Forrest
C. Pogue Public History InstituteForrest
C. Pogue Public History InstituteWilliam H. Mulligan, Jr.
Definition of the battlefield at Sacramento raises several concerns. As a skirmish rather than a set battle action was very fluid, moving rapidly over a long narrow corridor. The number of troops involved on both sides in the skirmish was not large and the action consisted of a brief encounter between the two forces and pursuit of the retreating Union forces as they withdrew towards Calhoun. Identifying the battlefield and the route the encounter followed, however, has not been difficult.
There is the related definitional issue of where the engagement, and thus the area eligible to be nominated, began and ended. Forrest began in Greenville and the Union troops began their patrol in Calhoun. These seem too remote from the engagement for inclusion in the boundary and National Register Bulletin 40, Guidelines for Identifying, Evaluating, and Registering America's Historic Battlefields clearly excludes such areas. Following the Guidelines, the potential area for the battlefield at Sacramento is logically defined as including three areas. The first is the area around Garst's Pond, where the two forces first made contact. The second area is a large, open field to the North of Garst's Pond where the main engagement took place. The final segment is the route (Kentucky Highway 81) from the site of the engagement through the village of Sacramento to Station Church on which the two sides fought. These three segments include the entire area in which active combat between the two sides took place and which meets the standards of Bulletin 40.
In December 1861 Sacramento, Kentucky was a small village, serving as a service center for surrounding farms. It was connected to Greenville to the South and Calhoun to the North by a narrow road. While this is still essentially true today, there have been significant changes in the landscape. A smaller area is proposed for inclusion on the National Register.
Because the site of Garst's Pond has seen major changes, it is not included in the nominated area. The pond has been filled in and several modern industrial buildings have been erected. This portion of the battlefield has lost too much integrity to be included. The right of way of Kentucky Highway 81 from the field in which the main engagement took place to Station Church is also excluded because of the large number of post-1865 structures along the course of the highway, except for the area immediately around Station Church. The field where the main engagement took place is nominated. It is bounded by Kentucky 85, Kentucky 81, and Moore Road. At the time of the battle it was agricultural land and still is except for a two-bay car wash that occupies a very small part of the field at the intersection of Kentucky 81 and 85.
The site of the Battle of Sacramento, Kentucky is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places as significant under Criterion A as an important incident in the western theater of the Civil War and Criterion B because of its association with several officers who later went on to prominence in the Union and Confederate armies, especially Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest, one of the most colorful and enduringly popular Southern Civil War generals, saw his first combat action at Sacramento.
As the North and the South began to develop their overall Strategies for Victory in the Civil War, the western theater, especially control of the Mississippi River, loomed large for both sides. Control of the Mississippi and its major tributaries would allow the North to divide the South and prevent the movement of food and supplies from the lower South and the trans-Mississippi region through New Orleans. Conversely control of the Mississippi River system would not only allow the South to move food and supplies freely, but it would severely restrict Union operations in the interior by denying the Northern armies water transportation. From the very beginning of the War both sides moved carefully to deny the other an advantage in region where the Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi came together.
The Green River and its tributaries drain twenty-five Kentucky counties before emptying into the Ohio River. Over its course from near Bowling Green to the Ohio River, near Henderson, it became an important economic resource for residents of its valley. Early in the 1800s, its main use was for transporting the lumber that lined its banks to markets and mills in Evansville. By the midÄ1830s, four locks and dams had been constructed along the river allowing year-round transportation of goods. Out of this grew a new market for local farmers who began to send their foodstuffs to Southern plantations that were busy planting "King Cotton." These established routes for the movement of food to the South made control of the Green River important for the Confederacy. Maintaining access to established food supplies was crucial to Southern success in the War. Controlling the Green River's northern stretch and its confluence with the Ohio near Henderson was important to the North to prevent interruption of its supply lines along the Ohio River. As Grant began planning his campaign for control of the Mississippi during the winter of 1861 the Ohio River became more and more important as a secure line of supply. Disrupting Southern access to food was a secondary consideration.
The coming of War with the shelling of Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12, 1861 put Kentucky in a particularly difficult position. As a slave state Kentucky had many ties with the states that had seceded and shared many of their concerns about the future of slavery under a Republican president and the equity of federal policies such as the tariff. However, unlike many other slave states Kentucky had a strong unionist political tradition. Henry Clay, the state's great political leader of the first half of the century, and John J. Breckinridge, his successor, had both built their careers on the primacy of the Union for Kentucky's economic welfare. Support for the Union as a basic principle of political life ran deep in Kentucky. The issues that tore apart the Union also tore at the fabric of Kentucky communities and families. Kentucky was the native state to both President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis and was also sharply divided in its private loyalties. Spring elections in 1861 chose a state convention which overwhelmingly supported remaining in the Union. The state legislature, also heavily pro-Union, proceeded to declare Kentucky "neutral" rather than support pro-Confederate Governor Beriah Magoffin's call for secession and aid to the Confederacy. In reality, Kentucky was far more deeply divided and politically paralyzed by that division than it was neutral as the secession crisis unfolded.
Lincoln acknowledged the importance of Kentucky to Union success in the War by stating, "I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game." He promised to respect the state's neutrality as long as Confederate forces did the same. Respect for neutrality seems to have meant not stationing federal troops in the state or actively recruiting and training troops. The state guard was expected to protect state and federal property in the Commonwealth.
Kentucky stood between the two armies as they watched each other's every move and maneuver around the Ohio River. When Confederate General Leonidas Polk broke the stalemate by occupying Columbus, Kentucky as the western terminus for a Confederate defense line that quickly spread across southern Kentucky through Bowling Green to the Cumberland Gap in September of 1861, Union General U. S. Grant moved quickly to occupy Paducah and Smith land to protect the confluence of the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Ohio rivers. When Confederate forces began moving north from Bowling Green along the Green River and occupying the lock and dams that controlled navigation on the river, the Union countered by stationing 10,000 troops in Calhoun to protect Lock and Dam Number 2. The war in the western theater was seriously underway and large numbers of troops poured into Kentucky.
In September 1861 all this changed suddenly and dramatically when Confederate troops moved into Kentucky along a broad front across the Commonwealth's southern boundary from Columbus to the Cumberland Gap. [See Map 1] Bowling Green became Kentucky's Confederate state capital with a legislature and officers elected at a convention held in Russellville. Confederate forces occupied several other towns in southern and western Kentucky. Confederate forces in the Green River area moved to secure the water approaches to Bowling Green by obstructing the locks and dams along the Green River. In response, Union forces rushed from Evansville to secure as many of the lock and dams as possible. They were able to fortify Lock and Dam #1 and #2, while Confederate forces seized Lock #3 in Rochester. The Green River became a dividing line between Union and Confederate forces in Kentucky. [See Map 2] For the next eve months it continued to serve as a dividing line as Union forces secured its northeast banks and Confederate forces fortified their northernmost point, Bowling Green. The division along the Green River would grow to reflect the division in Green River country as families and friends split over their allegiance to the Union or the newly formed Confederate government. The Green River area was one of the stronger pro-Confederate areas in the Commonwealth due in some part to the well-established economic connections between the region and the South.
A small skirmish in the small village of Sacramento between the armies massing to hold the Green provided an example of this division and provided experience for several officers who would become prominent in the War as it continued.
In September 1861, Thomas L. Crittenden was appointed Brigadier General in command of Union forces in the Owensboro-Henderson area. He was the son of Kentucky statesman John J. Crittenden who had drawn up the Crittenden Compromise in hopes of preventing the Civil War. John J. saw his own family split as his other son, George, joined the Confederate army in which he also would become a general. In November, Thomas L. Crittenden was stationed in Calhoun, the county seat of McLean County. Here he commanded the Fifth Division of the Army of the Ohio, which was in Calhoun to protect Lock and Dam #2, located across the Green River at Ramsey.
At about the same time, Lt. Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest was leading the Confederate Seventh Tennessee Cavalry in guerrilla activities south of the Green River. Forrest was securing horses, cattle, and other supplies for the Confederate Army in the area. Confederate forces were growing worried about a possible advance by Crittenden's troops across the Green River toward Bowling Green, the center point on the Confederate defense line. This concern would lead directly to the Battle of Sacramento.
On December 27, 1861, Forrest assembled his forces in Greenville, the county seat of Muhlenberg County. There, with reinforcements, Forrest gathered nearly 300 men for a march toward Ramsey the following day. In Greenville, Forrest was joined by Captain W. S. McLemore's forty man unit, James W. Starnes' Eighth Tennessee Cavalry, and Captain Ned Merriweather's First Kentucky Cavalry. That night Adam R. Johnson and Robert Martin were sent to scout the area for Union forces that might have crossed the Green River. [See Map 3]
The morning of the 28th, Forrest's troops rose early and obtained breakfast and lunch for their carry sacks at the farm of a Southern sympathizer just north of Greenville. Forrest moved his men north toward Ramsey where they met Martin and Johnson eight miles outside of Greenville. The scouts reported sighting a Union force just south of Sacramento. Forrest pressed his forces quickly toward the small village nine miles south of Calhoun.
Meanwhile, just south of Sacramento, 18-year-old Major Eli Murray commanded a Union scouting party of 168 men. It was one of two scouting parties sent out from Calhoun the previous day. The scouting party included elements from Companies A, B, C, and D of the Third Kentucky Cavalry. Murray was watering his horses at Garst's Pond unaware of Forrest's advancing forces. He was also unaware that a young lady named Mollie Morehead, daughter of a local Southern sympathizer, was riding toward Forrest to advise him of the Union Army's location. The young lady "with untied tresses floating in the breeze," as Forrest described in his report was "infusing nerve into my arm and kindling knightly chivalry within my heart." Forrest sent Johnson ahead to determine the exact position of Murray's force. Upon Johnson's return, Forrest followed him to a steep ridge overlooking Garst's Pond.
Union troops sighted the men on the ridge. Major Murray was initially unsure who they were, believing they might be part of another Union scouting party. Murray was did not know the other scouting party had already returned to Calhoun. All doubts were ended, though, when Forrest seized a young private's rifle and fired on the Union troops.
The Union rear guard resumed immediately to its main force. Forrest began his attack without his full force, part of whom were still catching up after the pressed advance. Federal forces fired at 200 yards and Confederate troops returned fire at 80 yards. Realizing his disorganization, Forrest pulled his forces back waiting until all his men had caught up with the main force. At the same time, he dismounted some of his men to act as sharpshooters. Then, he sent detachments under Major D.C. Kelly to the Union right and James W. Starnes to the Union left.
Mistaking Forrest's withdrawal as a retreat, Murray began to advance his outnumbered force. But, with the reorganization of his entire force complete, Forrest began a second attack on the Union center at the same time Kelly and Starnes attacked the Union flanks. During the charge on the Union center, Captain Ned Merriweather fell as he was struck by two bullets in the head. Murray's troops held off the Confederate attack for ten minutes. Optimistic about their ability to withstand further attacks, Crittenden later reported that the Union force was doing well until a young private screamed "Retreat to Sacramento." The Union troops turned and ran toward Sacramento despite their officers' attempts to stop them.
Sacramento was not a safe haven as Southern sympathizers in the village fired on the Union soldiers forces from their businesses and houses. In Sacramento, Forrest's men caught up with a Union rear guard resulting in a great deal of hand-to-hand combat, including various saber fights. In the midst of the chase Forrest was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with a Union soldier and was unaware of a second soldier approaching him from the rear. Lt. Lane, CSA shot this soldier just as Forrest brought his foe to the ground. Union Captain Arthur Davis killed Confederate Private William H. Terry with his sword and then turned and attacked Forrest from behind. His horse fell, however, and dismounted and with a dislocated shoulder, he was forced to surrender. Another Union Captain Albert G. Bacon next engaged Forrest, but his shot narrowly missed. Forrest turned and resumed fire, wounding Bacon, who refused to surrender, fighting to his death. Two Union officers charged at Forrest with drawn sabers at the same time. He shot one and hit the other with his sword. Their now riderless horses collided into a heap at the bottom of a "abrupt hillock." In pursuit of the retreating Union troops Forrest rode into the pile and ended up off his own horse.
The pursuit of the Union troops had extended some two miles north of Sacramento toward Calhoun. By the time Forrest was back on his horse the Union troops were out of sight and close to the larger force in Calhoun. He decided to abandon pursuit and return to Greenville. As soon as he had heard of the engagement, Crittenden had sent a 500-man relief force under Col. James Jackson of the Third Kentucky Cavalry, but by the time they arrived in the area Forrest was gone, well on his way back to Greenville. They camped outside town at the Mt. Pisgah Church and then headed for Hopkinsville the next day.
Union reports counted eleven dead including Capt. Bacon. They also listed forty men as missing, some of whom had been taken as prisoners. Forrest lost only two men Capt. Merriweather and Pvt. Terry.
Crittenden occupied Calhoun until February 1862, spending a ten-day period in January in South Carrolton in Muhlenberg County to counter a Confederate force in Russellville. On February 9 Crittenden moved on Bowling Green as part of the overall Union advance led by Grant's assault on Forts Henry and Donelson. The Confederates abandoned Bowling Green as their defense line crumbled in the face of the Union assault across a wide front. Crittenden occupied Bowling Green and Union control of the Green River was secure for the rest of the War. The Green River Valley was no longer a focal point of activity.
The Battle of Sacramento, as the skirmish is known, was important and remains significant because of its association with key events in the Civil War both nationally and more strongly in Kentucky. It points to the importance of controlling the western rivers for both sides in the War; the divisive nature of the Civil War, especially the particular problems this divisiveness posed for the Union army operating in officially loyal Kentucky; and it marked the first combat experience for several officers who went on to play important roles in the War, offering some insight into their character and military style.
The divisiveness of the Civil War is apparent in both the events of the Battle of Sacramento and those involved in it. The Union commander in Calhoun, Thomas Crittenden, was a member of that prominent political family. His father, John J. Crittenden, had worked until the eleventh hour to effect a compromise to avert the crisis of secession, filling much the same role Henry Clay had played in earlier sectional crises. His brother, George, served in the Confederate army and also rose to the rank of General. The course of the battle shows the strong Confederate loyalties of many in Union Kentucky. Molly More head rode out to warn Forrest of the presence of Union troops at Sacramento, who were, at least officially, protecting Sacramento from Forrest. The loyalties in Sacramento were also expressed by the citizens who fired upon the retreating Union troops as they passed through the village. Many of the residents of Sacramento were arrested later and forced to take an oath of allegiance to the Union in Calhoun. The harsh treatment of Kentucky civilians by Union troops who operated as an occupying army is another aspect of the Civil War in officially Union Kentucky that was profoundly important in the postwar history of the Commonwealth and one which has not been widely acknowledged or studied.
Sacramento was a very early engagement in a war that continued for forty months. A number of the officers saw action there for the first time and went on to distinguished careers.
On the Union side, most notable are Lt. Robert H. King, who escaped capture at Sacramento and by 1864 was Colonel, commanding the Third Kentucky Cavalry, USA; and major Eli Murray, who rose to the rank of Brevet Brigadier General and served with Sherman on his march through Georgia.
More of those involved on the Confederate side rose to prominence. Major D.C. Kelly, known as Forrest's Fighting Preacher, rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and commanded a regiment in the Seventh Tennessee Cavalry. Captain W. S. McLemore achieved the rank of Colonel and commanded the Fourth Tennessee Regiment. James W. Starnes also rose to the rank of Colonel and preceded McLemore as commander of the Fourth Tennessee before becoming one of Forrest's brigade commanders. The two scouts, Robert Martin and Adam Johnson, later organized the Tenth Kentucky Partisan Rangers (later known as the Tenth Kentucky Cavalry). This regiment served with John Hunt Morgan, another great Confederate cavalry commander in the western theater, Martin reached the rank of Colonel. Unable to serve in the cavalry after injuries, he was sent to Canada by Judah P. Benjamin on behalf of the Confederacy and in 1864 tried to burn New York City Johnson rose to the rank of Brigadier General and commanded the Confederate district of Western Kentucky late in the War.
The most famous of those involved at Sacramento, of course, is Nathan Bedford Forrest. Promoted to Brigadier General in July 1862 he was a Lieutenant General by February 1865. He attained fame as a cavalry genius who had no formal military training because of his activities in western Kentucky and Tennessee and northern Mississippi. After the Union successes at Forts Henry and Donelson, Forrest was the Confederate resistance in western Kentucky with numerous daring cavalry raids. Sacramento was his first action as a commander and he displayed the tactics and conduct that became the foundation for his image and reputation. His colorful report, his personal courage in hand-to-hand combat, and his success at Sacramento began the emergence of a colorful leader who inspired fierce loyalty in his troops and enduring respect among Confederate supporters.
The final way in which the Battle of Sacramento is significant is not in what is unusual about it, but in its typicality. The Civil War in Kentucky, especially western Kentucky, saw few large scale battles. Much more common were skirmishes like Sacramento where patrols encountered one another, engaged in combat, and then broke off the action.
The Battlefield at Sacramento offers an unusual opportunity to appreciate the site of one of these skirmishes, most of which are too poorly documented to locate precisely.
The Battle of Sacramento May 11, 1995 (Calhoun: McLean County News, 1995).
Edith L. Bennett and Eldon Ray Eaton. Our Own USA CSA McLean County, Kentucky. Fordsville, KY: Wendell Sandefur Printing for the McLean County Historical Society, 1995.
Robert S. Henry. "First with the Most" Forrest. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1944.
Jack Hurst. Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.
Jack Hurst. As They Saw Forrest. Jackson, TN: McMowat-Mercer Press, 1956.
Lowland R. Johnson. The Falls City Engineers: A History of the Louisville District. Louisville: Corps of Engineers, United States Army, 1974.
Thomas Jordan and J. D. Pryor. The Campaigns of Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest and of Forrest's Cavalry. Dayton: Morningside Bookshop Press, 1973.
John Lucas. "Civil War heritage is Kentucky town's battle cry," The Evansville Courier, April 30, 1995.
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Lonnie E. Maness. An Untutored Genius: The Military Career of General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Oxford, MS: Guild Bindery Press, 1990.
J. Harvey Mathes. General Forrest. New York: Appleton and Company, 1902.
Otto Arthur Rothbert. A History of Muhlenberg County. Louisville: J. P. Morton, 1913.
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Journal Job Printing Co., 1897.
The area nominated as the Battle of Sacramento Battlefield is bounded on the South by Kentucky Highway 81 from Moore road to its intersection with Kentucky Highway 85 (app. 0.5 miles); on the West by A.C. Moore Road from Kentucky Highway 81 to Whitmer Road; on the East by Kentucky Highway 85 from its intersection with Kentucky Highway 81 north three-tenths of a mile (0.3) of a mile; and on the North by a line from the intersection of A.C. Moore Road and Whitmer Road east to Kentucky Highway 85 0.3 miles from its intersection with Kentucky Highway 81.
The area proposed for nomination represents the site where the main engagement of the Battle of Sacramento took place.
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Comments to:Bill.Mulligan@murraystate.edu