The Union Advances

Union General George H. Thomas was ordered to move his Union troops toward Logan’s Cross Roads while Brigadier General Albin Francisco Schoepf’s troops were on their way from Somerset. Together, they would concentrate their combined forces to drive the Confederate army out of Kentucky.

Slowed by dismal winter weather conditions and muddy roads, Thomas’s Union army marched into Logan’s Cross Roads (present-day Nancy, Kentucky) on January 17, 1862. Unknown to the Confederate command at the time, Schoepf’s forces had also arrived at the rendezvous point, wading across the swollen Fishing Creek on their march from Somerset.

Fearing that the combined Union forces of Thomas and Schoepf would overpower the Confederate’s fortified Beech Grove encampment, Crittenden held a council of war on January 18th. The decision was made to take the enemy by surprise and mount an offensive attack the next day. At midnight on January 19th, the Confederate army began their march to meet the enemy at Logan’s Cross Roads with Zollicoffer commanding the lead brigade. The winter rain left the road muddy, slowing the troops and dampening most of the Confederate’s gunpowder and muskets. Crittenden had hoped to take the Union army by surprise, but pickets of the 1st Kentucky Cavalry and 10th Indiana encountered the vanguard of the Confederate army, firing the first shots of the Battle of Mill Springs around 6:30 a.m. near Timmy’s Branch.

Following this initial skirmish, units from Mississippi and Tennessee advanced on the Union positions but encountered stiff resistance from the 10th Indiana Infantry and the 4th Kentucky Infantry of the Union Army. Confederate troops west of the road, led by Zollicoffer, pressured the Union troops while the regiments east of the road attempted to flank Union troops from below at a ravine. The battle seesawed back and forth until Thomas sent reinforcements forward to stabilize the Union position.

Loss of a Leader