Civil War Wiki
Battle of Mill Springs
Part of the American Civil War
Battle of Mill Springs
by Currier and Ives
Date January 19, 1862
Location Pulaski County and Wayne County, Kentucky
Result Union victory
22x20px United States (Union) 22x20px CSA (Confederacy)
George H. Thomas George B. Crittenden
4,400 (four brigades) 5,900 (two brigades)
Casualties and losses
39 killed, 207 wounded[1] 125 killed, 404 wounded/missing[1]



which had the responsibility for guarding the Cumberland Gap, the gateway for entering pro-Unionist East Tennessee.[2]




File:Mill Springs Confederate attacks.png

Battle of Mill Springs, Confederate attacks      Confederate      Union

File:Mill Springs Union attacks.png

Battle of Mill Springs, Union attacks





Casualties were relatively light: Union losses were 39 killed and 207 wounded, Confederate 125 killed and 404 wounded or missing.[1] Crittenden's military career was also a casualty. Accused of drunkenness and treason, his army was disbanded and he was reassigned to be a corps commander under Buckner at Bowling Green. Within two months he was relieved of his command and arrested for a subsequent episode of drunkenness.[9] In October 1862, after a court of inquiry ordered by General Braxton Bragg, Crittenden resigned as a general and served without rank on the staff of Brig. Gen. John S. Williams and other officers in western Virginia for the remainder of the war.[10]


Battlefield today[]

The Mill Springs battlefield is located in Pulaski County, not far from Nancy, Kentucky. The historic town of Mill Springs, after which the battle was named, is actually some distance away across Lake Cumberland. Portions of the battlefield are preserved as a county park (named Zollicoffer Park in honor of the slain general). The Mill Springs Battlefield Association has protected portions of the battlefield by the acquisition of development rights to what is still a largely rural landscape, or by outright purchase. Zollicoffer Park contains the Confederate Cemetery, which consists of a mass grave. There is a corresponding Mill Springs National Cemetery in Nancy, where the Union dead were interred.

The battlefield, which covers about 105 acres, was named by the United States Secretary of the Interior as one of the top twenty-five priority battlefields and is considered a historic landmark. The Zollie Tree was the tree attributed as the place Felix Zollicoffer fell; it no longer exists, the victim of a lightning strike, but the stump is marked.

On November 4, 2006, the Mill Springs Battlefield Visitors Center and Museum was officially dedicated.[12] Several commemorative ceremonies are held at the battlefield each year, including candlelight tours, living history presentations, and occasional re-enactments.


  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Eicher, p. 163.
  2. Esposito, text to map 25.
  3. Eicher, p. 161; Kennedy, p. 32; Woodworth, pp. 65-66.
  4. Woodworth, p. 67.
  5. Eicher, p. 162; Woodworth, pp. 67-68.
  6. Fry is generally credited with firing the fatal shot that killed General Zollicoffer, although this has been disputed since there was also a group of Union soldier around Colonel Fry who fired at the same time. See for instance, Brown, p. 63, and Eicher, p. 162. Johnston, p. 54, states that Zollicoffer was killed by "a Federal officer." Smith, p. 18, contends that the recognition of Fry's role was from General Thomas, but that Southern historians prefer to attribute the deaths to a volley from Fry's regiment. According to an account of Dr. D. B. Cliffe, one of Zollicoffer's surgeons, the general died from four bullets—two in the head and one each in the chest and thigh.
  7. Eicher, p. 162; Kennedy, p. 32; Woodworth, p. 68.
  8. Woodworth, pp. 68-69; Hewitt, p. 43; Eicher, pp. 162-63.
  9. Woodworth, pp. 68-69.
  10. Hewitt, p. 43.
  11. Kennedy, p. 30.
  12. "It's Open!", The Zollie Tree (newsletter of the Mill Springs Battlefield Association), V. XI, No. 7, Winter 2007, p. 1.


External links[]

Coordinates: 37°03′22″N 84°44′18″W﻿ / ﻿37.0562°N 84.7383°W﻿ / 37.0562; -84.7383

ja:ミル・スプリングスの戦い zh:密爾斯普林斯之役 nl:Slag bij Mill Springs