Destination: Tennessee and Kentucky
Duration: 8 Days
How tough? Easy to moderate
For Kids? A great way to teach American History to kids
ITINERARY:
Arrival Day
Day 1: This morning we will leave our Louisville hotel. Our first stop will be a visit to the Frazier Historical Arms Museum in Louisville. The Frazier Historical Arms Museum houses one of the greatest collections of, armor, and related historical artifacts in the world. The collection contains artifacts from Europe which date back to 1066, up through the pre-colonization period of American History, through the Revolutionary and Civil War periods.
After lunch we will drive to the Kentucky capital at Frankfort. With economic ties to both North and South, the government of Kentucky initially declared itself to be neutral in the conflict, refusing to send troops to fight on either side. Kentucky was one of the four border-states (the others being Delaware, Maryland, and Missouri, in which slavery was legal, but which had not seceded from the Union). Frankfort was one of the smaller state capitals in the nation, and was the only Union capital to be occupied by Confederate forces during the war. Although the state remained in the Union, many men from Kentucky fought on both sides. Our tour in Frankfort will include a visit to the federal encampment at Fort Hill Park, containing earthworks at the site of Morgan’s last raid into Kentucky, and an evening walking tour of historic Frankfort. We will spend the night in Frankfort.
Day 2: This morning we will drive to Camp Nelson, the site of an important supply depot for the Union Army, and an enlistment center for African American Troops. When Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862, (effective January 1, 1863), only slaves located in the states in rebellion were freed by the proclamation. This meant that slaves held in the loyal state, including the border- states remained in bondage. This brought about a loud protest from all quarters of the state, prompting the Lincoln administration to issue a proclamation that any slaves in Kentucky willing to enlist and fight in the Union Army would be emancipated. This decision brought about a mass migration to the muster center at Camp Nelson. A refugee colony soon grew up near Camp Nelson, populated by the families of the former slaves who had become the army’s newest enlistees. As the population of the colony increased it became overcrowded with make-shift shelters, soon prompting a human health crisis.
While at Camp Nelson we will witness a demonstration of the 12th Colored Heavy Artillery which was mustered into federal service at Camp Nelson, and later served with the Army of the Potomac during several campaigns in the Eastern Theater, including the siege at Petersburg, Virginia. There is an on-going archaeology dig at the site.
In the afternoon, we will drive to Richmond, Kentucky for a tour of the only battle in Kentucky, which resulted in a clear Confederate victory. In the late summer of 1862, the Confederate Army had been divided, (one column under the command of Braxton Bragg already in Kentucky), and the other under the command of Kirby Smith which was sent by Jefferson Davis as an invasion force to strike into the heart of the state. During the early morning hours of August 30, 1862, Kirby Smith and a force of about 5,000 Confederates attacked Richmond. Of the 6,500 Federals engaged in the battle, 206 were killed, 844 wounded, and 4,303 were listed as missing. A total of 5,353, or about 82 percent of the Federal force engaged. While in Richmond, we will hear Union General William “Bull” Nelson defend his decisions, which led to this Federal disaster, and visit with mourners at the Richmond cemetery. We will spend the night here.
Day 3: Today we will visit the Perryville Battlefield during a living history demonstration, including a Civil War-era embalming presentation, a cavalry demonstration, as well as the experiences of the civilian population after the battle. The Battlefield at Perryville includes approximately 600 acres, and is administered as a state park. This battlefield is quite comparable, in terms of authenticity, to the battlefield at Antietam. We will depart late afternoon, and drive to Somerset for the night.
Day 4: Today we will take an immersion tour of the Mill Springs Battlefield area. This tour is reasonably intense, and requires moderate to intense walking (for those unable to do the walking and climbing alternative transportation will be provided to the pickup point). The tour will cross Lake Cumberland, and a visit to the 19th century mill at the sight of the commanding Confederate position on the Cumberland River. The tour will also include lunch. After returning from the mill, we will tour the battlefield, where we will visit the old Confederate campsites and entrenchments.
After falling back from Wildcat Mountain, Zollicoffer moved his troops back into Tennessee, looking for a new route back into Kentucky. As he moved north from Tennessee through Monticello to Mill Springs, where he camped on the south side of the Cumberland River in late November. After setting up camp and fortifying his position, Zollicoffer unexplainably abandoned his commanding position over the river, and moved his camp to the north bank of the river, near Beech Grove, at a lower, more difficult defensive position on the north side of the river. In December, he put his troops into winter camp, digging a line of entrenchments to protect his position from the north.
By early January, Major General George Bibb Crittenden assumed command of the Confederate troops at Beech Grove, at about the same time Union forces were concentrating around Somerset. After a fierce battle in the rain and mud on January 19, 1862, the Confederates were driven back across the river, and Zollicoffer was killed, becoming the first Confederate general killed in the war. As the Confederate troops withdrew from the battle site, they discarded their weapons and equipment all the way back to the Cumberland River where they made a hasty crossing. After our tour of the battlefield area, we will visit the National Cemetery. Tonight will be spent at Somerset.
Day 5: This morning we will drive to Camp Wildcat in the Daniel Boone National Forest. In the summer of 1861, Kentucky was neutral, and both the North and South were recruiting troops in the state. The South feared that the troops being recruited in the state by the Union would invade east Tennessee, and the Union feared that the troops being recruited by the Confederates would move further into Kentucky and open an access route to the Ohio River. The main road through eastern Kentucky of the day was the Wilderness Road, which ran through the mountainous settlements of eastern Kentucky which were mostly sympathetic to the Union.
In July, 1861, General Felix Zollicoffer took command of Confederate forces in Bristol, Tennessee. On September 9th, Zollicoffer began moving his troops into Kentucky through the Cumberland Gap. Within ten days Zollicoffer’s contingent of 5,400 men took possession of the Cumberland Ford at Pikeville, Kentucky, defeating a group of home guard volunteers from the town of Barbourville. To meet the Confederate advance, the poorly outfitted Union column under the command of Colonel Theophilous Garrard rushed to the Wilderness Road across the Rockcastle River in the rugged Rockcastle Hills. Garrard established a camp on a ridge three miles above the south side of the Rockcastle River at a fork in the road.
On October 19th elements of the 33rd Indiana Infantry, along with the 14th, 17th, and 38th Ohio Infantries, along with Battery B of the Ohio Light Artillery moved to Wildcat Mountain. On October 20th Zollicoffer’s Confederates passed London, Kentucky and advanced rapidly towards the undermanned post at Camp Wildcat. During an intense battle on October 21st, Confederate Colonel Tazwell Newman ordered his 17th Tennessee Infantry to make a charge on the Union position, but was driven back. That afternoon, a second attempt to scale Wildcat Mountain was repelled, forcing Zollicoffer to withdraw that evening, eventually taking up a position around Somerset (resulting in the battle at Mill Springs).
Mid afternoon we will depart Wildcat Mountain and travel to the Cumberland Gap where we will see a living history demonstration. We will depart the Cumberland Gap late afternoon and travel back to Somerset where we will spend the night.
Day 6: This morning we will travel through Bowling Green, to Fort Donelson, (Tennessee), one of the two old Confederate forts located near the junction of the Tennessee and the Cumberland Rivers. Fort Donelson) was one of two important points upon which Leondias Polk’s was depending to maintain control of Western Kentucky, and hopefully incite the secession of Kentucky. While Fort Henry was built in a low lying area and relatively susceptible to attack by naval gunboats, Fort Donelson was build on a commanding bluff, and presenting serious difficulties to potential invaders.
After Fort Henry fell, Federal commander Ulysses S. Grant approached Fort Donelson with a combined land and naval force (gunboats). Believing the fort to be undefendable against the Union gunboats, inept Confederate commander of the fort, John Buchanan Floyd surrendered his command and fled. With the surrender of Fort Donelson, the Union suddenly controlled the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, two important lifelines into the South.
With the loss of these two forts, Polk’s entire defensive line collapsed in Western Kentucky, and the Confederates were forced to fall back into defensive positions at Island No. 10 at the Madrid Bend of the Mississippi River. As a result, Grant not only found himself in control of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, the Confederates had also vacated to him the headway to the Mississippi River, giving the Federals a river foothold, constituting the first step to the siege at Vicksburg in July 1863. Without a doubt, the failure of Jefferson Davis to fortify these forts early on was a major strategic blunder to the Confederate war effort. After our tour of Fort Donelson we will travel to Nashville where we will spend the night.
Day 7: This morning we will depart our Nashville hotel and drive to the Stone’s River National Battlefield for a morning tour. By the spring of 1862, federal troops moved into Tennessee after capturing Forts Henry and Donelson along the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, and defeating Confederate forces during the first of the Civil War’s most tragic battles at Shiloh. By the fall of 1862, Federal forces occupied the western half of Tennessee, including Nashville, and threatened to drive the Confederates out of the state. In October, retreating from a narrow tactical victory at Perryville, Kentucky, Confederate commander Braxton Bragg established his winter camp at nearby Murfreesboro. At the same time, Union commander William S. Rosecrans began fortifying a position at Nashville, and making preparations to attack Bragg. In the face of the Federal advance, Bragg decided to make his stand as a place northwest of Stone’s River.
At dawn, on December 31, 1862, Bragg decided to take the initiative and attack Rosecrans’s right flank, a move, which caught the Federals complete off-guard, as Rosecrans had planned to attack Bragg on opposite flank, and the federal troops concentrated on the opposite end of the line. Under a fierce Confederate attack, Rosecrans withdrew to the Nashivlle Pike, where he re-grouped into a defensive position, halting the Confederate advance. After five days of rain and sleet, the standoff ended when Bragg withdrew his tired and hungry army, unable to sustain his position against the Federals who had been re-fortified and re-supplied. While both sides sustained heavy losses at Stone’s River, the Federals gained the advantage of attrition, solidifying control of Nashville and the surrounding area. The Union victory at Stone’s River lifted the spirits throughout the North, which was at a low point after two defeats at Fredericksburg, Virginia, and the initial Federal onslaught at Vicksburg.
After a late lunch, we will proceed to Franklin. By September 1864, Union General William T. Sherman had taken Atlanta, and the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by General John Bell Hood fled Georgia, attempting to draw Sherman out of Atlanta where he could be better fought on ground more favorable to his depleted forces.
After Rosecrans had captured and fortified Nashville in 1862, the Confederates withdrawn into the Tennessee countryside, and made no further attempt to take the city. That is, until the fall of 1864. On November 29, 32,000 of Hood’s troops cut off, and surrounded 36,000 Union troops who were stationed at Nashville. During the night the Federals, commanded by Major General John M. Schofield slipped out of Hood’s trap and fled to Franklin. When he realized that the Federals had escaped, Hood attacked the fortifications at Franklin. At first it appeared that Hood and his Confederates were winning the battle, but a Federal countercharge that afternoon broke the Confederate line after hours of bitter fighting that lasted well until after midnight. The fight was a disaster for Hood, losing almost one-sixth of his army, as well as any future hope of re-taking Tennessee. After this disaster, Hood was relieved of his command, and the army was re-constituted, once again placed under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston, and moved to the Carolinas to face Sherman during the Carolinas Campaign until its surrender on April 26, 1865. We will have dinner tonight in Franklin, then return to Nashville for the night.
Day 8: This morning we will depart our Nashville hotel and travel to Munfordville, Kentucky, site of a strategic battle September 14-17, 1862. On August 28, Braxton Bragg, and an army of 22,000 men left Chattanooga, and marched northward into Kentucky. Upon reaching Glasgow, he learned that Union General Don Carlos Buell had left Tennessee with his army and was headed to Bowling Green. For some unknown reason, Bragg marched his army to Munfordville, demanding the surrender of the Union garrison, Col. John T. Wilder, who was guarding the Green River Bridge (near Munfordville) who initially refused to capitulate. However, upon seeing the hopelessness of his situation, Wilder surrendered. While this battle went down in the win column for Bragg, it cost the Confederates valuable time, as the time spent by Bragg at Munfordville allowed Buell to get his army to Louisville where he was re-supplied and re-fortified. While at Munfordville, we will visit the Hart County Museum, and take a walking tour of Old Munfordville and Fort Craig. We will depart mid afternoon for our return to Louisville where our tour will end
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