The Battle of Richmond, Kentucky: Civil War Kentucky

hello hello everybody wow um i am so happy to be here i know i tend to say this a lot but i love coming to places i haven't been before and you're with the american battlefield trust i'm gary adelman that's chris white behind the camera there and we are taking what we call our western swing at least this one through west virginia and kentucky we've already been and i hope you've seen some of our videos for harper's ferry in charlestown and uh corex ford and rich mountain and philippe and romney along the way and whatnot but now we are in kentucky so we've got to talk about kentucky we have to talk about where we're standing richmond kentucky where one of the most if not the most lopsided victory of the civil war actually took place and we're going to bring somebody on in a second to help me talk about a lot of these things okay before i bring them on though real quick share this with your friends so as many people can see it as possible and you might find that you have a friend you didn't even know was a history buff it's one of those things you can go a while without knowing about the people you know so we are in kentucky and like west virginia it is geographically strategic in that any confederate army coming north into kentucky has easy access to a bunch of northern states you know call it uh you know pennsylvania ohio especially uh indiana illinois uh conversely a uh union force that gets toward that border is all of a sudden right to ward especially using the river can unmask uh tennessee and beyond so it's strategic geographically it's also strategic in that it's a border state of course so you know abraham lincoln you know vicksburg is the key but man i gotta have kentucky like he really believed in having kentucky remember kentucky is a slave state it's going to trend in terms of soldier participation overwhelmingly union there's a lot to unpack here you've got union governor confederate governors it's a it's a capital that's going to change hands and whatnot let's unpack some of this come on over here we've got bill seifried of the battle of richmond visitor center he's the curator but he's just the guru of all these things going around here thanks for joining us phil what's your reaction to all that stuff i just spit out it's all true just like in star wars it's all true but the kentucky campaign of 1862 is coming into its own it has been rather overlooked oh by the way the confederates came into kentucky in 1862 because there were so many things going on in other places the battle of richmond is a key part of that confederate advance into kentucky of 1862. edmond kirby smith a west point graduate and had served in the army very well he became a confederate officer he and braxton bragg meet in chattanooga tennessee on july the 31st 1862 to devise a plan to rid the bluegrass state of the union invaders edmond kirby smith is going to bring about 20 000 25 000 men up what is known as the old state road which is going to be parallel to i-75 of today to come into central kentucky while braxton bragg and his 35 to 40 000 men army are going to follow what is now the i-65 corridor coming into central kentucky amy kirby smith leaves knoxville in mid-august he dispatches one of his divisions under carter little paige stevenson many of you vicksburg fans know that name to go over to the cumberland gap to keep a union garrison there in check his other three divisions under the commands of brigadier general's patrick claiborne thomas churchill and henry heath are going to wind up the old state road to the drought-stricken mountains of south central kentucky his lead element of kirby smith's army is the first louisiana cavalry under colonel john scott to show you how tough these guys were they wore rattlesnake rattles on their hats they are going to run into union general maylen manson's um division you pronounce that guy's first name again mailing m-a-h-l-o-n mailing biblical scholars should know that one and uh they're going to have a little battle on the august the 29th and the main battle is going to be on august the 30th now we've talked about the union army a little bit or the confederate army excuse me let's talk about the union don carlos mule is in tennessee he gets word of this advanced by the confederates so he dispatches william bull nelson a native kentuckian he's a naval officer to kentucky with a very hastily formed army of new recruits from indiana kentucky ohio and some michigan artillery to come to lexington and then to richmond to thwart this advance bull nelson is known as the most elegant and original swearer in the entire union army and he has his own stories as he is killed a month after at the battle of richmond mayla manson brings his force along with brigadier general charles croft to lexington and then to richmond and on the morning of august the 30th 1862 mainland manson just north of where we are standing deploys his michigan artillery patrick claiborne brings up his small division deploys texas and florida artillery and at 7 00 a.m the artillery duel starts that goes along for about two hours and then it's the infantry's term patrick claiborne on the east side of the old state road which is now the bluegrass army depot property slowly starts probing into maylem manson's left flank now while this is all going on one of claiborne's regimental commanders colonel lucius polk is severely wounded and they are bringing him off the field and he lucious polk stops and is talking to patrick clayburn while this is all going on and a rather rude yankee bullet comes through the air hits patrick clayburn in the mouth takes out two to five teeth depending on the account and exits and if i'm correct the battle of richmond uh battlefield richmond actually has those teeth is that we have patrick's claiborne's teeth they are in a field over on the bluegrass army depot do not climb the fence going over there to try to find them you will never be seen again and let me just say a few things i know i interrupted you phil you all are used to me doing this uh to various speakers you're with the american battlefield trust we're on the richmond battlefield let's interrupt our narrative a little bit um to ask phil i've already seen brian and sue two people have commented and there's more than 250 of you watching thank you share this with your friends so we can get this even more uh and we know that thousands will watch it later but brian and sue brian said you know i've been to richmond before and didn't even know there was a battle here uh sue said something similar it's easy to forget these places so what's your reaction you work and live around here a lot of people don't realize here in richmond and kentucky that there is a significant civil war battle in their backyard if you shop at the local krogers you're on where the union camp was a lot of people just don't realize that and a lot of people haven't heard about the battle of richmond kentucky because we i hate to say place second fiddle but we are outshined by another battle it's called the battle of second manassas or second bull run which are fought on the exact same days when you have robert e lee and stonewall jackson 30 miles from washington guess who's going to get the headlines yeah and let me encourage y'all because this happened during the civil war i mean abraham lincoln couldn't believe how he could have all sorts of success out west and then one thing happens in the east it's as if they didn't capture a hundred thousand square miles of territory up to that point so you have this we were talking about bragg and kirby smith moving up this way here's smith moving up toward lexington here's bragg moving up at least toward bardstown or louisville okay and kirby smith fights his main battle at the same time as the battle of second manassas and you're going to have brag fight his battle at munfordville we hope to stop there as well on overlapping with the battle of antietam what's going to get the news okay in kentucky or maryland that's that's exactly right one thing that happens during this advance by the two confederate armies is they are not coordinating themselves kirby smith is all the way up here and bragg is still just north of chattanooga that's a inherent flaw with the entire campaign yeah and in a way it's kind of weird y'all i think you know this but let's say he's bragg sorry that's all right let's say i'm smith you know if i'm with phil if i'm with bragg i then have to report to him but if i stay a little further away then he doesn't command me is that about right it's no one is technically in charge of this campaign bragg's over here doing his thing kirby smith is over here doing his thing there's other people doing their things and nobody's talking to each other and that has a lot to do with the uh the the battle of perryville the federal forces never really get hooked up to a good fighting force to take on don carlos fuel in early october good good so here we are we're at richmond i interrupted phil when he was sort of getting into this first phase so um what's happening at the battle of richmond basically is the confederates are ultimately going to bring um an experienced force here um under under two different division commanders who are really going to advance on both sides of the road behind you there's going to be fighting in this general area we're here in part because it's a great view it's beautiful we have hay bales and everything and because you the members of this organization and our supporters helped to support the more than 300 acres saved on this part of the battle right here where i'm standing if it wasn't for the trust we would not be standing here this would have been a subdivision easily all right great easily um and then the battle will flow as the confederates succeed the battle flows further toward to the north toward richmond and future let's back up just a minute go ahead while uh maylon manson attention is really involved on his left flank thomas churchill is going to bring up his division they're going to cut down a very little farm lane at the time and they're going to cut up a ravine which you can see from here and you can see where the ground goes out a little bit and then you'll see there's a creek down there called mound branch he's going to take 3 000 texas and arkansas troops and he is going to hit maelon manson's right flank at the same time that maylon manson is weakening his right flank because he thinks all the effect is on his left but both flanks are going to collapse and the his union force is going to retreat in fairly poor order charles cruft is also going to be bringing his men out and he is going to um deploy two regiments to try to stabilize things it doesn't work and they all fall back toward richmond and let me just real say real quick say hello we got i'm a marylander we got our maryland friend ray with us and my good friend and supporter of the trust you know who you are huggy bear it's really good i'm not gonna everybody remembers huggy bear from starsky and hutch uh but i'm not gonna say who i really mean by this we're getting some great comments uh people are learning about this battle who don't know about it before and they like hearing about our ancestors so let's continue we're kind of into this first phase okay um it's about 11 11 30 in the morning um mayla manson in general and charles croft are going to move there um somewhat uh somewhat beaten up for us about a mile to a mile and a half north of our position here they're going to foul there on the at the intersection of the speedwell dung canyon road along with the with the state old state road charles cruft as we're looking from the confederate position would be on the left manson's troops would be on the right not much fighting on the right which is still on the bluegrass army depot charles cruft is going to move his men forward and he is also going to wheel and thus is going to open up his right flank texas troops that fought here are going to be there waiting on them behind the fence and they're going to riddle the 12th indiana with gunfire that that deal up there could last about 45 minutes or so if i ever get to talk to charles cruft in the afterlife i'm going to ask him why did you move your men forward when he didn't have to the arm the union army is going to be very demoralized lost a lot of men due to heat and to lead and they're going to fall back another five miles to the rich the city of richmond proper the confederates are out here they're going to get themselves reorganized they've taken a lot of hits to their officer corps not only patrick claiborne but several others they're going to get their act together and follow in pursuit the the deal at the uh what we call the battle of white's farm ends about 12 31 o'clock in the afternoon on an unrelentingly hot august day that is another enemy that both sides face in that kentucky is in a terrible drought 85 to 95 degrees and water is extremely scarce good good so you know we've got all sorts of people talking about here and i think you can help us phil uh a little bit okay um you know because one guy said did the golf course uh get sold or preserved so first of all what golf course is he talking about and and what's the preservation status i love it when people ask preservation questions when this all started out here back in year 2000 or so a developer bought a cattle farm that was called battlefield farm very original and made it into a golf course that helped jumpstart the preservation efforts here the golf course is still in existence there are still people are playing over there today it is a municipal course now and it's doing okay um would we prefer to be not a golf course and a golfing community any things of course we would but sometimes you take the bad with the good good gum that's right when this property came up for sale at absolute auction in the year 2001 this was slated to be a subdivision it was ready to go proverbially there was a bulldozer out there to start knocking the 1824 pleasantview house down that served as a hospital during the battle also but concerned people locally and nationally and internationally saw the benefits of battlefield preservation and we were able to save it very good you know joshua mentions here that he thanks us for um you know highlighting these battles and helping to preserve them where his ancestors fought he had some ohio ancestors and whatnot he likes to go to perryville but here's what i got to say thank you i mean chris and i and our digital team went and said okay we'll take some trips out west if you all pay for them you know the trust doesn't have a lot of money sitting around and within four days we raised more than enough money to fund this trip and to deal with all the tech as well as the travel and everything in order to get this done so we're going to be asking you for more help if we can do the atlanta campaign if we can do middle tennessee and shiloh if we can do vicksburg again which we've already done once along with port hudson and some other mississippi sites as well and we're trying to going to try to cover all these important places that we try to preserve together now this has been a great shot in the arm for us what the trust is doing with going to these smaller battlefields telling you at home what's going on some people might not be able to come here for whatever reason because we matter too we're not we're a small guy we're small people but your your donations go to help big places as well as small places just like here and you can see it every day and the faces of kids that come out here learn about what our american history well that's great i want to make sure that we're not leaving stuff off i think we still have some more battles we've still got a third of the battle to go um at four o'clock in the afternoon there has been one person at this battle that has been conspicuously absent and his name is william bull nelson he shows up and rallies or tries to rally what's left of the union army and forms a very makeshift line in the richmond cemetery which from looking behind me would be five miles um the confederates come up kirby smith is very good at putting fresh troops in place to make the attack arkansas troops attack on the union right flank while tennessee troops attack in the middle and the line falls apart in about 45 minutes union line falls apart falls apart like dominoes they go through that the streets of downtown richmond it was a morass of men horses buggies ambulances whatever you have men from the 12th indiana with the 95th ohio with the 18th kentucky they're just a mob going out of town but kirby smith has a little secret he has sent john scott and his cavalry around richmond and they have cut off the roads to lexington and so while this union army is trying to get out of town just about dark on august 30th 1862 they run into about 800 screaming cajuns i'd have thrown my gun down too and the union army is most of the union army has captured over four thousand you men in blue are marched back to richmond and kept in a makeshift stockade around the madison county courthouse until they were paroled meaning released with conditions kirby smith after he gets his men reorganized here in things henry heath brings his division up they were not involved in the fighting they move on to lexington take lexington in two days and then frankfurt falls a few days later it's the only time a union capital falls to the confederates is in frankfort kentucky in early september of 1862. and there's so much more to unpack here that we haven't even been able to touch i mean you know this is late august of 1862 and then into september of 1862. um you know we we're gonna hopefully visit the battle of mill springs but that took place earlier that year even after kirby smith moves on toward lexington and onward um you're going to have a union force that is south and east of here cumberland gap starting to move through the state and he's gonna have to deal with that so this is a complex subject one that we can't cover in six eight 10 12 videos but we'll do our best as we as we move ahead now i want to make sure that we want to talk about bull nelson a few people have mentioned it because bull nelson is at this battle his only real battle when he's in command and that's weird right he would seem like someone like that would have more opportunity later in the war he's somewhat of a political general he is from kentucky his family is very well thought of his brother his minute is lincoln's minister to chile and um so he is here and um like i said he is the most elegant and original swearer in the entire union army but that becomes his undoing a month after the battle of richmond while he is convalescing in louisville he he takes a wound to the left leg during the battle of richmond may have been shot by his own men but we'll never know that for sure he gets into it with another union general by the name of jefferson c davis and they jefferson c day was a rather small guy he's maybe five four hundred pounds at the most and they get into a rather heated argument arguments actually if you study it and then jefferson c davis basically in a nutshell goes and borrows a pistol and shoots bull nelson in the chest at the in the lobby of the galt house not the current gault house if you ever go to louisville but for the previous gold house and bill nelson dies there and um he was eventually taken back to maysville kentucky near his hometown wow and i had no idea jefferson c davis was was that little you know not the tall guy i kind of like that he's a gary edelman guy hey hold on you said he was five four i'm not quite that he's a real little guy and it looks like i'm about your hype that's right how do you talk that hat song so yeah i wear the hat for that reason so uh you know uh i think it was bev that asked you know are we near camp nelson i think we're 30 or 40 miles away about 45 miles away um and we do hope to go there nelson is named for william bull nelson it is a great site um one of the best things going for camp nelson is it's not a battlefield one of the worst things it's got going for it is it's not about it but it's now a national city it's a national monument they've worked on it hard you need to go there if you come to kentucky come to the battle of richmond of course yeah look in fact kevin says i am enthused to read more and visit the battle or to read more of the battle thanks for the kickstart all right yeah we look forward to coming through the door good and camp nelson is not to be confused with a much earlier camp we hope to visit we're not sure camp wildcat and that is not to be confused with camp dick robinson which you are allowed to confuse with camp breckenridge part of the mitigation is they had to put in some interpretive signs so at least when you go there you do have some place to stop and it talks about what happened at a very very important and probably the most overlooked site in kentucky with camp dick robins okay so now i'm gonna this is a trap here oh so let me let me ask you so is william bull nelson is that a nickname or his middle name that is a nickname okay so that's a nickname and he had it apparently before the war also they also call him buster i don't know if i would call bull nelson buster to his face um but he he was just a monster of a man and he was very polarizing you either loved him or you hated him and you know what we like to think we're different from people in the civil war but man we are not no you know you've met people like that yourselves and i'll just i'll just end with that but you know i'm gonna hit you with something we'd like to do and you probably know we like to do and that's middle name trivia i'm gonna start okay and then hit you with some harder ones so let's start with edmund smith now that's a tough one because he's gonna make it tough well i'm gonna make it tough evan kirby smith's mother was a kirby so it's really a maiden it's a maiden name and he has 11 children and they all live to be adults some of them use a hyphen some of them do not so uh all right i've been doing these quizzes for a while and i've never been called on anything that's a tough one okay how about george thomas george h thompson well it depends on the time of war it's either rock or sledge middle name i don't know that it's henry how about okay oh that was chris white behind the camera how about a tough one then alvin f chef chope now you got me on that one francis he's out of the battle of richmond okay john t wilde or anyone we're gonna hear from him at montfortville oh man okay simon b buckner boulevard all right good we'll end with that one then um future governor of kentucky indeed and home uh munfordville hometown guy um let's see so i see a lot of y'all talking about preservation i see cynthia anna on there not sure we'll be able to make it there we do hope to get to tebs bend along the way later today great site all right good good and we we might have a special guest there as well we look forward to that and of course we'll spend some time in perryville anything else i i'm reluctant to ask but anything else you just have to say come to kentucky you won't regret it and let me second that i first came here in 2010 and i left with one big message civil war kentucky rules there is so much to see there's so much to unpack the people are interesting and it's a great state to visit and that's beside the bourbon yes good thanks phil thank you for joining us [Applause] thank you for watching and thanks for supporting battlefield preservation

Channel: American Battlefield Trust

Views: 13,697

Keywords: American Battlefield Trust, Civil War Trust, Richmond Kentucky Civil War, Richmond Kentucky Civil War Tour, Battle of Richmond Visitor Center, Phillip Seyfrit, American Battlefield Trust Kentucky, Kentucky in the Civil War, Confederate Victory, What were the biggest Confederate victories?, Civil War 1862

Id: pyUyAXv0O9M

Length: 24min 28sec (1468 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 10 2020