Tennessee 5th Cavalry Battalion (Confederate)

Mill Springs

Early in the war, the Lincoln administration knew well the importance of keeping the border state of Kentucky in the Union. Any Rebel armies operating successfully there could encourage secessionist sympathies. In late 1861, a Confederate force of around 6,000 men under Brig. Gen. Felix Zollicoffer encamped for the winter near Mill Springs, on the Cumberland River in the southeast corner of the state just north of the Tennessee border and close to the strategic Cumberland Gap. A Union force under Brig. Gen…READ MORE