Alf Killen
Unionist Scout & Guerrilla
~ a brief history ~
Alf Killen was the son of John Killen and Betsy Stack, who was rumored to be a half-Cherokee Indian from Northern Georgia.
Killens family originally lived in Ashe County (present-day Alleghany County), North Carolina, on Killen's Creek near Sparta, before moving to the Cumberlands in 1853. The family settled in the New River Valley, which is now part of Dickenson County, Va.
Alf Killen and his wife Lucy Whitaker and their seven children settled on a small tract of land on Cane Creek, in what was then Russell County.
Killen was regarded as a very bitter and mentally unbalanced man during the war. Its is likely that the sectional strife and being forced to join the Virginia State Line caused his bitterness. His brief association with this unit intimately acquainted him with many of his Southern enemies who also served under Colonel Nathaniel McClure Menifee and General John Buchanan Floyd.
Called into Eastern Kentucky by Colonel George W. Gallup, 14th Kentucky (US), and also commander of the Eastern Kentucky Military District, Killen's mission was to organize a Union home guard for the area. Various records indicate that Alf Killen's unit was officially known as Company F, or Company K, 39th Kentucky Mounted Infantry, but recent research has brought evidence to light that Killen may have been part of the 14th Kentucky Infantry (US), instead, even though
none of Killen's members show on any of the 14th Kentucky rosters. A few men also served in the enrolled Kentucky milita.
[what I found most interesting is the fact that many of the men seemed to have been related in one way or another. It seemed the one thing that united them even though it sort of disputes the fact how Killen "recruited" some of his members].
Alf Killen organized his Union Home Guard Company in Wise County, Va.
Killen was a neighbor of many members of the 7th Battalion Confederate Cavalry and had served with many of them in the Virginia State Line the previous fall [1861].
Andrew Jackson Yates, one of the principal members of this unit, enlisted on August 27, 1863, but this was a formal muster in date, and does not consider recruiting time. It is relatively safe to assume that Killen had been recruiting at least a few days, perhaps a few weeks before this date.
Several other members of this unit claimed in the 1890 Union Veterans Census
that they entered service in 1862. This is not confirmed by any of the service records available. It is however, possible, that some men may have considered their Unionist bushwhacking activities actually began with Sammy Salyers' attack in the summer of 1862. Most of the members of Killen's company served until the 39th Kentucky mustered out of service on September 15, 1865. At any rate, Killen's band was fully functional by the summer of 1863.
George Washington Fleming recalled that Killen and his men "just went around and picked up recruits anywhere they could find any." His orders to the recruits was short and to the point, "You got to come and go with us." Most men were afraid of him, and joined his command to avoid getting hurt.
During the war, Killen and his band of "homeguards" made their base of operation in Pike County, Ky. Considered reckless lawbreakers Killen's band, according to a contemporary source, "was the cause of many cowardly and inhuman acts and stole everything they could."
Killen's chief adversary, the Kentuckian Colonel Prentice, operated in the neighboring southwestern part of Virginia. Prentice became very annoyed with Killen as the war gradually turned in favor of the Union and Killen felt he could add Prentice's territory to his own. Prentice and his men, who operated a brothel at Castlewood, was not very popular with the population there, yet Killen was regarded by the Southern sympathizing majority as worse.
Although a firm date has not been established, Tandy Branham seems to have been the first victim of Alf Killen's Home Guards. Sometime in the summer of 1863, Killen and his associate, Joel D. "Dusty Pants" Long, stole one of Branham's horses, from a farm hand named Spence. Horses were valuable commodities and Branham was not willing to let the horse go without making a good effort to recover it. Some of Killen's band was aware of Branham's pursuit. The Home Guards soon took positions in the bushes along side the road and waited for Branham to pass by. They did not have to wait long, Branham soon came to the spot and instead of passing by, he passed over Jordan, as the folks of the area would have said. Killen's home guards shot him down. This incident may have led to Killen's ultimate demise.
About the same time, Killen's Home Guards captured Adam G. Roberson simply for being a rebel sympathizer. Adam's brother, Matthew, was a Unionist, and interceded with Killen and procured his release. The matter, however, was not that simple. Matthew Roberson threatened to have Killen shot.
Years after the events, Press Mullins, son of Isom Mullins, told the story that Killen "was very taken with" one of his father's horses. Press described the horse as "a very fine filly." Killen supposedly tried to buy the horse on several occasions, but Mullins always refused. Killen, after he had raised his band of bushwhackers decided he would steal the horse, but the horse ran from him and he could not catch her. An enraged Killen then drew his pistol and shot the horse, much to Isom Mullins' dismay. Killen's attempted theft precipitated the fight on Pound River and Holly Creek.
Mr. Ephraim A. Dunbar recalled several other details that led up to the shootings on Pound River. Dunbar placed the event "in the latter part of the summer of 63 or fall of that year." George W. Fleming gave the date as September 16, 1863, while Isaac Mullins noted it was "fodder pulling time."
Dunbar noted that Captain George D. French and a few men went down to see his father's family. They were also to round up men who were absent from his unit without proper authority. Dunbar recalled that Lieutenant John Fleming was in command of some men who belonged to John Chase's Company.
Captain French's command was divided. Part remained on the south side of Pound Gap when Willie Mullins and Jack Taylor were killed by Union Home Guards under Alf Killen.
The other portion of George French's command, under French and Lieutenant John Fleming, was fired on as "they were crossing the big ridge" near Pound River about a mile from the mouth of Holly Creek near where some Flemings lived. Other accounts give the location name as Bear Pen, land which is now under the Flannagan Dam inbayment. George Fleming later claimed that the Confederate band consisted of between 30 and 40 soldiers and a few civilians like Marshall Keel. According to composite accounts, some rebels in the party were Jack Taylor, Frank Taylor, John Fleming, and Wiley Mullins.
Isaac Mullins recalled that the Unionists heard some rebels were in the community. Continuing, Mullins said, "they hid behind a tree-lap and waited for them to come by. They had prepared themselves to shoot into the crowd as it went by." Mullins added that the bushwhackers fired into the crowd as they passed by.
George Fleming's account noted:
Suddenly, some shots were fired from the woods, and the rebels saw about a half-dozen men run, but did not recog- nize any of them. One bullet hit Marshall in the mouth, going through and breaking his neck. Some... soldiers took him back to father's were he was buried on the hill in the family graveyard.
Marshall Keel died where he fell. Jack Taylor, however, wounded the day before, was still living and was taken to Isom Mullins' home were he later died. Isom Mullins, who was not a soldier, was feeding his hogs as the Confederates marched up the road and witnessed the incident.
Dunbar noted Keel was a son-in-law of Jack Fleming, one of the primary Confederate sympathizers in the area. Andrew Counts said the bushwhackers intended to kill John Fleming or John McFall, but instead killed Marshall Keel. Counts claimed he did not know who shot Keel, but thought Isaac Mullins or his son Harmon did it.
George Fleming claimed, but was unsure about the gunmen, but said Alf Killen was "at the head of the other crowd - Yankees." Fleming said that Washington Phipps was also one of the men who did the killing." Isaac Mullins added a few other names of the Home Guards, listing Alf Killen, Joel Long, Wash Phipps, Jack Phipps, Wesley Vanover, and another or two who were scouting around near Wilburn Phipps' place near the mouth of Brush Creek.
The whole incident was a case of family difficulty and mistaken identity.
Marshall Keel had traded hats that morning with the bushwhacker's intended victim. Henry Keel's recollection of events basically agreed with others, but added:
Cripple Billy (W. J.) Fleming told me that Harmon Mullins, while in the penitentiary for killing his son, confessed to firing the shot that killed my uncle. He claimed that this band of bushwhackers was composed of himself, his father, Isaac Mullins, and others of that neighborhood, and that it was their sole purpose to kill John J. Fleming, Jr., a nephew of Isaac Mullins, Sr., and who had roused the ire of some of his relatives. They killed the wrong man.
Isaac Mullins in 1933 admitted that it was either his father or his uncle who killed Keel. It is ironic that Marshall Keel was not formally in either army, although he was joining the Confederate force. Dunbar concluded by noting, "the Confederate soldiers then left there as it was unsafe for them to travel..." The woods were "full of union bushwhackers." George Fleming's account continued, "Some rebels were camping on Sinking Creek in Russell County, and he was going there for protection, as times were getting serious in this section." George Fleming concurred in the opinion that the "soldiers went on to Russell County" for protection.
~ Battle of Cranesnest ~
[This account written by Jeffrey Hatmaker ]
In November 1863, the forces of the Thirteenth Kentucky Cavalry under Major Thomas J. Chenoweth saw combat between two scurrilous men and their troops. Lieutenant Colonel Clarence J. Prentice, C.S.A. was a ne'er do well profiteer whose unit participated in General John Hunt Morgan's star-crossed "Last Raid" into Kentucky. The Thirteenth Kentucky Cavalry served with them in this raid, and I am sure that they knew what to expect from Prentice and his Seventh Battalion Confederate Cavalry, (of Virginia), by his track
record in that action. Lt. Colonel Prentice and his men "distinguished" themselves on that raid by doing what they were most experienced at, i.e., drinking hard and stealing as much as they could get away with. The scoundrels that attached themselves to his unit were a constant source of embarrassment and consternation to his peers as well as his superiors.
Colonel Henry Giltner, successor of Benjamin Everidge Caudill as Commanding Officer of the Thirteenth Kentucky Cavalry bitterly complained to his superiors not only of Prentice's depredations against the population of Kentucky during Morgan's Last Raid, but of Morgan's blind eye towards his unit as well. Union families in the Wise County, Va., area were finally forced to evacuate their homes by the end of the war to avoid murder and/or starvation. His Union counterpart, Captain Alf Killen was a man of much worse character by all accounts.
Details are sketchy as to why such disparate units as the Seventh Battalion Confederate Cavalry and the Thirteenth Kentucky Cavalry should be bivouacked together on the Cranesnest River in Virginia. Apparently the Adjutants for all units involved, both Federal and Confederate were averse to much, if indeed any, real report writing. Fortunately, enough accounts from survivors are extant that a reasonably lucid account can be made, (in spite of the frustrating "broken fingers" of the Adjutants involved). When using the accounts of witnesses for source material, only those events in which the accounts are all in total agreement are presented as fact. Character assessments that are made on both commanders are well documented by their oft beleaguered and angst ridden fellows.
The strengths of the units involved were, Confederates under Prentice, (including the 13th Kentucky), about 200 with about 125 armed effectives, and the Federals under Killen had about 50 effectives. Please remember that these were, by and large, Home Guard/Partisan Ranger type units, hence the relatively small numbers involved. This "battle" is not a skirmish by virtue of the fact that both units sought each other out with the clear objective
of holding that portion of Virginia for their respective causes. The Home Guards of Captain Killen were trying to oust the Partisan Rangers that he felt were wrongly in control of territory that rightfully should have been his. These two commanders had been at odds over possession of this part of Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky since virtually the beginning of the War.
Killen was still stinging from past failures to whip his nemesis. The Partisan Rangers and the Thirteenth Kentucky Cavalry got wind of the plans and movements of the enemy and laid a very deadly trap. This was not a chance meeting between two opposing forces with no clearly defined military objective. That is the definition of a skirmish. These were two units who sought each other out, chose their ground, and fought for a specific goal.
The only possible argument against the Cranesnest affairs being a battle would be the size of the units involved. The opposing units were not two armies, but in the words of historian Damian Beach, "Whether battle or skirmish; [it] was men rushing at each other with murderous intent."
After a hard ride, Killen's men reached the Long Fork of the Cranesnest River and were mustering by an old churchyard. This property was owned by George Buchanan. (It was likely George Buchanan, himself a Union sympathizer, who told Killen the whereabouts of Prentice and his men, who had themselves but recently arrived at the scene). Such was the skill and stealth of Prentice's scouts in their home territory that he was immediately made aware of Killen's presence. He acted accordingly and ferreted out Killen's plans. The stories of how Prentice acquired this intelligence conflict. He either sent a spy into the area where Killen had met, who managed to convince the property owner that he was a straggler and was told Killen's plans, or he captured a prisoner who was forthcoming with the afore mentioned plans. Either way, Prentice had Killen dead to rights.
That night, Killen's men camped in a hollow not far from the Confederate camp, with the plan of attacking down through the valley at dawn. Had not the element of surprise been lost, the men of Killen's command would have had the advantage of the best ground for the fight. Prentice kept his campfires going with a few of his men around them to maintain the illusion of the camp being caught unawares. The bulk of his effectiveness hid in the trees on both sides of the mouth of the "holler" as it emptied into the level river plain where the bogus camp was.
When Killen made his move, Prentice's troops let them pass by without firing until Killen's entire force was between Prentice's men. When Killen's men opened fire, they were fired upon from all directions. They were surrounded. Isaac "Black Ike" Mullins of the Thirty Ninth Kentucky Cavalry under Killen later recalled, "Alf Killen got up a hundred or so Home Guards around Holly Creek mostly. On a Sunday they started to surprise the Rebels on Cranesnest. They went by old George Buchanan's home near Darwin. I was along and we ate dinner there. We ground corn on his hand mill and killed a little beef. We left there and went on and laid out that night in a little hollow, about a mile or a mile and a half from where the fight took place. The Rebels came to Buchanan's after we left and got their dinner there too. Colonel [sic] Chenoweth was in command of the Rebels. It was late in the fall, on Monday.
It began at daylight. We had got up early and started for the rebel camp expecting to find them asleep and fired down into the camp. Some of them were standing near the campfire and our first fire killed one of them but I never learned his name. The Rebels knew we were coming and had their men hid above and behind us. So, when we fired, they began to fire into us. They were so many and the fire was so hot that we had to run. You can bet we got away fast. We lost several men in the fight."
The escape that "Black Ike" mentioned was none other than the Cranesnest River itself. It was the only place not crawling with Rebels. After the battle when the Rebel troops set out to pursue the fleeing Yankees to a nearby gap in the mountains, they found that the Yanks had only a few moments earlier passed that way. When subsequent scouting revealed little information of any profit to Prentice's scouts, they headed back to camp to see the wounded.
The result of this battle was the engraved invitation to leave the area that local Union sympathizers had dreaded. Many of them sought out greener, not to mention safer, pastures. In an amusing side note, the man upon whose land the battle was fought had a memorable adventure. When the Rebels surrounded his cabin for the battle, Oliver Powers, a staunch supporter of the Union, decided to get his rifle and a butcher knife and creep out of his cabin to help the obviously needy Union Home Guards. During the confusion of battle, he felt something hit his foot. He looked down and saw his butcher knife in pieces, which was only natural since it had stopped a Confederate minnie ball! He would always claim that his butcher knife had saved his life.
While this battle did not involve large numbers of troops on a sustained campaign, it was indicative of the kind of 'campaign' fought in the mountains between Home Guards and Partisan Rangers. Everyone's lives were affected, both civilian and military. If the army of your political persuasion was in town, you fared well and your enemies suffered.
This situation could change, however, without warning. You might have been like the Union folks on Cranesnest and seldom if ever have your boys around for protection. These units were, for the most part, not even regular army, but loose bands of "regulators" with the express purpose of causing the enemy maximum consternation while draining off enemy resources that could be more effectively used elsewhere. John Hunt Morgan was just one example of this tactic taken to it's extreme. This battle was representative of most the
fighting that went on in the Appalachian Mountains. Bitterly divided people were given license to defend to the utmost extremity their beliefs, homes, and neighbors without let or hindrance. Everyone suffered.
Rumor has it that Tandy Branham's killing [see above] led to Killen's death. Branham was liked by both Union and Confederate soldiers; it is said that both armies co-operated in seeking his revenge. In any case, Killen's squad of homeguards was met at the Mouth of Big Mud Creek in Floyd Co., by a group of Confederates and during the ensueing battle Killen was killed and Branham's death revenged. He was killed on February 15, 1864.
A very special thanks to Marlitta Perkins for her research of Alf Killen that appears above.
This material is copyright of Marlitta Perkins & maynot be used without her written permission.
~ Sources Utilized ~
"The Civil War in Buchanan and Wise Counties - Bushwackers' Paradise", by Jeff Weaver
Highland Echo, Vol. 11, March 1993, No. 40
Highland Echo, Vol. 12, March 1994, No. 44
To return to Our Alternate Impression homepage
please click here