Manson's First Line

General Mahlon D. Manson marched south along the Old State Road from Richmond seeking the Confederate army and, after topping the hill where Mount Zion Church stands, deployed his force using the road as his guide. He placed infantry and artillery in alternating positions: the 69th Indiana held the Union right west of Mount Zion Church, east of them and just east of the road stood Lieutenant Byron D. Paddock's section of Battery D 1st Michigan Artillery, farther east were the 55th Indiana and then Lieutenant Edwin O. Lanphere of Battery G 1st Michigan Artillery, and the 16th Indiana held the Union left on the far east end of the line. The 71st Indiana remained in reserve so part or all of it could be rushed to any threatened point. Manson had been ordered not to risk a general engagement unless he was sure of success, a prudent warning because his brigade was green: the 55th Indiana was the veteran regiment, having been mustered in June 16, just over two months earlier, while the other three regiments were mustered in late August 1862, and even the artillery was improvised from guns and officers gathered for his command. Although Manson formed his brigade in a textbook line of battle, it still had to face a division of veterans. Such Civil War fighting commonly followed field manuals such as Hardee's Tactics, with soldiers arriving on a battlefield in column and then deploying into a line of battle through a rigidly prescribed maneuver.

Kentucky · United States