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- Capt. Hiram H.
Stamper Camp # 1715
- Essays on Eastern
Kentucky Regiments
- Before the Capt. Hiram H. Stamper Camp
was formed by cofounders, Troy L. Cornett and David R. Smith, the
Civil War Dept. of the Knott County Historical & Genealogical
Society & Library began amassing information on all the
regiments involved in the War Between the States in Eastern
Kentucky. Particular attention was given to the 5th and 13th
Regiments of the Confederacy in which many of our ancestors had
fought. The Camp and Society encouraged members to contribute
essays regarding any information on these regiments they could dig
up. These essays, in turn, are to be submitted to the Stamper
Camp, for revision, correction, and discussion. The following
essay written on April 9, 1998, by Jeffery Hatmaker is an example
of the essays encouraged by the Camp. Originally, we had
advertised in the Kentucky Explorer and local newspapers
our intent on publishing a history on the 13th. We have since
revised our plans to publish a limited number of copies of this
Regiment for the beneift of the Stamper Camp and the Knott County
Historical Society members only. We have not set a deadline for
this publication, but we know that "we will serve no wine before
its time," and that when we feel that we have thoroughly
researched each and every member of the 13th Kentucky Cavarly
Regiment, and the battles and skirmishes they fought in - then
will we present it to the Society and the Camp for posterity. If
you wish to contribute any information to include in this
undertaking, please contact the Adjutant
or Commander
of the Capt. Hiram H. Stamper Camp # 1715. If you wish to have
your essay printed on our website, please include bibliographic
resources so the Camp can verify your research.
![](/Athens/Oracle/5471/reb-bar.gif)
The 13th Kentucky Cavalry Regiment in the
Battle of Cranesnest
by Jeffrey Hatmaker of Camp
#1715
On November the Ninth, 1864, the forces of the Thirteenth Kentucky
Cavalry under Major Thomas J. Chenoweth saw combat between two
scurrilous men and their troops. Lieutenant Colonel Clarence J.
Prentice, C.S.A. was a ne'er do well profiteer whose unit
participated in General John Hunt Morgan's star-crossed "Last Raid"
into Kentucky. The Thirteenth Kentucky Cavalry served with them in
this raid, and I am sure that they knew what to expect from Prentice
and his Seventh Battalion Confederate Cavalry, (of Virginia), by his
track record in that action. Lt. Colonel Prentice and his men
"distinguished" themselves on that raid by doing what they were most
experienced at, i.e., drinking hard and stealing as much as they
could get away with. The scoundrels that attached themselves to his
unit were a constant source of embarrassment and consternation to his
peers as well as his superiors. Colonel Henry Giltner, successor of
Benjamin Everidge Caudill as Commanding Officer of the Thirteenth
Kentucky Cavalry bitterly complained to his superiors not only of
Prentice's depredations against the population of Kentucky during
Morgan's Last Raid, but of Morgan's blind eye towards his unit as
well. Union families in the Wise County, Virginia, area were finally
forced to evacuate their homes by the end of the war to avoid murder
and/or starvation. His Union counterpart, Captain Alf Killen was a
man of much worse character by all accounts. He was commander of
either Company F or Company K of the Thirty-Ninth Kentucky Infantry,
(the records are unclear), which was a unit of "Home Guards." He was
reported to be both "bitter and unstable," and, "had no love of
country or loyalty to either the North or the South." His brave band
of soldiers were made up of men whom he had forced to served with him
under pain of death. Killen and a few of his loyal enforcers would
scour the countryside, "and [pick] up recruits anywhere they
could find any." His standing orders to these hapless men were, "You
got to come and go with us."
Details are sketchy as to why such disparate units as the Seventh
Battalion Confederate Cavalry and the Thirteenth Kentucky Cavalry
should be bivouacked together on the Cranesnest River in Virginia.
Apparently the Adjutants for all units involved, both Federal and
Confederate were averse to much, if indeed any, real report writing.
Fortunately, enough accounts from survivors are extant that a
reasonably lucid account can be made, (in spite of the frustrating
"broken fingers" of the Adjutants involved). When using the accounts
of witnesses for source material, only those events in which the
accounts are all in total agreement are presented as fact. Character
assessments that are made on both commanders are well documented by
their oft beleaguered and angst ridden fellows.
The strengths of the units involved were, Confederates under
Prentice, (including the 13th Kentucky), about 200 with about 125
armed effectives, and the Federals under Killen had about 50
effectives. Please remember that these were, by and large, Home
Guard/Partisan Ranger type units, hence the relatively small numbers
involved. This "battle" is not a skirmish by virtue of the fact that
both units sought each other out with the clear objective of holding
that portion of Virginia for their respective causes. The Home Guards
of Captain Killen were trying to oust the Partisan Rangers that he
felt were wrongly in control of territory that rightfully should have
been his. These two commanders had been at odds over possession of
this part of Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky since virtually
the beginning of the War. Killen was still stinging from past
failures to whip his nemesis. The Partisan Rangers and the Thirteenth
Kentucky Cavalry got wind of the plans and movements of the enemy and
laid a very deadly trap. This was not a chance meeting between two
opposing forces with no clearly defined military objective. That is
the definition of a skirmish. These were two units who sought each
other out, chose their ground, and fought for a specific goal. The
only possible argument against the Cranesnest affairs being a battle
would be the size of the units involved. The opposing units were not
two armies, but in the words of historian Damian Beach, "Whether
battle or skirmish; [it] was men rushing at each other with
murderous intent."
On the eighth of November, 1864, after a hard ride, Killen's men
reached the Long Fork of the Cranesnest River and were mustering by
an old churchyard. This property was owned by George Buchanan. (It
was likely George Buchanan, himself a Union sympathizer, who told
Killen the whereabouts of Prentice and his men, who had themselves
but recently arrived at the scene). Such was the skill and stealth of
Prentice's scouts in their home territory that he was immediately
made aware of Killen's presence. He acted accordingly and ferreted
out Killen's plans. The stories of how Prentice acquired this
intelligence conflict. He either sent a spy into the area where
Killen had met, who managed to convince the property owner that he
was a straggler and was told Killen's plans, or he captured a
prisoner who was forthcoming with the aforementioned plans. Either
way, Prentice had Killen dead to rights.
That night, Killen's men camped in a hollow not far from the
Confederate camp, with the plan of attacking down through the valley
at dawn. Had not the element of surprise been lost, the men of
Killen's command would have had the advantage of the best ground for
the fight. Prentice kept his campfires going with a few of his men
around them to maintain the illusion of the camp being caught
unawares. The bulk of his effectiveness hid in the trees on both
sides of the mouth of the "holler" as it emptied into the level river
plain where the bogus camp was.
When Killen made his move, Prentice's troops let them pass by
without firing until Killen's entire force was between Prentice's
men. When Killen's men opened fire, they were fired upon from all
directions. They were surrounded. Isaac "Black Ike" Mullins of the
Thirty Ninth Kentucky Cavalry under Killen later recalled, "Alf
Killen got up a hundred or so Home Guards around Holly Creek mostly.
On a Sunday they started to surprise the Rebels on Cranesnest. They
went by old George Buchanan's home near Darwin. I was along and we
ate dinner there. We ground corn on his hand mill and killed a little
beef. We left there and went on and laid out that night in a little
hollow, about a mile or a mile and a half from where the fight took
place. The Rebels came to Buchanan's after we left and got their
dinner there too. Colonel [sic] Chenoweth was in command of
the Rebels. It was late in the fall, on Monday. It began at daylight.
We had got up early and started for the rebel camp expecting to find
them asleep and fired down into the camp. Some of them were standing
near the campfire and our first fire killed one of them but I never
learned his name. The Rebels knew we were coming and had their men
hid above and behind us. So, when we fired, they began to fire into
us. They were so many and the fire was so hot that we had to run. You
can bet we got away fast. We lost several men in the fight."
The escape that "Black Ike" mentioned was none other than the
Cranesnest River itself. It was the only place not crawling with
Rebels. After the battle when the Rebel troops set out to pursue the
fleeing Yankees to a nearby gap in the mountains, they found that the
Yanks had only a few moments earlier passed that way. When subsequent
scouting revealed little information of any profit to Prentice's
scouts, they headed back to camp to see the wounded.
The result of this battle was the engraved invitation to leave the
area that local Union sympathizers had dreaded. Many of them sought
out greener, not to mention safer, pastures. In an amusing side note,
the man upon whose land the battle was fought had a memorable
adventure. When the Rebels surrounded his cabin for the battle,
Oliver Powers, a staunch supporter of the Union, decided to get his
rifle and a butcher knife and creep out of his cabin to help the
obviously needy Union Home Guards. During the confusion of battle, he
felt something hit his foot. He looked down and saw his butcher knife
in pieces, which was only natural since it had stopped a Confederate
minnie ball! He would always claim that his butcher knife had saved
his life.
While this battle did not involve large numbers of troops on a
sustained campaign, it was indicative of the kind of 'campaign'
fought in the mountains between Home Guards and Partisan Rangers.
Everyone's lives were affected, both civilian and military. If the
army of your political persuasion was in town, you fared well and
your enemies suffered. This situation could change, however, without
warning. You might have been like the Union folks on Cranesnest and
seldom if ever have your boys around for protection. These units
were, for the most part, not even regular army, but loose bands of
"regulators" with the express purpose of causing the enemy maximum
consternation while draining off enemy resources that could be more
effectively used elsewhere. John Hunt Morgan was just one example of
this tactic taken to it's extreme. This battle was representative of
most the fighting that went on in the Appalachian Mountains. Bitterly
divided people were given license to defend to the utmost extremity
their beliefs, homes, and neighbors without let or hindrance.
Everyone suffered.
- Some Notes for
Discussion & Other Oral Histories.
- Capt. Killen is not listed in
the our 39th records.
- Jack Austin mentioned below was
in the 13th.
- "We were like the fish that jumped out of the frying pan
into the fire as far as getting away from the effects of war. We
moved into the midst of thieving bands who went about the country
pillaging ours and our neighbors' means. From the time 1861 to
the close of the war, it was a dangerous, restless period for us
in the mountains.
- "Those who lead the bands were reckless, lawbreaking men who
had no love of country or loyalty to North or South. Alf Killen,
the head of a band which operated nearest us was the cause of many
cowardly and and inhuman acts. They stole everything they could.
They murdered and robbed. Alf Killen himself killed Ben Wright
ruthlessly and without mercy. But thanks to a kind Provindence he
met a similar fate in the end.
- "Jack Austin, my oldest brother, was taking a load of wool
to a carding machine at Wise. In Wise, he came upon a group of
Rebel soldiers under the command of Ben Caudel. They invited him
to come back and spend the night with them, which he did. During
the night, he awoke with a definite conviction that the enemy was
advancing upon their group. He arose and went through the camp,
waking the soldiers. However, he didn't convince them and to save
himself, he went out on a hill to watch
- as daylight came. In the early morning, he spied a party of
soldiers riding along the foot of the hill. They were dressed in
Rebel clothing and thinking they were his friends went down the
hill to them. He had been right in his conviction that the enemy
was coming. These men were so dressed in order to deceive the
Rebels. Jack was taken prisoner along with all the others to whom
he had given the warning. All of them were taken to the prison
camp at Fort Douglas, Illinois, where several contracted yellow
fever. A few lived to return and tell the tale but Jack as well
as many others died of the fever. Sometime during Jack's
- imprisonment he wrote the history of his life. This, a
testament and a Hymn Book, he gave to a friend and asked them to
be sent to his mother. These possessions were handed down to his
youngest sister."
- David Washington Austin
- Southwest, Virginia
- "I saw old Booker Mullins buried on Bold Camp. It was during
the Civil War. He was said to be 102 years and six months old
when he died. Wiley Mullins and Jack Taylor were killed in the
south of the mountain, near Wilburn Phipps', in 1863, the 16th day
of September. I remember the date very well. My brother-in-law,
Marshall Keel, was killed the same day on Big Ridge. Mullins and
Taylor were supposed to be home-guards. I never did know who
killed them for sure. Alf Killen was at the head of the other
crowd--yankees. They were "Bushwhackers". It was always said
that Washington Phipps was one of the men who did the killing. Alf
Killen and his squad just went around and picked up recruits
anywhere they could find any. He would say "You got to come and
go with us."
- "The rebels at one time were camped on Cranesnest---near
where Allen Powers now lives. They were under Col.
- Menefee. He took his men one night and left camp, leaving
only a few men to keep the camp-fires burning. Early
- next morning, a boy, I don't know his name--was sitting by the
fire. Alf Killen and his men had slipped up on the
- hill above the rebel camp, and they fired on the boy, killing
him. Some women, who were nearby, pulled him out of
- the fire. Devil John Wright and his father were there with
the rebels. There were not many rebels, and about 30-40
- yankees. Eight Yankees were killed; Bob Killen, Charley
Hibbitts, a Yates, a Farmer, and I don't remember the
- names of the others, it was after Marshall Keel was killed,
and I think the same year. Some of the others with Killen
- were Levi Vanover (wounded in the arm), Jake Yates, Peter
Reedy, Harmon Mullins (of Isaac), and John Mullins (of
- Dave)."
- George W. Fleming
- July 17, 1937
- Clintwood, Virginia
- Abingdon, VA
- June 11, 1923
- "After Coin Menifee made that country his head quarters for
awhile there was not much hostil oposition to the southern cause
for some months, and the war spirit was not so high as it was soon
after that. Just before Menifee made his first raid to KY Isaac
Fleming the second son of old uncle Jack and Aunt Marry Fleming
volenteered in some company. I don't remember what Company it
was, but he was with the command on that raid. A few days after
their return to this side of the mountain he went over in to KY to
visit some of his relatives on Shelby. Was decoyed to a house by
some women and shot from a corn field and instantly killed. He
was the first of out neighbors that lost his life in that stife.
Just one thing after another seemed to fan the flame of the war
spirit, and the country was badly divided, and suffered
greatly.
- E. A. Dunbar
- Abingdon, VA
- June 11, 1923
- ......Your Pa was still at home from the effect of his wound
when French had the command of the state line service. When he
went back to camp I think Col. Printis was in command and was the
commander of the 7th battalion till the close of the war. That
battalion was in camp first one place then another; while a kind
of guerilla warfare was going on most of the time. I don't think
they ever had a regular camp any nearer Holly Creek than the mouth
of Indian, there were scouting parties all over the country, there
was but little neutral ground on which to stand. Some men had gone
into the brush for protection. About that time there was what was
called a union home guard formed. I don't think they had any
connection with the federal army, but their main object seemed to
be to keep rebels out of that country or kill them outright, so
times commenced getting worse and worse.
- ......Some time later that same fall Major Chiniworth with his
men went into camp at the Jack Mullins place on the Cranesnest. I
don't know what kind of a march they were on or where they had
come from, but as soon as it was known that a rebel force was
camped there the union home guard got their forces together to
give them a battle. They, the home guards, met on Longs Fork
about the old Protestant church late in the evening before they
fired on the camp next morning at daylight. They stayed there til
just before day. Eddie French was down the creek that evening and
they held him as a prisoner until they started on their march next
morning. I don't know the straight of either side in that, the
only real battle that was fought in that section during the war.
The union force had all the advantage of the ground they fired
into the camp as the rebel force was getting up without even a
picket fire. The first volley they fired, one rebel soldier was
killed. As soon as the rebel soldiers got their arm, with their
military training, they charged up the ridge under the fire of the
union force firing as they went and killed a number of them before
they reached the top of the ridge. Bob Killin, Charles Hibbtts,
and little Revel Bartley are all the names that I remember now of
the men that was killed in that fight. That was the last real
resistance made by them. The most of the men that escaped went
over to Kentucky or some of them joined the federal army."
- E.A. Dunbar
![](/Athens/Oracle/5471/enfield.gif)
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