Chapter 2 - Marching to Frankfort |
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4 General Bragg's Confederate Army was fast approaching Louisville and General Nelson, the Military Commander of the City, ordered the evacuation of the non-combatants from the city. Nelson's forces were nearly all green troops with only limited training, but they were prepared to do battle. On the 25th day of September, 1862, General Buell's Army arrived in Louisville. Many of the men had marched nearly day and night from Northern Alabama through Tennessee and Kentucky to reach Louisville. The troops watched these exhausted men march into the city. Some men were actually marching without shoes, which they had worn out on the long march from the south. Soldiers were also arriving by Steamer, having come up the Ohio River from the west. With the arrival of Buell's Army of the Ohio, the Union forces in and near Louisville numbered about one hundred thousand, with one-half, including the 11th Kentucky cavalry, being new recruits. Many of these raw soldiers had been pouring into Louisville the past few days from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. The entire city sprouted tents of all kinds, depending on which type had been issued the regiment, and smoke from their cook fires poured over the city. On the 29th of September, they were informed that Bragg had left Bardstown and apparently was in retreat, although he had left a small force at that place. The 29th was also the day that General Nelson had been killed during an argument with Union General Jefferson C. Davis. They were saddened by this tragedy as General Nelson was a well liked and courageous man to the regiments which served under him, and he had been an inspiration to them during the recent rebel threat to Louisville. Upon General Buell's arrival in Louisville, the Army was reorganized and the 11th Kentucky Cavalry was placed in General Dumont's Division of the Department of the Ohio. This Division was made up mainly of newly formed regiments from Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky. On the 1st of October, 1862, and after resting his weary veterans for a few days, General Buell moved with the men towards Bardstown in pursuit of General Bragg. The Division under General Dumont and the Division under General J. W. Sill were to follow the main body and move toward Frankfort through Shelbyville. On October 3rd this Division of raw troops temporarily followed General Sill's Division toward Frankfort. They camped the first night at the farm of Mr. Womack. They arrived at Shelbyville on the evening of the 4th. General Sill preceded the 11th Cavalry's Division into the outskirts of Frankfort. This move to Frankfort was a feint to make the Confederates think Frankfort was the target for the whole army. Meanwhile, General Buell, with the main force moved on toward the southeast. A large part of Bragg's Army was still in the town where a gubernatorial inaugeration was taking place. Bragg had appointed Richard Hawes as Governor of Kentucky and the capitol was full of rebel soldiers and civilians. Sill's artillery opened up on the city, sending rebel soldiers scurrying. General Bragg, thinking the entire Federal force was upon him, quickly withdrew with his men to Versaille, Kentucky. This was on October 4th. On the 6th of October, when the regiment was still in Shelbyville, General Dumont detailed 100 men from the 11th Kentucky Cavalry and 80 men from the 4th Indiana Cavalry with orders to scout the country toward Bagdad. The detachment was commanded by James Johnson. Moving to Badgad, they encountered a force of rebel guerillas at High Point and pursued them towards Lexington. The rebels joined up with General Kirby Smith's command before they could be caught. However they did capture 27 rebel sympathizers which were surrendered up to General Dumont on their return trip to Frankfort on October 15th. On the 8th of October, the 11th Kentucky Cavalry's Division left Shelbyville and marched to Frankfort. There they charged Scott's rebel cavalry on the upper bridge over the Kentucky River. The following day, the 11th Kentucky's Division moved up to join Sill west of Frankfort, where they went into camp. They were in General W. T. Ward's Brigade, which besides the 11th Kentucky Cavalry, consisted of the 1st and 7th Kentucky Cavalry, the 70th Indiana Infantry, the 79th Ohio Infantry and the 102nd and 105th Illinois Infantry. General Sill's Division moved on to link up with General Buell. pg 5 On the 9th of October, word reached them that a large battle had been fought at Perryville, Kentucky between the Union forces under Buell and Bragg's Confederate Army. The initial report was saying that the Union had suffered at least 2,000 casualties in the battle. It was primarily the rear columns of Bragg's forces which Buell had attacked. The Confederate Army's main forces moved on out of Kentucky into Tennessee. On the 10th of October, 60 men of Company E went to Midway, Kentucky under Captain Slater as escort to a party who were to put up a telegraph wire to that town. Arriving at Midway, they made a charge into town capturing 13 rebels and 11 horses. They returned to Frankfort on the evening of the 11th. On October 11th, the 11th Kentucky, with its Brigade, marched from Frankfort to Lawrenceburg and 2 miles beyond on the Harrodsburg pike. There they attacked Buford's Rebel cavalry and rousting them, pursued them for 4 miles, returning to Lawrenceburg that night. On the 12th of October, the 11th Kentucky Cavalry pursued the enemy to Salvisa, where they captured a Confederate Major and 70 of his men. They returned to Frankfort on the 13th. Rebel Cavalry, probably some of Morgan's men, was still operating in the Frankfort area. The rebels hesitated to openly attack Frankfort, as the Union artillery was a strong deterrent to such action. Their stay in Frankfort was extremely rigorous. They were constantly on guard and picket duty and riding out on short expeditions in pursuit of rebel raiders. Some of the men were coming down with sickness, mostly diarrhea. While here in Frankfort, Colonel W. E. Riley was made Commander of the 11th Kentucky Cavalry Regiment. Company A's Sergeant, Bill Pierce, had been promoted to Adjutant on the Regimental Staff. |