Holding The Gaps

George H Thomas

The Battle of Hoover’s Gap a part of the Middle Tennessee Campaign was fought June 24^th 1863.

After the Battle of Stones River, Confederate General Braxton Bragg established a line from Shelbyville to Wartrace along the Duck River, this included holding the Bellbuckle, Hoover’s and Liberty Gaps.  Union leaders fearing that Bragg would go to the support of Vicksburg pushed Major General William Rosecrans to attack Bragg’s position.

Rosecrans made a move towards Shelbyville on June 23^rd 1863 to get Bragg’s attention, while the mass of his troops headed for the Gaps.  On June 24^th 1863 Union Major General George H Thomas attacked Hoover’s Gap.  Thomas used Colonel John T Wilder’s mounted infantry known as the “Lightning Brigade” armed with Spencer Rifles to spearhead the attack.  They met Confederate Colonel J Russell Butler’s 1^st Kentucky Cavalry, and pushed them back 7 miles, before Wilder’s men came up against Brigadier General William B Bate’s brigade.  Wilder entrenched on the hills to the south of the gap and held throughout several Confederate attacks.  More units arrived on both sides and everyone settled down hold their position.

On June 26^th 1863 the Confederate force began pulling back.  Although rain made moving slow Rosecrans pushed Bragg’s men until they fell back to a defensive line at Tullahoma.

The President's Brother-In-Law

Confederate Brigadier General Benjamin Hardin Helm was killed during the Battle of Chickamauga  September 21^st 1863; he was the brother-in-law of President Abraham Lincoln.

Benjamin Hardin Helm was born June 2^nd 1831 in Bardstown, Kentucky, the son of John L and Lucinda (Barbour) Hardin.  In 1846 he enrolled in the Kentucky Military Institute at the age of 15, just three month later he left for the United State Military Academy at West Point.  Helm graduated 9^th out of a class of 42 in 1851.  He served at the cavalry school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and at Fort Lincoln, Texas before being discharge do to being diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis.  Helm went on to study the law at the Universities of Louisville and Harvard; graduating in 1853 he began practicing law with his father in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.  He was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives and served as Hardin County State’s Attorney.  In 1856 Helm married Mary Todd Lincoln’s half-sister Emilie.

In 1861 with Kentucky remaining neutral President Abraham Lincoln offered Helm the job of Union Army Paymaster.  Helm turned the job down and raised the Confederate 1^st Kentucky Cavalry.  He was commissioned their Colonel October 19^th 1861, and they marched south under Confederate Brigadier General Simon Bolivar Buckner.  On March 14^th 1862 Helm received the assignment to raise the 3^rd Kentucky Brigade and was promoted to Brigadier General.  They saw action at the Battle of Shiloh, guarding the flanks.  In January 1863 Helm was placed in command of the First Kentucky Brigade, known as the “Orphan Brigade” and was assigned to the Confederate Army of Tennessee.  With the Orphan Brigade Helm saw action at the Battles of Chickamauga and Vicksburg.

The Orphan Brigade was a part of Confederate fight against Union Major General William Rosecrans’ offensive during the Battle of Chattanooga on September 20^th 1863.  Striking near the center of the Union line and moving against heavy fire the men under Helm made it to within 40 yards of the Union line.  In less than an hour the Orphan Brigade lost a third of its men.  Helm, on horseback was shot in the chest by a member of the Union 15^th Kentucky Infantry.  Helm fell from his saddle and was carried to the rear, where it was determined his wound was mortal.  He died September 21^st 1862.  Confederate General John Cabell Breckinridge wrote to Helm’s wife, saying "Your husband commanded them [the men of the Orphan brigade] like a thorough soldier. He loved them, they loved him, and he died at their head, a patriot and a hero."

An Acoustical Shadow

The Confederate Army of the West found themselves in the Battle of Iuka on September 19th 1862.

Confederate Major General Sterling Price’s main column arrived in Iuka, Mississippi on September 14th 1862. He had been ordered by his commander General Braxton Bragg to keep the Union army in Mississippi from moving into Tennessee.

Union General William Rosecrans began his march to Iuka, Mississippi at 4:30 am on September 19th 1862. Price had planned to rendezvous with General Earl Van Dorn, but saw that he could not evacuate Iuka at that time. As Rosecrans’s men advanced they fought an action with the Confederates along the route. At about 4pm the Union column halted on the top of a hill, because the Confederates were in the ravine below which was filled with trees and underbrush. The Confederate troops embarked on an attack up the hill, where they took an Ohio battery. The fighting went on until dark. Although by all accounts the fighting was heated, an acoustical shadow kept all sound from the battle from being heard just two miles away where other Union troops were located. Rosecrans’ men camped behind the ridge and Price redeployed his troops across their front.

Following the 19th’s battle Price planned to reengage the enemy, but his subordinates convinced him to join his army up with Van Dorn. The Union army occupied Iuka, before making a pursuit on September 20th 1862. The Confederate rearguard and a heavily overgrown terrain prevented the chase from amounting to much. The Union saw casualties of about 800 killed, wounded or missing. The Confederate side saw about 1500 casualties from the battle.