America’s Civil War: Battle for Kentucky

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It had been almost one month since Confederate General Braxton Bragg had pulled off an organizational masterpiece–four weeks since the first troop trains had rumbled into Chattanooga, Tennessee, completing an improbable 800-mile odyssey. Bragg had engineered one of the most innovative strategic strokes of the Civil War. An entire Confederate Army had been lifted from in front of nearby Union forces, transported on the rickety Southern railways, and deposited on the enemy’s vulnerable flank.

Bragg now had the Northern Army of the Ohio, along with its commander, Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, sitting frozen in the middle of Tennessee, with no conception of what the Rebels planned to do next. Having gained the advantage of complete surprise, Bragg then proceeded to throw it away.

For 30 days of good Tennessee summer, the Confederates had remained almost immobile–30 days of the campaign season gone. Instead of moving fast, Bragg had squandered the time putting the finishing touches on his army’s organization, pulling in supplies, getting cannons shined to gleaming perfection. In the meantime, General Edmund Kirby Smith, commanding another Confederate army in eastern Tennessee, sorted out his own personal brainchild, an audacious invasion of Kentucky.

Ignoring Bragg’s desire to unite their two forces and strike Buell’s army, thus liberating the Tennessee capital of Nashville, Smith formulated his own plan. Masking the Union troops in the Cumberland Gap with 9,000 men, he took the remainder of his force, 6,000 bayonets, around the baffled Northern forces. The Confederates passed into Kentucky through Roger’s Gap, found the aptly named ‘Barrens’ area unable to supply proper provisions, and struck out for the fabled bluegrass region.

On August 30, 1862, they met and destroyed a grass-green Union army of 7,000 men, the only organized troops then in Kentucky, at Richmond, capturing 4,300 of them and opening the door for Smith to move anywhere he desired.

On the other side of the fence, Buell was quite aware of the dire consequences if Smith and Bragg managed to unite behind him and sever his lifeline with the North. Never one to move forward precipitately, Buell now managed to hustle to the rear quite well. The Army of the Ohio moved back to Nashville, scooping up Union detachments all the way.

Bragg was now in a dilemma. His indecision had allowed his original plan to fall into ruins. There was no way he could attack the Union entrenchments at Nashville with his inferior numbers, nor could he increase the size of his army unless he united with Smith. But, much to his annoyance, Smith had gone off on a cross-country joyride through Kentucky.

At this point, an intelligent man would have realized that Smith had already made his decision for him. Bragg was being dragged north whether he wanted to go or not. His only choice was to join his fellow Confederate in Kentucky. A rapid thrust might yet dislodge Buell by threatening his rail line to Louisville, the chief source of his men and supplies. Reluctantly, Bragg gave the order to march.

Bragg’s Confederates and Buell’s Unionists now began a race northward. They marched on roughly parallel courses, the Rebels aiming for Glasgow, the Yankees for Bowling Green. Bragg had the advantage over his opponent in this race–Buell had to be wary that this wasn’t a trick to lure him out of Nashville while the Rebel army doubled back to take the city. Consequently, Bragg reached his objective on September 12, two days ahead of Buell.

At Glasgow, Bragg issued a proclamation to the people of Kentucky, offering to free them from ‘the tyranny of a despotic ruler’ and to ‘restore…the liberties of which you have been deprived by a cruel and relentless foe.’ It was a rather flamboyant appeal, but it fell on deaf ears. Perhaps, as Smith noted, ‘Their hearts are evidently with us, but their bluegrass and fat cattle are against us.’

Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts

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