19th Tennessee Infantry - Cumberland Gap

Cumberland Gap

In July 1861, the 19th Tennessee received its first assignment to guard the pass at Cumberland Gap from any attempted incursions by the Union army from Kentucky, which remained a Union state and had declared neutrality despite the efforts of secessionists, into East Tennessee or Southwest Virginia. The gap is located at the junction of the three states and would have been a key invasion route into that region of the Confederacy, just as it was a key migration route through the rugged, mountainous terrain for settlers moving west. In his autobiography, Rev. David Sullins, the 19th's chaplain, claims to have been the first Confederate soldier to enter Cumberland Gap.

The regiment began building breastworks and fortifying the mountain pass, but was soon stricken with an epidemic of measles and mumps that nearly incapacitated the entire command. The regiment also recorded its first casualties at Cumberland Gap when a sergeant shot himself through the hand and when a box of percussion caps exploded, severely injuring Col. Francis M. Walker's hand.

In September, Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk committed one of the Confederacy's worst strategic blunders by seizing Columbus, Kentucky, and ending the state's neutrality, thereby opening the door for Union forces to move through the Bluegrass State. General Albert Sidney Johnston was forced to move a considerable portion of the forces under his command to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to close the hole in his defensive line, and the 19th Tennessee, along with two other regiments, was relocated by General Felix Zollicoffer to Cumberland Ford, now Pineville, Kentucky, where they established Camp Buckner. Other regiments were brought up from the rear to reinforce Cumberland Gap.