Impacts of the Battle

The Battle of Mill Springs served as a Northern rallying call and a strategic Federal victory. After the U.S. defeat at The First Battle of Manassas the previous summer and a series of military setbacks throughout 1861, the outcome of the Civil War was in doubt. The Battle of Mill Springs provided a much needed boost to Northern morale, and the national press was quick to cover such a major Federal victory.

In an issue of Harper’s Weekly dated February 8, 1862, the magazine used the victory at Mill Springs, also known as the Battle of Somerset, to evaluate the status of the Confederate army in Kentucky and assess the war effort as a whole. According to the article, The United States Victory at Somerset, Kentucky:

“The advantages which this victory gives us in clearing East Kentucky of rebel armies, and opening the way to the capture of Bowling Green and an immediate advance into Tennessee are evident. It remain[s] only for us to consider the direct and indirect effects of our triumph upon the people of the rebel States. …Still, if we may trust at all to the signs of the times, this victory at Somerset inaugurates the close of the rebellion and may be not inappropriately termed ‘the beginning of the end.’”

The victory at Mill Springs was closely followed by Federal victories at Fort Henry (February 6, 1862) and Fort Donelson (February 11 – 16, 1862), bringing Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant to national prominence.

The Federal Army’s strategy to control Kentucky is best summed up by Abraham Lincoln’s comment written to his friend O.H. Browning in a letter dated September 22, 1861: “I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri, nor Maryland. These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of this capitol.”