Texas Memorial

At the Battle of Richmond, Kentucky, on August 29 and 30, 1862, Confederate Maj. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith led his newly organized Confederate Army of Kentucky in an effort to force the Union Army out of the region and open an avenue to the north. As the battle intensified, Col. Thomas McCray's brigade, part of Brig. Gen. Thomas Churchill's division and made up primarily of Texas dismounted cavalry regiments, struck the vulnerable right flank of Federal Brig. Gen. Mahlon D. Manson's line of battle from a hidden ravine now known as Churchill's Draw, forcing the entire Federal line to collapse and sending the Federals into a confused retreat northward. This action began a series of consecutive Confederate victories that day. The Texas dismounted cavalry regiments and Douglas's 1st Texas Artillery also played pivotal roles in fierce fighting at Duncannon Road and in the Richmond Cemetery later that day. Although Texas units did not actively participate in the limited fighting on August 29, Douglas's 1st Texas Artillery fired the first Confederate artillery shots on August 30, answering Federal cannons near Mt. Zion Church and beginning a two hour artillery duel. These engagements produced one of the Confederacy's most resounding victories and one of the most overwhelming defeats of Federal forces during the war.

Kentucky · United States