On This Day

Feb 11, 1862--Tuesday, 11 February 1862. On the 9^th immediately after breakfast (skipped church again), we moved out in two columns, on the road north toward the Barren River. We crossed this early that morning and continued north for perhaps 15 miles, arriving at the Green River.  Since the Green marks our outer line of defense, we were in generally unchartered territory.  We found the ford passable, and continued another 5 miles or so, to Round Hill.  This area is reputed to be cave country and there are many visible sinkholes.

Here we turned west on the road to South Hill, Dawson Springs and Princeton and proceeded to ride another hour. We had not previously broken for dinner, so stopped to rest the horses and eat our rations. So far we had spotted nothing unusual. After our rest, we continued west another two hours and reached the Green River, again.  We decided to cross to the south bank and set up camp. The area was wooded, and afforded us some cover from the elements. We did our cooking early, then pretty much kept the fire low, not wanting to attract a surprise attack by any marauding Yankees. We posted two sentries and huddled under our blankets, because it was mighty cold that night.

After breakfast on the 10^th, we moved out, directly south.  About an hour later, we crested a hill and one of the boys happened to glance back toward the river.

“Good God almighty!” he exclaimed. “Look behind you.”

We all turned in our saddles and were dumb-struck.  On the north side of the river, was a massive force of Yankees, including cavalry and infantry.  The ribbon of blue seemed to spread for miles and there were cannon, limbers, caissons and wagons everywhere in long lines.

“Do you think they spotted us?” someone asked.  

“If they had, their cavalry would be crossing the river, already,” Tyler replied. “Let us get the horses out of sight and then hunker down, and watch them for a while. We’ll try to get a good head count.”

So we tethered the horses on the other side of the hill, and then Tyler, me and Warther observed them for about half an hour. Our best guess was we were looking at a division because we saw three distinct brigades.  Probably with the cavalry and artillery, 4200 men, give or take.

“I am sure Major Williams will be interested in this,” Warther said. “They plan on crossing because their officers keep pointing to the river and gesturing.  Probably just waiting for the wagons to catch up with the main column. We’re about 20 miles from Bowling Green, so even with the infantry they could be there in 6-7 hours. Don’t you think?”

“I don’t know much about marching but imagine pushing infantry more than 15 miles in a day is a stretch,” I replied. “Still, they are coming our direction, so it would be best if we move out and get back to our lines, as quickly as we can.”

Tyler agreed and we were soon in the saddle again, moving southeast.  Several hours of hard riding brought us to the north side of the Barren, and we knew we could follow its meander from higher ground, almost all the way to our camp.  The roads were poor in this area and at times, we moved across fields instead.  About 2:00 PM, we spotted another Yankee column on the opposite bank of the river. This was a regiment but they had deployed a skirmish line and a few of them aimed muskets our way and fired. We were out of their range and vice versa, but we fired a few rounds back at them just for spite.

Still later, across the river we saw large clouds of dust on the horizon and suspected it was more Yankees. It appeared to us that they were closing a noose around Bowling Green from the north and west.  We got back to camp at sunset, and Captain Tyler immediately went to headquarters to discuss our sightings with Major Williams.