During the stormy winter morning of January 18, Generals Feliz Zollicoffer and George Crittenden marched their troops through almost nonexistent mountain roads toward Thomas’ encampment at Logan’s Crossroads, near Mill Springs. On January 19, the battle began at dawn, when the Southerners sited and attacked Thomas’ cavalry. Fatigued and hungry from their march, the Confederates failed to defeat the unflappable Thomas, who sent reinforcements wading across Fisher’s Creek to rout and repulse the rebels.

The Southerners suffered their final humiliation when Zollicoffer lost his direction in the heavy rain. Disoriented, the general shouted an order to a Union colonel whom he mistook for one of his own officers. The colonel shot Zollicoffer dead, leaving his demoralized soldiers to flee across the Cumberland River before Thomas could pursue them. As a result of the battle, the Union captured thousands of invaluable Confederate provisions including cannons, wagons, horses, boats and munitions. More importantly, the North was only one step away from securing Kentucky and Tennessee.

Civil War armies rarely fought in wintertime. However, they often marched in highly inclement weather. Since large numbers of Confederates were barefooted at any given time, slogging up a snowy mountainside could be a painful struggle, as seen in this detail from Mort Künstler’s painting Confederate Winter.