19 January 1862, Kentucky, War Between the
States
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Post-War Narrative of George C. Porter, 20th Tennessee Infantry
PITCH DARK NIGHT At 1 o’clock on the morning of the 19th of January the
advance move began. The night was dark and the road softened by the rainfall rendered the
march slow and difficult. The batteries, distributed at different parts of the line, were
constantly miring and lengthened the column to several miles. As the movement was intended
to be a surprise, the plan adopted by the commanding general was for the regiments to
assail the enemy as soon as he was reached. About dawn the head of the column encountered
the enemy’s pickets, and passing forward reached the main body at sunrise. The enemy
was neither divided, as supposed, nor surprised, as expected. Gen. Zollicoffer, whose
brigade was in the front, formed his line of battle, placing the Fifteenth Mississippi and
the Twentieth Tennessee on the right of the road. A brief sketch of this engagement can
only be given. These were the only forces ready for the advance. An Indiana regiment was
already in line and awaited the attack. It was being gallantly pressed back, when the
Fourth Kentucky, under Col. Fry, came to its support. The attempt of Col. Battle of the
Twentieth to flank the Fourth Kentucky was checked by Carter’s brigade of East
Tennessee. These two Confederate regiments were now engaged and holding their ground
against eight regiments of [and?] artillery. Gen. Zollicoffer extended his line of
battle on the left of the road with the Nineteenth, Twenty-fifth, and Twenty-ninth
Tennessee regiments, with one section of Rutledge’s battery under command of Lieut.
Mark Cockrill of Nashville, and now an honorary member of the Twentieth Tennessee. This
artillery remained in the road and did most effective service as long as it was in action.
It was the only cannon fired from the Confederate side during the entire engagement.
Lieut. Cockrill has a vivid and definite recollection of the action of the two armies at
this time, and he lately gave to the writer an interesting account in detail. MARK S. COCKRILL’S ACCOUNT He said the Federals continued to extend their line to the left, and the Mississippi regiment continued to move to the right to keep from being flanked and the Twentieth that was on their left moved also to the right to keep in touch with this regiment, which left a wide space between the Twentieth Regiment and his section of artillery.
It was a rainy, dark morning, and the mist and smoke from the guns made it possible to see but a short distance ahead. Here Gen. Zollicoffer rode forward through this open space and soon encountered the Fourth Kentucky Regiment whom he mistook for his own command, the Twentieth Tennessee. He was accompanied by his aid, Capt. Henry B. Fogg, and the enemy recognizing them as Confederate officers fired a volley at them, killing both. As Zollicoffer’s men began to be forced back, Carroll’s brigade was brought into action, but could not stem the tide of confusion caused by the fall of Gen. Zollicoffer and the forcing back of the Fifteenth Mississippi and the Twentieth Tennessee which up to that time had borne the weight and brunt of the battle. It is wonderful how the Twentieth stood its ground so long and so well, as they were armed with the old-time flintlock musket that owing to the rain would not fire more than once out of five times. No troops ever fought under greater disadvantage than did the Confederates in this battle. The consequence was, and could not possibly have been otherwise, they were forced to fall back to their position on the banks of the Cumberland closely followed by the enemy. By extraordinary effort the infantry managed to cross that night on the little stern-wheeler Ellis with the loss of all the artillery, horses, wagons and commissary stores, and to take up their long and wearisome march of several hundred miles, over mountains, streams and valleys in the dead of winter, badly clad and badly fed -- to join the army of Gen. Johnston then ggathering and concentrating at Murfreesboro to avoid Buell at Nashville and to meet Grant at Shiloh. George C. Porter, "The Twentieth Tennessee Confederate Regiment," excerpts from an undated newspaper clipping in the Tennessee State Library and Archives, Confederate Collection, Box IV-B-4, Article XII.
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