Felix Zollicoffer

Felix Kirk Zollicoffer (May 19, 1812 – Jan. 19, 1862) was a newspaper owner and politician from Maury County, Tenn. who served as commander of Confederate forces in East Tennessee during the early days of the Civil War and was instrumental in the war’s impact on Scott County.

Biography

Born May 19, 1812, in Maury County, Tenn., Felix K. Zollicoffer was the son of John Jacob Zollicoffer and Martha Kirk. He was descended from Swiss immigrants who settled in North Carolina in 1710. His grandfather, George Zollicoffer, was a captain in the Revolutionary War and was granted land in Tennessee as payment for his military service.

Zollicoffer studied at Jackson College in Columbia, Tenn. He became an apprentice printer at the age of 16, and worked for a newspaper in Paris, Tenn. from 1828 to 1830. When the newspaper closed, he moved to Knoxville and worked as a journeyman printer at the Knoxville Register. Three years later, he became editor and part owner of the Columbia Observer. He was elected State Printer of Tennessee in 1835.

Zollicoffer married Louisa Pocahontas Gordon on Sept. 24, 1835. They had 14 children, though only six survived infancy. His wife was the daughter of Capt. John Gordon, who had fought alongside Gen. Andrew Jackson at Horseshoe Bend and Pensacola. She was a direct descendant of Pocahontas. She died in 1857.

Zollicoffer worked for the Mercury newspaper in Huntsville, Ala. In 1836, he volunteered for the U.S. Army and was second lieutenant in the Tennessee militia during the Second Seminole War in Florida. After the war, he returned to Tennessee and became owner of the Columbia Observer and the Southern Agriculturist. In 1843 he became editor of the Republican Banner, which was the state organ of the Whig Party.

Zollicoffer served as Comptroller of the Tennessee Treasury from 1845 to 1849, and was Adjutant General. He was elected to the State Senate in 1849 and served until 1852, and was a delegate to the Whig National Convention in 1852, where he supported General Winfield Scott — the namesake of Scott County — in the 1852 presidential election. He was elected as a Whig to the 33rd U.S. Congress in 1853, and was re-elected in 1855 and 1857. He declined renomination in 1858 and retired to private life. He supported John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party in the 1860 presidential election. Bell won the majority of the vote in Scott County.

Civil War

Zollicoffer was opposed to secession, despite being a slave-owner and a strong proponent of states rights, and in 1861 served as a delegate to the peace conference in Washington, D.C. in an attempt to prevent civil war.

Tennessee Governor Isham Harris, a staunch supporter of secession who had called for disunion even before Lincoln’s election, called for a secession convention in February 1861, but it was rejected by voters. Following the attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861, Harris sternly rejected Lincoln’s request for 10,000 men from the Volunteer State to help squash the rebellion, saying he would rather cut off his right hand than furnish the troops Lincoln requested. He subsequently began raising a state army, the Provisional Army of Tennessee, and called for another secession referendum in June 1861.

Zollicoffer, though opposed to secession, offered his service to the Provisional Army of Tennessee. He was appointed a brigadier general on May 9, 1861.

With the Battle of Fort Sumter having swung the mood of the state, Tennesseans voted in favor of secession in June — despite overwhelming opposition in Scott County and the rest of East Tennessee — and Zollicoffer was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army on July 9, 1861. Zollicoffer’s troops from the Provisional Army of Tennessee were mustered into Confederate service in late October 1861.

Through his role in the Confederate army, Zollicoffer was in command of troops in East Tennessee. He initially tried to sway East Tennessee’s pro-Union population with a lenient policy, stationing only 15 companies of troops in the region.

However, Harris ordered Zollicoffer and 4,000 new recruits to Knoxville on July 26, 1861, to suppress resistance to secession in East Tennessee. Harris appointed Zollicoffer commander of the District of East Tennessee.

Following Harris’s re-election as governor on Aug. 8, 1861, he 10 days later ordered Zollicoffer to arrest and banish leaders of pro-Union factions in East Tennessee from the state, changing the policy from leniency to force.

Invasion of Kentucky

At the same time that Tennessee was organizing into the Confederacy, Camp Dick Robinson was being established near Danville, Ky. for the purpose of training a 10,000-man-strong army from Union loyalists in eastern Kentucky and East Tennessee to invade East Tennessee and seize it from the Confederacy. At the end of August 1861, Zollicoffer was informed in Knoxville that Lieutenant William “Bull” Nelson, who was in command at Camp Dick Robinson, was adding 400 to 500 new recruits each day to his force.

In an effort to prevent the looming invasion of the Union army, Zollicoffer went on the offensive. He occupied Cumberland Gap on Sept. 14, 1861, and began shoring up efforts to guard 128 lines of Confederate line between the Cumberland Gap and Tompkinsville, Ky. When General Albert Sidney Johnston assumed command of Confederate forces in the Western Theater between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River on Sept. 15, 1861, he retained Zollicoffer as district commander in East Tennessee.

On Sept. 17, 1861, Zollicoffer sent a force through the Cumberland Gap along the Wilderness Road to expel the Union army from Barbourville, Ky. The intent was to force Union Brigadier General George H. Thomas — who had assumed command at Camp Dick Robinson — to thwart plans to invade East Tennessee and retain his force in Kentucky.

Zollicoffer only sent 800 men — under the command of Colonel Joel Battle — to Barbourville, but that was more than enough to successfully ambush the 150 home guards who were at Barbourville. Meanwhile, separate detachments of Zollicoffer’s force attacked Union recruits at Laurel Bridge, Ky. and at the Goose Creek Salt Works.

In mid October 1861, Zollicoffer’s men marched 40 miles from the Cumberland Gap to London, Ky. There, at the Battle of Wildcat Mountain, Zollicoffer’s force was defeated and he was forced to retreat to East Tennessee.

In November 1861, Zollicoffer changed his strategy and moved westward, then moved back into Kentucky near Somerset, Ky. He thought his position would allow reinforcement from Confederate forces near Bowling Green, Ky., which would help him drive Thomas out of the area. He established an encampment at Mill Springs, Ky. on the south bank of the Cumberland River. Later, on Dec. 6, 1861, his men had crossed the river to the north bank.

However, Zollicoffer had miscalculated the strength of reinforcements. Many of the Confederate men in Tennessee had not yet been armed, including Zollicoffer’s own reserve force at Knoxville.

Without reinforcements or supplies, Zollicoffer was unable to advance on the Union force in December 1861. Colonel William H. Carroll eventually left Knoxville with a brigade to join Zollicoffer on Jan. 16, 1862, but was only able to bring a single regiment. The rest of his men were ordered to Bowling Green.

Meanwhile, Confederate President Jefferson Davis on Dec. 8, 1861 appointed Major General George B. Crittenden to command the District of East Tennessee in order to lead a force into Kentucky. He was unaware of Zollicoffer’s situation. Crittenden retained Zollicoffer as commander of the 1st Brigade of his army, and ordered him on Dec. 15, 1861 to move back to the south side of the river. However, the river was swollen by heavy rainfall and Zollicoffer only had two rafts, so he chose to remain on the north side of the river.

On Jan. 1, 1862, Thomas moved from his camp at Lebanon, Ky. to join the troops in Somerset. On Jan. 2, Crittenden arrived at Mill Springs and decided to attack Thomas before he could reach Somerset. He had 6,500 men amassed under his command, but would’ve been out-numbered if Thomas had reached Somerset.

The Battle of Mill Springs began on Jan. 18, 1862, when Crittenden ordered an advance at midnight with the two Union forces still separated by a rain-swollen stream called Fishing Creek. Zollicoffer led the first brigade toward Logan’s Crossroads.

After marching eight miles in a driving rain, Zollicoffer’s force attacked Union pickets one mile south of Mill Springs. The ensuing battle was a three-hour fight in heavy rain, with fog and smoke covering the thickly wooded battleground. The Confederate soldiers were largely untrained, and were confused by the weather and the conditions. Adding to the confusion, some of the Confederates were wearing blue uniforms.

As the fight unfolded, the 15th Mississippi Infantry Regiment mistook the Union 4th Kentucky Infantry Regiment for blue-clad Confederates. Zollicoffer, who was near-sighted and wearing a white raincoat, rode into the lines of the 4th Kentucky and began to discuss the situation with Union Colonel Speed S. Fry. A Confederate aide, realizing that the men were Union and not blue-clad Confederates, rode out of the fog, firing at the Union force. Union soldiers returned fire, and Zollicoffer was killed as he began to ride away.

Some historians claim it was Fry, not Zollicoffer, who mistakenly rode into enemy lines.

As Zollicoffer fell, his men began to retreat. Crittenden moved the remaining force across the Cumberland River overnight on a steamboat, leaving artillery, mules, equipment, and most of his food supply on the north bank.

Aftermath

A Union surgeon embalmed Zollicoffer’s body, and it was returned to Tennessee for burial at the Old City Cemetery in Nashville. Zollicoffer Park, a Confederate cemetery containing a mass grave of the Confederate dead, was established just outside Nancy, Ky. The Mills Spring National Cemetery, a Union cemetery, is nearby, and is the oldest of all national cemeteries still receiving burials other than Arlington National Cemetery.

Zollicoffer was a well-known figure in the early days of the war. Gilbert Wilson, administrator of the Mill Springs Battlefield Association, once said: “Today people have forgotten about Gen. Zollicoffer, but he was well known at the time … in fact, I would say he was better known at that time than Robert E. Lee.” He was referred to as “Snollegoster” and an “old he-devil” by Union soldiers.

Nevertheless, Zollicoffer’s death and the Confederates’ defeat at Mill Springs caused significant disorganization of the rebel forces in East Tennessee. The absence of Confederate occupation of Scott County gave rise to a general state of lawlessness in Scott County that persisted throughout 1862 and much of 1863, before Union General Ambrose Burnside seized East Tennessee after marching through Scott County in September 1863.

Claims that Union commanders treated Zollicoffer’s body with respect have been disputed. A New York newspaper correspondent wrote that souvenir hunters had stripped Zollicoffer of his clothes, including taking three buttons from his coat and cutting his hair close to the skull in order to take locks of it as souvenirs.

“I am sorry to say that his remains were outrageously treated by the thousands of soldiers and citizens that flocked to see them,” the reporter wrote.

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