Felix Zollicoffer

thumb|300x300px|Site of Zollicoffer's death at [[Mill Springs Battlefield, Nancy, Kentucky.]]

Felix Kirk Zollicoffer (May 19, 1812 – January 19, 1862) was an American newspaperman, slave owner, politician, and soldier. He was three-term U.S. representative from Tennessee, an officer in the United States Army, and a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War; he led the first Confederate invasion of eastern Kentucky and was killed in action at the Battle of Mill Springs. Zollicoffer was the first Confederate general to die in the Western Theater.

Early life and career

Zollicoffer was born on a plantation in Bigbyville in Maury County, Tennessee, a son of John Jacob and Martha (Kirk) Zollicoffer. He was descended from emigrants from Switzerland who had settled in North Carolina in 1710. His grandfather George Zollicoffer had served as a captain in the Revolutionary War and had been granted a tract of land in Tennessee as payment for his military service.

Zollicoffer attended the local schools and studied for a year at Jackson College in Columbia, Tennessee. Three years later, he became editor and part owner of the Columbia Observer.

On September 24, 1835, he married Louisa Pocahontas Gordon, with whom he had 14 children, of whom only six survived infancy. She was a direct descendant of Pocahontas through her mother Dolly. Louisa Zollicoffer died in 1857. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1858 and retired to private life. He supported fellow Tennessee moderate John Bell for president in the election of 1860.

Civil War

Tennessee voters rejected the call for a secession convention in February 1861. Tennessee Governor Isham Harris soon began to maneuver the state into a position where secession would be inevitable.

During the period between April and July, Harris organized a state army, the Provisional Army of Tennessee. Upon the announcement, Zollicoffer offered his service to the state army. Despite only having brief combat experience, he was appointed as a brigadier general. The Confederate States Army began to absorb the Provisional Army of Tennessee in July, and Zollicoffer's troops were mustered into Confederate service in October.

Harris initially tried to sway the pro-Union population in East Tennessee with a lenient policy, and he stationed only 15 companies of troops in the region. On July 26, 1861, Harris, who was still in charge of the Tennessee state force, ordered Zollicoffer and 4,000 raw recruits to Knoxville to be in position to suppress resistance to secession in East Tennessee, appointing him to command the District of East Tennessee. Harris was re-elected governor on August 8, and on August 18 he ordered Zollicoffer to arrest and, if necessary, banish leaders of pro-Union factions from the state, changing his policy from leniency to force.

Invasion of Kentucky

Cumberland Gap

In an effort to prevent a Union Army incursion into East Tennessee, Zollicoffer took the initiative and occupied Cumberland Gap on September 14. Zollicoffer was responsible for guarding the of Confederate line between Cumberland Gap and Tompkinsville, Kentucky. For 71 miles, this line crossed the Cumberland Mountains. He retained Zollicoffer as district commander in East Tennessee.

On September 17 Zollicoffer sent a force through the Cumberland Gap along the Wilderness Road to drive the Union Army from Barbourville, Kentucky, relieve pressure on the recently established Confederate line at Bowling Green and thwart an expected drive by Union Brigadier General George H. Thomas into East Tennessee and the Cumberland Gap by forcing him to retain his force in Kentucky. Another detachment of Zollicoffer's force under Colonel James Rains dispersed an encampment of Union recruits at Laurel Bridge, Kentucky, on September 26, while the Goose Creek Salt Works were attacked by a second Confederate unit under Colonel D. H. Cummings, which carried off 200 barrels of salt. Zollicoffer's force was essentially on a raid and soon withdrew.

In mid-October, a large part of Zollicoffer's force marched from Cumberland Gap to London, Kentucky. At the Battle of Wildcat Mountain on October 21, Zollicoffer's force was stymied by a prepared Union force fighting on rugged terrain, and he retreated into rural East Tennessee, which remained rife with Union sentiment.

Encampment at Mill Springs

In November Zollicoffer changed strategy and advanced westward, then back into southeastern Kentucky to strengthen Confederate control in the area just south of Somerset. This was a risky tactic because Zollicoffer's men were poorly equipped, ill-trained and ill-disciplined. They were not properly prepared to meet the growing Union threat, and Zollicoffer's expectation that he would solve this problem by receiving supplies and reinforcements at Beech Grove, opposite Mill Springs, was too optimistic. Zollicoffer's own reserve force at Knoxville was mostly unarmed.

Under the circumstances in December 1861, without needed supplies or reserves, Zollicoffer was in no position to move against the Union force.

Unaware of the situation in East Tennessee and of Zollicoffer's plan, on December 8, 1861, Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed Major General George B. Crittenden to command the district of East Tennessee in order to lead a force into Kentucky. Crittenden assumed command of the district only to find that the 10 regiments he expected to find there did not exist. Because of the incessant rain and resulting mud, Thomas needed 18 days to move his force and equipment from Lebanon to Logan's Crossroads.

Battle of Mill Springs

thumb|333x333px|"First in the fight and first in the arms of the white winged angel of glory, with his hero heart at the feet of God and his wounds to tell the story" —grave of General Felix K. Zollicoffer at [[Nashville City Cemetery.]]

On January 18 Crittenden ordered an advance at midnight, while the two Union forces under Thomas and Schoepf were separated by the rain-swollen Fishing Creek. The Battle of Mill Springs was a three-hour fight in driving rain, fog and the smoke of battle over thickly wooded ground.

The 15th Mississippi Infantry Regiment mistook the Union 4th Kentucky Infantry Regiment for blue-clad Confederates. He further states that Fry, not Zollicoffer, had ridden into the enemy lines and had begun the conversation, only turning upon Zollicoffer when the Confederate aide rode up. He states that both officers rode out from their lines and that Fry initially thought Zollicoffer was a Union officer. Other accounts state that Fry also called to a few of his men to fire, although Fry later denied this.

Many of the old Confederate flintlock weapons would not fire in the wet conditions, and Zollicoffer's death caused his demoralized men to start a retreat. He left his artillery, mules, equipment and most of his food supply on the north bank, shattering his ordnance and logistical strength He was embalmed by a Union surgeon and was returned to Tennessee and interred in the Old City Cemetery in Nashville.

Zollicoffer Park

Zollicoffer Park, a Confederate cemetery containing a mass grave of the Confederate fallen, lies just outside Nancy. The Union Mill Springs National Cemetery is also located in Nancy. The park receives at least two memorial events each year, one on January 19 and the other on Memorial Day. There have also been re-enactments of the Battle of Mill Springs.

Notes

References

Adkins, Ray. Battle of Barboursville, Kentucky. Morrisville, North Carolina: Lulu, 2008. .
Bearss, Edwin C. "Felix Kirk Zollicoffer." In The Confederate General, vol. 6, edited by William C. Davis and Julie Hoffman. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: National Historical Society, 1991. .
Connelly, Thomas L. Army of the Heartland: The Army of Tennessee 1861–1862. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1967. .
Daniel, Larry J. Days of Glory: The Army of the Cumberland, 1861–1865. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004. .
Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. .
Evans, Clement A., ed. Confederate Military History: A Library of Confederate States History Volume: 8. Porter, J. D.; Tennessee. 12 vols. Atlanta: Confederate Publishing Company, 1899. . Retrieved January 20, 2011.
McKee, James. "Felix K. Zollicoffer: Confederate Defender of East Tennessee." In East Tennessee Historical Society Publications, vol. 43, 1971.
Sanders, Stuart W. The Battle of Mill Springs Kentucky. Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press, 2013. .
Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. .
Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. .

External links

Retrieved on 2008-02-13

Tennessee Gen Web