On June 20, 1862, Confederate General Braxton Bragg replaced Beauregard as commander of the Confederate Army of Mississippi, later renamed the Army of Tennessee. He devised a plan to shift the focus of the war in the Western Theater by invading Kentucky. This became known as the Confederate Heartland Offensive, the Kentucky Campaign and the Confederate Invasion of Kentucky. Once in the state, Bragg planned to combine forces with Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith's forces and move against Buell's Army of the Ohio.
On August 15, 1862, the first Confederate troops under Scott entered Kentucky near Monticello. The following day, Heth's column passed through Big Creek Gap while Kirby Smith moved through Rogers' Gap. On August 17, Stevenson's division arrived in front of Cumberland Gap which was occupied by federal forces under command of General George W. Morgan. On the evening of the same day, Kirby Smith struck Morgan's line of communications at Barboursville and Cumberland Ford, effectively isolating Cumberland Gap from the outside world. General Humphrey Marshall was still in Abingdon, Virginia, but expected to cross the border into Kentucky at any given time.
Preceding these movements were reports of increased activity and "a general uprising for the invasion of Kentucky all along the Virginia border." During the first week of August, the Pike County home guards encountered Confederate troops under Moore, Witcher, Menifee and Harmon on three occasions. Citizens were robbed and killed and stores plundered. Eventually, the Home Guards were driven from Piketon. A few days later, a small group of rebels made their way to Prestonsburg and burned some US Government supplies and stole a number of horses from the citizens. On August 16, 1862, according to historian Damian C. Beach, Confederate cavalry repulsed and defeated a unit of Home Guards near Warfield, Lawrence County.
Marshall finally entered Kentucky on August 19, 1862, through Pound Gap. As the situation in Kentucky quickly became unraveled, rumors were rife. According to newspapers reports, "There is said to be no doubt but that the Confederates intend to take possession of the Big Sandy region, drive the Federal force out, and carry the war to the Ohio border."
A letter from Camp McClure in Louisa, Kentucky, clearly illustrates the impending danger that Eastern Kentucky was facing during those days of uncertainty in August of 1862. Written by a soldier to the Cincinnati Commercial, it was re-published by the Louisville Courier-Journal on August 21, 1862.
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| Lower Big Sandy Valley Map by Campbell & Barlow, ca. 1861 |
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| Upper Big Sandy Valley Map by Campbell & Barlow, ca. 1861 Library of Congress |
THE SITUATION IN NORTHEASTERN KENTUCKY.
Camp McClure, Louisa, KY., Aug. 16.
A word in reference to the excitement in Eastern Kentucky, caused by the threats of the secesh to "wipe us out in the Sandy Valley, and follow it up by the invasion of Ohio." Is there reason to fear the execution of these threats? I will give a little of what we know of their proceedings, and let you judge.
A few days since, fifty of the 4th Virginia V. L., in charge of their Major, were recruiting, seventy miles above here, on Tug Fork, and while leisurely eating dinner, disarmed, were fired upon by two hundred mounted rebels. ** They seized their arms, and fought for half an hour, when the Major, with two privates, fell, mortally wounded. By this time the little party, being nearly surrounded and overpowered by numbers, saw their doom if they did not fight their way out. So, with one determined effort, most of them made their escape, leaving but few taken prisoners. Being rapidly pursued, they scattered, every one for his own safety. In the course of a few days, twenty-six of them had wandered into our camp, bringing one severely wounded.
The 200 guerrillas are the companies that so terrified that part of Kentucky by stealing and murdering before we drove them out last winter, and have long deserved the fate Strutton met in this last affair. He was Captain of one of the companies, and was not only killed, but the "Devil of the Mountains," Witcher, Captain of the other company, was severely, and though to be dangerously wounded.
At about the time of this engagement two or three other rebel companies came down the other fork of Sandy to Piketon, took possession of the town, not, however, without some considerable resistance from the Home Guards, who gave them a war on reception from the bushes, killing and wounding several; but their number was so small they were compelled to retreat to the rocks and caves. They were not satisfied with the appropriation of everything, belonging to Union citizens, but had the daring impudence to come down to Prestonsburg and burn all the provisions we had not yet moved from there. The loss was but small, as the stuff had been condemned.
The guerrillas are making great efforts at recruiting men, but secure many by telling them they will be sent to Richmond if they don't enlist, and that they will not be allowed to stay at home as long as they can carry a gun.
Captain Ford *, of the Home Guards, above Piketon, has just arrived with the news that Col. Williams's regiment of 700 mounted men had also crossed the mountain, and have now taken up quarters in Piketon, not, however, without first giving him a call, and that too with a volley of musketry which told him and his squad to skedaddle for their lines. The Captain was exposed to a perfect shower of bullets for one-fourth of a mile, some of them hitting his horse and saddle, but leaving him unhurt. What became of the rest of his men is yet unknown. The Captain is confident, from the number he saw and from the most reliable information, that there is at least one full regiment of mounted rebels.
This is not all. It is believed, and most reliable accounts lead to the conclusion, that these are only the advanced scouts of Humphrey Marshall's expected large army, with which he has so violently threatened Eastern Kentucky.
They are now committing more desperate outrages than ever. Beyond the mountains, every man that does not join the army is sent off as a prisoner, and his family driven from whatever possession they have, which is confiscated to "Southern rights." Capt. Ford saw a party of these poor, unfortunate, home-robbed families that had crossed the mountains, seeking a place to keep from starving to death.
The efforts made to penetrate Kentucky through Cumberland Gap and Pound Gap simultaneously only go to verify their threats of the conquest of Kentucky and the invasion of Ohio. Any one acquainted with the geography of the country through Eastern Kentucky well knows that the Sandy Valley is one of the best natural inlets from Dixie to the Northern States, and that the rebels want no better place than the mountains and hills at the head of Big Sandy to gather and conceal a strength sufficient to annihilate us, and make a march into Ohio in less than three days.
All we want is more force, especially cavalry, and we will wipe them out so effectually that they never again will want to avenge their defeats at Ivy Mountain, Middle Creek, and Pound Gap. Col. Cranor, having been in this part of Kentucky ever since he led the gallant charge at the battle of Middle Creek, is well acquainted with the hills, roads, and creeks, and the people from here to the mountains. His fighting qualities and good generalship make him well prepared to take command of whatever force is sent here. This is an important item, as our success or defeat depends to a very great extent on a perfect knowledge of the geography of the battle ground. To fight these skulking rascals considerable marching must be done - of this we had experience enough to know we might have accomplished tenfold more had we had a more intimate knowledge of the country.
-Cor. Cin. Com.
Notes
* Pike County Home Guard Captain William Ford later enrolled as Captain in the 39th Kentucky Infantry (US), Company B, on September 2, 1862. He was 41 years old. He died on November 24, 1864, of dysentery, at Lexington, Kentucky.
** This engagement is known as the Battle of Beech Creek and took place on August 6, 1862.
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