The Battle Begins

The Battle of Richmond began in the early morning hours of August 30, 1862. Near this site Confederate cavalry pushed Union pickets north toward the main Union line. Confederate Gen. Patrick Cleburne placed his artillery to the southeast, on a rise just north of CR 499, the Old Irvine-Lancaster Road, targeting Union Gen. Mahlon Manson's infantry near Mt. Zion Church. As Union and Confederate artillery roared, both sides extended their infantry lines in anticipation of a major struggle. Gen. Manson stretched his line eastward to block a Confederate attack from that direction, while Confederate skirmishers moved north to test the Union position. In the hot, humid morning air, smoke drifted as artillery shot and shell shook the ground and soldiers on both sides prepared for battle. Col. Benjamin J. Hill recalled that his brigade marched in column along the road beyond Kingston, formed line of battle on the right of the pike at 7 o'clock, and then came under heavy artillery fire on both the line and the village. Lt. Col. James R. S. Cox of the 16th Indiana remembered an unusual stillness among the massed men, broken by Lieutenant Landrum's guns and by rebel shells crashing through the trees.

Kentucky · United States