Forrest
C. Pogue Public History Institute
Forrest
C. Pogue Public History Institute
This tour will allow you to retrace the course of the Battle of Sacramento and learn about the people involved in it. You can begin the tour at any point, but it will work best if you begin either at Greenville [1] or Calhoun [10]. You may also be interested in a second tour we have developed that includes a number of Civil War sites in McLean County not directly related to the Battle of Sacramento.
Confederate forces, under then Lt. Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest, were active in the Green River area during the fall and winter of 1861 protecting the Confederate base and capital at Bowling Green and trying to maintain control of the Green River and the surrounding area, a long time source of food for the lower South.
10,000 Union soldiers under Gen. Thomas Crittenden were in Calhoun protecting Lock and Dam No. 2 and the security of the Union's Ohio River supply lines as the campaign for control of the Mississippi was developing.
Control of the Green River was crucial to both Union and Confederate goals during the maneuvering for position in late 1861 and it made McLean County a focal point for both sides.
On December 27, 1861 Forrest assembled a force of some 300 men in Greenville to scout Union positions in the farming country between there and Calhoun. Union Major Eli Murray, only eighteen years old, led a scouting party out of Calhoun to reconnoiter the area around Sacramento. The two forces collided just south of Calhoun and Forrest won the day in his first engagement. The Union forces emerged with 11 killed and forty missing, while Forrest lost only two men.
Confederate success was fleeting, however, and by February they had withdrawn from Bowling Green and conceded control of the Green River valley to the Union -- losing access to one of the South's traditional sources of food.
While on the tour, drive carefully, signal before pulling over, and respect private property
1. Greenville, Muhlenberg County Courthouse
On December 27, 1861, Forrest assembled his forces in Greenville, the
county seat of Muhlenberg County around the courthouse. There, 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. 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.
KY Historical Society Marker 614
Forrest's troops camped on the grounds of the church the evening of
December 28 after the Battle of Sacramento. At least three Union veterans
of the Civil War are buried in the church cemetery The following day Forrest
and his men reached Hopkinsville.
The entrance to the church is on KY 70, approximately 1.2 miles west
of the intersection KY 70 and KY 181. The church is 1 mile from the entrance
gates.
Near here, Forrest and his troop met scouts Adam Johnson and Robert Martin who warned him of the Union troops in Sacramento. Forrest hurried to Sacramento to engage the Union troops before they moved on -- displaying what became his characteristic aggressiveness. Closer to Sacramento he met Molly Morehead, who gave him more precise information about the Union troops there.
Part of Major Murray's scouting party was watering their
horses at a pond here when the advance party of Forrest's force, including
Forrest spotted them. The two groups made visual contact and initially
the Union troops were unsure whether Forrest's men were Con-federates or
another Union scouting party. Any doubt was resolved when Forrest grabbed
a rifle and fired at the Union troops. They quickly returned fire, mounted,
and rode quickly to rejoin the main force.
Garst's Pond is 2.3 miles North of the intersection of 81 and 181.
The Union rear guard returned 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, the Union commander 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.
KY Historical Society Marker 523
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.
Proceed North on 81 through Sacramento.
Mary (Molly) Morehead was the eighteen-year old daughter of Hugh More
head. She and her sister, Sarah, were on an errand when they saw Union
troops near Garst's Pond. While her sister went to tell her father, she
rode toward Green-ville to alert Confederate troops there. In his report
Forrest referred to her as "a beautiful young lady, smiling, with
untied tresses floating in the breeze, on horse-back, met the column just
before our ad-vance guard came up on the rear of the enemy, infusing nerve
into my arms and kindling knightly chivalry within my heart." Her
name, not in Forrest's report, was unknown until her story, maintained
in her family, was published in McLean County News in 1962. She married
Dr. George Stowers, a dentist, in 1866 and died in childbirth in 1870.
The cemetery is on the east side of the highway, North of the church.
Molly's grave is in the northeast section of the cemetery.
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 shots narrowly missed. Forrest turned returned
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 of men
and horses 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.
Station Baptist Church is 5.1 miles North of Sacramento on Highway 81.
Union troops were sent to Calhoun to protect the original lock and dam
at this site, which was located across the river on the Ramsey side. The
lock and dams promoted navigation on the Green River and had allowed the
region around the river to become a major source of food for the lower
south as it became more involved in growing cotton. These same lock and
dams allowed the Union army to move men and supplies along the river.
Go across the Green River on Highway 81 around the curve to the stop
sign. Turn right onto KY 256 to the Lock and Dam.
Union commander Thomas L. Crittenden made this house his headquar-ters
when he arrived to protect Lock and Dam Number 2 in November 1861. The
house was built in 1854 by the heirs of John Calhoun, for whom the city
is named, and was purchased by W.W. Franklin in 1859. On February 9, 1862
Crittenden and his troops left the area. The house was listed on the National
Register of Historic Places in 1975.
KY Historical Society Marker 665
McLean County Civil War Sites Tour
Updated 4/12/98 Comments: Bill.Mulligan@murraystate.edu
