Civil War
When Tennessee finally did secede, Zollicoffer volunteered for the Provisional Army of Tennessee. Despite only having brief combat experience, he was appointed as a brigadier general on May 9, 1861, by Governor Isham Harris. On July 9, he transferred to the Confederate States Army with the same rank and was given command of a department within the District of East Tennessee on August 1. On July 26, 1861, Harris ordered Zollicoffer and 4,000 raw recruits to Knoxville to suppress resistance to secession in East Tennessee, appointing him to command the District of East Tennessee. On September 17, he led a force of 5,400 men through the Cumberland Gap along the Wilderness Road to seize eastern Kentucky, a state whose declared neutrality had been violated by Union recruiting camps set up in the state and by Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk's Confederate invasion of Western Kentucky in early September. After winning the first Confederate victory in the commonwealth at the minor Battle of Barbourville, he suffered a reversal at the subsequent Battle of Wildcat Mountain and was forced to retreat back into rural eastern Tennessee, an area that was generally unsympathetic to the Confederate cause. Zollicoffer treated peaceful Unionists fairly but imposed harsher measures after Union guerrillas burned several railroad bridges in November.
Although Zollicoffer's main responsibility was to guard the Cumberland Gap, in November 1861 he advanced westward back into southeastern Kentucky to strengthen control in the area around Somerset. He found a strong defensive position at Mill Springs and made it his winter quarters. He fortified the camp, especially both sides of the Cumberland River. On December 8, he was superseded by the arrival of Maj. Gen. George B. Crittenden, who assumed command of the department, but retained Zollicoffer as commander of the 1st Brigade in his army.
Union Brig. Gen. George H. Thomas received orders to drive the Confederates across the Cumberland River and destroy Crittenden's army. He left Lebanon and slowly marched through rain-soaked country, arriving at Logan's Crossroads on January 17, where he waited for Brig. Gen. Albin F. Schoepf's troops from Somerset to join him. Two days later, they attacked Crittenden and Zollicoffer at the Battle of Mill Springs.
The southern bank of the Cumberland River at Mill Springs was a bluff and a strong defensive position, but the northern bank was low and flat. Zollicoffer moved most of his men to the north bank where they would be closer to Union troops, incorrectly assuming that it was more defensible. Both Crittenden and Albert Sidney Johnston ordered Zollicoffer to move back south of the river, but he could not comply as he lacked sufficient boats to cross the river quickly and was afraid his brigade would be caught by the enemy halfway across.
The Union attack routed Zollicoffer's men from the field. Some accounts claim that Union Colonel Speed S. Fry recognized and shot Gen. Zollicoffer as the battle waned. Zollicoffer had inadvertently ridden into the Union position, mistaking the men for Confederates with his nearsightedness and in the gathering darkness. He was struck by several bullets and soon died from his wounds.
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