Back to 1862
Battle of Mill Springs
The cool morning air of autumn brushed the trees with a lazy float to their branches while the rustle of the leaves taunted at my senses. The light of the early morning sun shined crimson through dark outstretched clouds onto the heavy mist rising from the earth giving an eerie shadow to the elements. It was September 29th 2007, or was it. The morning awoke with a loud thunder pounding the ground beneath our feet. A Union 6 pounder had just fired, its distinctive echo delivered the news, - I have returned to 1862.
January 29th 1862, the battle at Fishing Creek, better known as The Battle of Mill Springs. I stood alongside with some 300 other history seekers. We had marched deep in the forest and fields of Nancy Kentucky amidst the Oak and the Elm to an open green field surrounded in silence and the coolness of a crisp Kentucky morn. I do love this time of day, but today this morning will be like no other. We wait in great expectations and squint to find movement or a whisper of intent being spoken softly in the air. Suddenly, as if the sky split, the thunder of Confederate Artillery laid down a storm of fire entangling us all in smoke and the taste of black iron and the smell of powder in the air. As we gather our senses the pounding hoofs of Union Calvary charged from an opening in the woods to our left. They charged with precision down the hill toward the awaiting Confederate Infantry. The battle explodes into the dawn as the sun unfolds the fighting before us. Burning through the mist and the smoke the sun gives us glimpses of years ago as if opening and closing the theatres curtain before us. The incisive firing of musket and pistol rage as metal upon metal stings through the air. Field cannons from both armies continue to plow the elements with vengeance. Brother against brother, father against son, friend against foe. Now a deathly silence in time seems to bring a well-needed collection of both nerves and breath, for us spectators at least. Through the unsettling calm only the heavy breathing of tired horse and men fill the air, all is quiet, no sound, no echo of battle, just heavy smoke, and settling mist. While as if in a dream fallen soldier lie motionless in the cold beast of the earth. We search our thoughts on the portrait of war we had just witnessed and wait. Just as we had succumbed to the feeling of relief, a silhouette of horse and rider, running slowly in times wake draws toward me. It gives a ghostly image to my cameras eye. As if posed in spirit swearing not to die this day these ghostly images of Johnny Reb charge through the smoke and remaining mist. They cut through the rising suns rays and scream up the unending hill tearing at the earth with fist and gun. Both armies clash in final combat giving over their yells and screams of fear and of courage and of each ones patriotism to the end. Securing to this day, in Nancy Kentucky, this mark in Civil War history.
History teaches us also that at this battle one of the Confederacies’ most recognized Generals fell in battle, General Felix Zolliecoffer. There among the winding curves of the Cumberland I must tip my hat once again to the hard work of all the re-enactors who takes us back in time so we may try and understand. I must also recommend a wonderful boy’s view of the battle there in Mill Springs Kentucky, a book entitled “Caught in the Crossfire” by Anita Cole Alcorn with Gloria Stanton.
Dwight Carter
http://www.millsprings.net/
Battle of Mill Springs
The cool morning air of autumn brushed the trees with a lazy float to their branches while the rustle of the leaves taunted at my senses. The light of the early morning sun shined crimson through dark outstretched clouds onto the heavy mist rising from the earth giving an eerie shadow to the elements. It was September 29th 2007, or was it. The morning awoke with a loud thunder pounding the ground beneath our feet. A Union 6 pounder had just fired, its distinctive echo delivered the news, - I have returned to 1862.
January 29th 1862, the battle at Fishing Creek, better known as The Battle of Mill Springs. I stood alongside with some 300 other history seekers. We had marched deep in the forest and fields of Nancy Kentucky amidst the Oak and the Elm to an open green field surrounded in silence and the coolness of a crisp Kentucky morn. I do love this time of day, but today this morning will be like no other. We wait in great expectations and squint to find movement or a whisper of intent being spoken softly in the air. Suddenly, as if the sky split, the thunder of Confederate Artillery laid down a storm of fire entangling us all in smoke and the taste of black iron and the smell of powder in the air. As we gather our senses the pounding hoofs of Union Calvary charged from an opening in the woods to our left. They charged with precision down the hill toward the awaiting Confederate Infantry. The battle explodes into the dawn as the sun unfolds the fighting before us. Burning through the mist and the smoke the sun gives us glimpses of years ago as if opening and closing the theatres curtain before us. The incisive firing of musket and pistol rage as metal upon metal stings through the air. Field cannons from both armies continue to plow the elements with vengeance. Brother against brother, father against son, friend against foe. Now a deathly silence in time seems to bring a well-needed collection of both nerves and breath, for us spectators at least. Through the unsettling calm only the heavy breathing of tired horse and men fill the air, all is quiet, no sound, no echo of battle, just heavy smoke, and settling mist. While as if in a dream fallen soldier lie motionless in the cold beast of the earth. We search our thoughts on the portrait of war we had just witnessed and wait. Just as we had succumbed to the feeling of relief, a silhouette of horse and rider, running slowly in times wake draws toward me. It gives a ghostly image to my cameras eye. As if posed in spirit swearing not to die this day these ghostly images of Johnny Reb charge through the smoke and remaining mist. They cut through the rising suns rays and scream up the unending hill tearing at the earth with fist and gun. Both armies clash in final combat giving over their yells and screams of fear and of courage and of each ones patriotism to the end. Securing to this day, in Nancy Kentucky, this mark in Civil War history.
History teaches us also that at this battle one of the Confederacies’ most recognized Generals fell in battle, General Felix Zolliecoffer. There among the winding curves of the Cumberland I must tip my hat once again to the hard work of all the re-enactors who takes us back in time so we may try and understand. I must also recommend a wonderful boy’s view of the battle there in Mill Springs Kentucky, a book entitled “Caught in the Crossfire” by Anita Cole Alcorn with Gloria Stanton.
Dwight Carter
http://www.millsprings.net/