Manson's Mistake

In the Battle of Richmond, Gen. Mahlon Manson deployed his brigade in textbook fashion, placing his four infantry regiments in line of battle with artillery between them, while Confederate Gen. Patrick Cleburne positioned most of his infantry east of the Old State Road, U.S. four twenty-one, with his line extending to a stand of woods. Unable to see the entire Confederate line, Manson moved his men forward to determine where Cleburne's line ended, triggering an exchange of fire and continuous shifting of troops by both sides. Believing the Confederates would try to turn his flank, Manson sent his reserve, the seventy-first Indiana, and seven of the ten companies of the sixty-ninth Indiana east to lengthen and strengthen his line. Cleburne allowed the fighting to continue at the eastern end of Manson's line while his superior, Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, ordered Gen. Thomas James Churchill to move his division west of the Union line. Churchill passed undetected through the draw created by Mound Creek and returned to the field between the Palmer House and Mt. Zion Church. When Churchill deployed, the Confederates had flanked the Union right, and as he emerged from the draw, Cleburne ordered an assault on the Union center. Manson responded by ordering the ninety-fifth Ohio to make a bayonet charge, and his misjudgment and subsequent orders brought the battle to a critical juncture.

Kentucky · United States