[Wikipedia] Confederate Mass Grave Monument in Somerset
The Confederate Mass Grave Monument in Somerset in Pulaski County, Kentucky, near Nancy, Kentucky, honors the Confederate soldiers who are buried here who died at the Battle of Mill Springs. These soldiers were from Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and number over one hundred in total.The monument was built in 1910 by Bennett H. Young, who during the war rode with Confederate general John Hunt Morgan. Young was drawn to the area due to hearing about the nearby Zollie Tree, which was decorated by a local woman each Memorial Day in honor of general Felix K. Zollicoffer, who died at the Battle of Mill Springs. The monument uses the name Battle of Fishing Creek, as the battle was known by Southerners in 1910. The rectangular slab of limestone is 4 feet (1.2 m) by 3 feet (0.91 m), and rest on a 1 foot (0.30 m) high slab of concrete.The Zollie Tree, for which both the Confederate Mass Grave Monument and the nearby General Felix K. Zollicoffer Monument was constructed, was destroyed by lightning in 1995, although a sapling from it was later planted at the same spot. Both are now in what is called Zollicoffer Park, part of the larger Mill Springs Battlefield.On July 17, 1997, the Confederate Mass Grave Monument in Somerset was one of sixty-one different monuments related to the Civil War in Kentucky placed on the National Register of Historic Places, as part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky Multiple Property Submission. The aforementioned General Felix K. Zollicoffer Monument only a few feet away is another of the so-honored monuments. The other monument on the list in Pulaski County is the Battle of Dutton's Hill Monument north of Somerset, Kentucky.
TBS Crossfire DRONE FPV Freestyle Fun With No Sun Mill Springs Battlefield Civil War Park Tree Woods
Going back to some Civil War Era action again! I have been the only person authorized to fly my drone in the area so you know I got many batteries in! The little wooded patch is the real area that the battle lines were fought on during the Civil War. The wooden fences, you betcha, were the real battle lines.
From The Mill Springs Battlefield Memorial Website:
Zollicoffer's Deadly Mistake:
By Bill Carey, the Tennessee History Guy
Battling poor visibility, nearsightedness and the confusion of the battlefield on that fateful day in January 1862, Confederate Gen. Felix Zollicoffer accidentally rode up to the wrong troops.
The next time you are in Nashville, take time to visit the City Cemetery. There you will find the graves of no fewer than four Civil War generals. One of them is Felix Zollicoffer, who met his fate in one of the most bizarre stories in the Civil War.
Zollicoffer was of Swiss descent, but he was very much an American; his grandfather had fought in the American Revolution and received a land grant as a result. Felix Zollicoffer was born in Columbia and was trained to be a newspaperman. At various times in the 1830s and 1840s, he worked for newspapers in Paris, Columbia, Knosville and Nashville, where he was editor of the Republican Banner from 1843 until 1845. Zollicoffer's career then shifted to public service and the Whig party; he served a term as the Tennessee comptroller and three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Nashville, during this era, still exhibited many of the qualities of the Wild West; newspaper editors and politicians still settled disputes in Andrew Jackson's way. In 1852, Zollicoffer still used the Banner to voice his opinions. That year, he got into a duel with John Marling, editor of the rival Union.
The argument had to do with the location of a planned bridge across the Cumberland River, intended to replace a covered bridge that had been demolished in 1818. Marling's Union wanted the bridge to be along Broad Street, while Zollicoffer's Banner want it next to the Public Square. In the heated editorializing, Marling accused Zollicoffer of being motivated by financial self-interest — fighting words in 1852 Nashville. The story is told that on the night before the encounter, Mrs. Zollicoffer molded the bullets for her husband's pistol on her nursery hearth, a newspaper article about the incident said years later.
The next day — Aug. 20, 1852 — the two men exchanged insults and bullets in front of the Union office at the corner of Cherry and Cedar (today the corner of Fourth and Charlotte). Zollicoffer ended up with a bullet wound in the hand, while Marling was shot in the face. Both men survived, however, and apparently exchanged civil words years later.
By the way, the bridge was built next to the Public Square had has been rebuilt twice since. Today the connecter at that location is referred to as the Woodland Street Bridge.
Unlike many political leaders of that era, Zollicoffer was not in favor of war in the late 1850s, supporting John Bell as a compromise candidate for president. But after Tennessee seceded, Gov. Isham Harris appointed Zollicoffer to the rank of brigadier general. The former newspaper editor soon found himself head of a Confederate army in East Tennessee, where loyal Unionists abounded (a tough assignment for a man who had limited military experience in the Seminole War of 1836).
After a few months, Maj. Gen. George Crittenden took command of the East Tennessee Confederate army. Zollicoffer remained in the field, head of a small army that Crittenden (unwisely) ordered to march west and then north toward Somerset, Ky., where they knew a Union army under Gen. George Thomas was headed.
On Jan. 19, 1862, Zollicoffer's 4,000 troops met the Union army in present-day Nancy, Ky. The battle was a disaster from the start for the poorly deployed Confederate troops. It was foggy and rainy, and there was so much smoke that you could hardly see 20 paces in front of you, says Gilbert Wilson, administrator of the Mill Springs Battlefield Association, which operates a visitor's center on the site today.
In the confusion of battle, Zollicoffer did something that earned him a permanent spot in books about strange Civil War anecdotes. According to some accounts of the battle, Zollicoffer rode up to a group of soldiers and ordered their colonel to stop firing on his own men. Colonel Speed Fry — a Union officer — stared back at the enemy general in disbelief, then shot Zollicoffer in the chest, killing him.
The Battle of Mill Springs was a mere skirmish compared to the bigger military engagements that occurred later in the Civil War. But in January 1862, Zollicoffer's death was no joke. Today people have forgotten about Gen. Zollicoffer, but he was well known at the time, Wilson says. People in the North were very concerned about him. In fact, I would say he was better known at that time than Robert E. Lee.