The Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky

On January 19, 1862, Confederate and Union forces clashed in the now-forgotten Battle of Mill Springs.

Armies of inexperienced soldiers chaotically fought in the wooded terrain of south-central Kentucky as rain turned bloodied ground to mud. Mill Springs was the first major Union victory since the Federal disaster of Bull Run. This Union triumph secured the Bluegrass State in Union hands, opening the large expanses of Tennessee for Federal invasion. From General Felix Zollicoffer meeting his death by wandering into Union lines to the heroics of General George Thomas, Civil War historian Stuart Sanders chronicles this important battle and its essential role in the war.

Stuart W. Sanders is the former executive director of the Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association. He is the author of Perryville Under Fire: The Aftermath of Kentucky's Largest Civil War Battle as well as a contributor to multiple Civil War history volumes. Sanders has also written for Civil War Times Illustrated, America's Civil War, Blue & Gray, and several other publications. He is currently a public history administrator in Kentucky.