under Confederate cavalry commander Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest surprised and quickly overran a Federal hospital, the camps of several small Union units, and the jail and courthouse in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. All of the Union units surrendered to Forrest, and the Confederates destroyed much of the Union's supplies and destroyed railroad track in the area. The primary consequence of the raid was the diversion of Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga.
The Battle of Mill Springs, also known as the Battle of Fishing Creek in Confederate terminology, and the Battle of Logan's Cross Roads in Union terminology, was fought in Wayne and Pulaski counties, near current Nancy, Kentucky, on January 19, 1862, as part of the American Civil War. The Union victory concluded an early Confederate offensive campaign in eastern Kentucky.
The Battle of Davis's Cross Roads, was fought September 10–11, 1863, in northwestern Georgia, as part of the Chickamauga Campaign of the American Civil War. It was more of a series of maneuvers and skirmishes than an actual battle and casualties were negligible.
The siege of Corinth was an American Civil War engagement lasting from April 29 to May 30, 1862, in Corinth, Mississippi. A collection of Union forces under the overall command of Major General Henry Halleck engaged in a month-long siege of the city, whose Confederate occupants were commanded by General P.G.T. Beauregard. The siege resulted in the capture of the town by Federal forces.
Campbell Slemp was a farmer and Confederate officer in southwest Virginia who became a Readjuster Democrat after Congressional Reconstruction and served in the Virginia House of Delegates. He eventually joined Republican Party and won election to the United States House of Representatives from Virginia's 9th congressional district and controlled federal patronage in the Commonwealth from 1903 to 1907. Slemp died unexpectedly at home while in office, after which his son C. Bascom Slemp succeeded to the seat for more than a decade, until ousted during the rise of the Byrd Organization.
The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, also called the Battle of Walnut Hills, fought December 26–29, 1862, was the opening engagement of the Vicksburg Campaign during the American Civil War. Confederate forces under Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton repulsed an advance by Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman that was intended to lead to the capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
The Western Theater of the American Civil War encompassed major military operations in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as Louisiana east of the Mississippi River. Operations on the coasts of these states, except for Mobile Bay, are considered part of the Lower Seaboard Theater. Most other operations east of the Appalachian Mountains are part of the Eastern Theater. Operations west of the Mississippi River took place in the Trans-Mississippi Theater.
James Edwards Rains was a lawyer and colonel in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was appointed and nominated as a brigadier general on November 4, 1862, but his appointment was unconfirmed at the date of his death. He was killed while leading his brigade at the Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro) on December 31, 1862 before the Confederate States Senate acted on his nomination.
The Knoxville campaign was a series of American Civil War battles and maneuvers in East Tennessee during the fall of 1863 designed to secure control of the city of Knoxville and with it the railroad that linked the Confederacy east and west, and position the First Corps under Longstreet for return to the Army of Northern Virginia. Union Army forces under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside occupied Knoxville, Tennessee, and Confederate States Army forces under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet were detached from Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee at Chattanooga to prevent Burnside's reinforcement of the besieged Federal forces there. Ultimately, Longstreet's own siege of Knoxville ended when Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman led elements of the Army of the Tennessee and other troops to Burnside's relief after Union troops had broken the Confederate siege of Chattanooga. Although Longstreet was one of Gen. Robert E. Lee's best corps commanders in the East in the Army of Northern Virginia, he was unsuccessful in his attempt to penetrate the Knoxville defenses and take the city.
The 19th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, or Nineteenth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment, was an infantry regiment in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The 19th Tennessee fought in every major battle and campaign of the Army of Tennessee except the Battle of Perryville. First Lieutenant Robert D. Powell of Company K, killed at the Battle of Barbourville, Kentucky, is believed to be the first soldier killed during the Civil War in that state.
The September 7–9, 1863 fall of the Cumberland Gap was a victory for Union forces under the command of Ambrose Burnside during his campaign for Knoxville. The bloodless engagement cost the Confederates 2,300 men and control of the Cumberland Gap.
The Chattanooga campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in October and November 1863, during the American Civil War. Following the defeat of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans's Union Army of the Cumberland at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg besieged Rosecrans and his men by occupying key high terrain around Chattanooga, Tennessee. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was given command of Union forces in the West, now consolidated under the Division of the Mississippi. Significant reinforcements also began to arrive with him in Chattanooga from Mississippi and the Eastern Theater. On October 18, Grant removed Rosecrans from command of the Army of the Cumberland and replaced him with Major General George Henry Thomas.
The Battle of Augusta was an engagement during the American Civil War that took place on September 27, 1862, in Augusta, Kentucky, between the Bracken County Home Guard (Union) and the Confederate Second Kentucky Cavalry Regiment under command of Colonel Basil W. Duke, a brother-in-law of John H. Morgan. The skirmish resulted in a victory for the Confederacy but the number of Confederate casualties and lack of ammunition for his artillery caused Colonel Duke to abandon plans to cross over the Ohio River into Ohio. A result of the fighting was that twenty buildings were set on fire and destroyed.