Confederates In Rogersville

Confederates In Rogersville. The Battle of Richmond, Kentucky. The temperature hovered between 96 and 100 degrees on August 30, 1862. Kentucky was in drought. The roads were dusty and the crops, brown. Sweaty and covered in dust, the Confederate line trudged north., In 1862 this area was known as Rogersville. The hamlet was just a scattering of houses and a store or two near the intersection of the Old State Road (US 421) and the Berea Road (US 25). Around 11AM the Confederate army near Mt. Zion Church began to move north toward Rogersville. Just south of where you now stand the Confederates formed their line and began a march on the second Union line, which was about a mile north of here. An hour or so had passed since the fighting at Mt. Zion Church. Both sides had rested and regrouped and replenished their ammunition. Union artillery on the high ground between Rogersville and Duncannon Road fired at the advancing line of men in butternut and gray., It was still early in the day but quickly getting hot. The sun beat down as the men trudged through cornfields and wheat stubble on either side of the Old State Road. The tramping of thousands of feet raised a fine dust that stuck to the men's sweaty skin. It got in their mouths and reminded them they had not had much water since they left Bobtown before daylight., The Confederate army marched past this house and stopped in the woods just south of the Union army. The stage was set for the second phase of the Battle of Richmond., Water was scarce. The men looked for wells but often settled for warm brown liquid that they obtained from cattle ponds and pools in dry creek beds.