The 10th Kentucky Infantry Regiment was a three-year volunteer infantry regiment that served in the U.S., or Union Army during the American Civil War.
Service
Early in 1861, John Marshall Harlan moved from Danville to Louisville Kentucky. When the military companies were raised for defense of the city in the spring of that year, Harlan was captain of the Crittenden Union Zouaves. This company, under Harlan, proceeded to Muldraugh's Hill, September 17, when the volunteers were sent there under BGENs Sherman and Rousseau.
Ten days later, on Saturday, September 27, 1861, Harlan began raising a regiment. The ten companies were recruited quickly, and the regiment was at full-strength and in camp in Lebanon, Kentucky, by the end of October, 1861. On Friday, November 21, MAJ William Henry Sidell mustered it in for a three-year enlistment under Harlan's command.
The 10th were armed with 900 .69 and .71 caliber Prussian muskets. These muskets were able to fire the same ammunition as the M1842 Springfield smoothbore. The regiment trained and organized itself at Lebanon, Kentucky from the mustering date until the New Year. It was at once assigned to BGEN George H. Thomas's 1st Division in MGEN Don Carlos Buell's Department of the Ohio. The brigade to which it was assigned was COL M. D. Manson's 2nd Brigade.
1862
On 31 December the regiment left Lebanon and marched through Columbia to the field of active operations, moving east to stop the ongoing Confederate invasion of eastern Kentucky. Due to the terrain and the numerical superiority of the Confederate cavalry in the theater as well as secessionist sympathies of a large minority of the region, the commander of the U.S. forces in this theater would have to dedicate a large portion of his force to guarding the lines of communication and supply for the U.S. Army operations in small garrisons and small escorts. Due to this, the regiment would see most of its service the next year in this function operating in proximity but separated from the main Union forces.
Mill Springs This movement by Thomas culminated in the Battle of Mill Springs, or Logan's Field as it was also called, January 19, 1862. The regiment was serving as supply train escorts while the rest of the 2nd Brigadehelped win at Mill Springs. Although ordered forward to rejoin the army on 17 January, the 10th's reunion with its brigade was slowed by impassably muddy roads. Arriving after the Rebel retreat had begun, the 10th was sent in pursuit. On Monday, January, 20, the 10th and the 14th Ohio were the first troops into the hastily evacuated Confederate fortifications where they captured a dozen pieces of artillery and large amounts of arms and equipment.
The victory at Mill Springs was followed soon after by the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson, and the Confederate retreat from Kentucky. From Mill Spring the 10th marched to Louisville. From Louisville it went by steamboat down the Ohio, and up the Cumberland to Nashville, and from Nashville it marched to Pittsburg Landing arriving after the Battle of Shiloh. It accompanied an expedition up the Tennessee river on transports to Chickasaw, where the troops landed and penetrated the country to destroy a railroad bridge east of Corinth and near Iuka, which was successfully done.
Buell's campaign The 10th was with the troops in the advance upon Corinth, and took part in all movements of that campaign. In the organization of the army April 30, 1862, it was in BGEN S. S. Fry's brigade of Thomas' division. . The 10th Kentucky spent May in the Siege of Corinth. After the capture of Corinth, the 10th moved into Alabama and spent June through August in Buell's Campaign in Northern Alabama and Middle Tennessee that eventually threatened the important Rebel transportation hub of Chattanooga.
In Buell's campaign, in July, the 10th garrisoned the town of Eastport, MS. It also crossed the river at Eastport, and marched with trains to Florence, AL. On Friday, July 25, two companies (A and H) were posted to guard Courtland bridge, and while there a large force of Confederate cavalry under Gen. Armstrong fell upon them and captured them. COL Harlan, in his report of this affair, written August 8 at Winchester, Tenn., states that he had received a brief note from Capt. Henry G. Davidson, who was in command of the two companies, in which Capt. Davidson shows that when the enemy appeared he had his men behind the railroad embankment, and fought until he was surrounded. He says his men behaved splendidly, fighting till the last moment. He compliments especially Capt. Pendleton and LTs Reynolds, Barry and Shively; several of his men were wounded, and eleven of the enemy were killed and more than twenty wounded. Col. Harlan says the enemy was greatly enraged that the small body had fought so stubbornly, and denounced Capt. Davidson because he did not surrender. They fought until overpowered by numbers.
The officers in the command were taken to Tupelo, MS while the enlisted men were taken to Moulton, MS where they were paroled. On parole, they were sent to Nashville and then Camp Chase in Ohio until September 6, 1862, when both officers and men rejoined the 10th.
Bragg's invasion The Confederacy wanted to relieve the pressure on Vicksburg and Chattanooga, so Braxton Bragg decided to invade Kentucky hoping to reclaim it for the rebellion. The 10th Kentucky had garrisoned Winchester, Tennessee for the month of August when it joined Buell's army marching to Kentucky to oppose Bragg.
The first indication that something was happening came in late June when Col. Phil Sheridan, in the Army of the Tennessee, reconnoitered Tupelo and found that the Confederates had abandoned their camp and begun moving towards Chattanooga, while Sterling Price was gathering another Confederate army in Mississippi. Several captured letters from Confederate soldiers boasted that the Yankees would be given the slip (Maj. Gen William Rosecrans was impressed with Sheridan's foray and recommended him for promotion to brigadier general).
The Rebels' plan was to have Price and Bragg unite and push the Confederacy's northern border to the Ohio River. Once the two Confederate armies were combined, Bragg's would command. Assuming that Buell's army could be destroyed, Bragg and Smith would march north into Kentucky, a movement they assumed would be welcomed by the local populace. Any remaining Federal force would be defeated in a grand battle in Kentucky, establishing the Confederate frontier at the Ohio River. The campaign plan needed perfect coordination between multiple armies initially without unified command. Bragg almost immediately began to have doubts despite President Davis' pressure to take Kentucky. Smith quickly abandoned the agreement, opting for a solo adventure that he thought would bring him personal glory. Deceiving Bragg as to his intentions, he requested two more brigades for his move to Cumberland Gap, yet, on Saturday, August 9, told Bragg that he was breaking the agreement and bypassing Cumberland Gap. Unable to command Smith to honor their plan, Bragg focused on a movement to Lexington instead of Nashville, warning Smith that Buell could pursue and defeat his smaller army before Bragg's army could join up with them.
Smith marched north with 21,000 men from Knoxville on Wednesday, August 13; Bragg departed left Chattanooga two weeks later on Wednesday, August 27, just before Smith reached Lexington. The beginning of the campaign coincided with Lee's offensive in the northern Virginia campaign (second Manassas campaign) and with Price's and Van Dorn's operations against Grant. Although not centrally directed, it was the largest simultaneous Confederate offensive of the war.
In reaction, Buell was forced to abandon his slow advance toward Chattanooga and concentrate his army around Nashville, however, news that Smith and Bragg were both in Kentucky convinced him of the need to place his army between the Confederates and the Union cities of Louisville and Cincinnati. On Sunday, September 7, Buell left Nashville and began racing Bragg to Louisville.
The capture of a Union fort at Munfordville, distracted Bragg making him choose whether to continue toward Louisville or rejoin Smith, who controlled the center of the state by capturing Richmond and Lexington, and threatened to move on Cincinnati. Bragg chose to rejoin Smith.
Buell reached Louisville, where he gathered, reorganized, and reinforced his army with thousands of new recruits. He dispatched 20,000 men under Brig. Gen. Joshua W. Sill toward Frankfort, hoping to distract Smith and prevent the two Confederate armies from joining against him. Meanwhile, Bragg left his army and met Smith in Frankfort, where they attended the unelected inauguration of Confederate Governor Richard Hawes on October 4. The inauguration ceremony was disrupted by the sound of cannon fire from Sill's approaching division, and organizers canceled the inaugural ball scheduled for that evening.
The Rebel invasion culminated in the costly Union victory at Perryville. The 10th had made the long march to Louisville, and in the organization of the army at the time of the battle of Perryville the 10th was in the Gilbert's III Corps, Schoepf's division, Fry's brigade, being brigaded with the 4th Kentucky, 10th and 74th Indiana and 14th Ohio. On Wednesday, October 8, 1862. At the time of the battle, the 10th commanded by LTCOL Hays in Fry's 2nd Brigade did not become engaged in the battle, but when Bragg failed to follow up MGEN Polk's success, the brigade was part of the pursuit of the Rebels of the state and then marched to Gallatin, Tennessee, twenty miles northeast of Nashville on the north side of the Cumberland River.
Army of the Cumberland Although Perryville was a strategic victory for the Union, Buell was subsequently relieved for failing to destroy the Bragg's invading army, and MGEN William S. Rosecrans was appointed to command the Army of Ohio and the Department of the Cumberland.
The Army of Ohio's main force was XIV Corps, further divided into three wings: Thomas' Center, Crittenden's Left, and McCook's Right. Thomas and McCook were West Pointers, but Crittenden was a political general from a highly influential Kentucky family. Rosecrans also brought MGEN David Sloane Stanley, another academy man, to take charge of his cavalry. He subsequently renamed his forces the Army of the Cumberland with the mission of restoring Middle and East Tennessee to U.S. control.
First, Rosecrans needed to retrain, reorganize, and resupply his army into fighting condition. Although the army was considered seasoned and veteran having been in three major engagements, none of its commands had been engaged in all of them, and some not at all. Armaments were a wide variety with many smoothbore muskets still in the use, morale was low, some units were unpaid for six months, it had many incompetent officers, some cavalry were still unhorsed and unarmed, and mail delivery was poor. The army, numbering 67,000 men on paper, only had 40,000 combat-ready men. The precarious supply situation was caused by the more numerous Confederate cavalry constantly attacking and severely damaging the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, which would not be restored until November; and the Cumberland River was so low that most vessels could not navigate it as far as Nashville. With many regiments of the army serving garrison duty, any advance would have to wait until sufficient supplies were available. To mount an offensive campaign, Rosecarns needed to solve all these issues.