Cumberland River Campaign

Cumberland River Campaign. Burning of Old Columbus. North of this marker lies the site of Old Columbus, once an important landing on the Cumberland River. In the winter of 1863–1864, the war had disastrous consequences for this river village., Late in December 1863, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant sent a naval convoy up the river from Nashville to Creelsboro, Ky., on a reconnaissance and supply mission. The U.S. gunboats Reindeer and Silver Lake No. 2 under U.S. Navy Lt. Henry A. Glassford accompanied three transports carrying a detachment of 140 sharpshooters from the 129th Illinois Infantry, under the command of Col. Andrew J. Cropsey. At five locations including Gainesboro, the county seat, Confederate guerrilla bands fired on the convoy as it headed upriver. Tennessee military governor Andrew Johnson had decided to establish a Federal army post there because the town was a base of operations for Confederate partisans in the region. He ordered gunboat commanders not to destroy the town so that the buildings could be used for military purposes. After the Federals occupied Gainesboro, Union forces began to suppress partisan warfare. During a February 1864 raid into the countryside, Col. Henry K. McConnell’s 71st Ohio Infantry pursued two companies of Confederate rangers led by Cols. Oliver P. Hamilton and John M. Hughs. The Federal force arrived at Columbus, where many of the partisans lived and kept their horses. After removing the women, children, and livestock, the Federals burned the village to the ground., “The country between Carthage and the Cumberland Mountains through which we passed is bordering upon famine. Families without regard to politics are eaten out and plundered by those common enemies of mankind (rangers) until even those formerly wealthy are utterly reduced, and many of the poorer are now actually starving.” , , Col. Henry K. McConnell, 71st Ohio Infantry, “Jackson County was represented to me as the seat of operations of several guerilla bands, and it fully merits its reputation, for we had scarcely touched the county line before guerillas were discovered on the lookout for us.” , , Lt. Henry A. Glassford, USN, (Inscription under the photo in the upper center) , USS Gunboat Silver Lake No. 2, from The Photographic History of the Civil War (1911)