The Battle of Mill Springs: Samuel Jennison's Letter on the 2nd Minnesota

A letter from the Civil War, shared by the National Park Service at Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument. It was first printed in a hometown newspaper, which thanked James Jennison Jr. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, for passing on this extract from his brother Samuel — recently promoted adjutant of the 2nd Minnesota Infantry, with a hand in forming and holding the regiment's "line of battle."

Samuel Jennison in U.S. Army uniform. Minnesota Historical Society.

"Camp Cumberland, near Somerset, Ky., Jan. 24th, 1862"

Into line. Soon after reveille on Sunday morning, Jennison was dressing in his old company tent when the first sergeant came in: "Captain, they are going to beat the long roll." He buckled on his sword, pushed his revolver into his belt and was ready; within about five minutes the regiment was in line. The colonel mounted and ordered "Left face — forward march!", and Jennison followed on horseback, "mounting for the first time to go into battle."

Under fire. About three-quarters of a mile on, the regiment formed a line of battle. Three cannon shots flew over it and landed a few rods away — until then he had thought the alarm a feint. The artillery answered, and the regiment was sent forward to support the 10th Indiana and 4th Kentucky, which were nearly out of cartridges and were ordered to fall back just as the Minnesotans arrived. As the right wing took its first fire, an officer of one of those regiments shouted to retreat; many men got mixed up and the line was briefly thrown into confusion. Within half a minute, with Col. Van Cleve, Col. George and Jennison steadying the wing, the danger passed. After about twenty-five minutes of very hot firing, the enemy had had enough and retreated.

The pursuit. With no one having eaten breakfast, the regiment followed in line of battle — the general was determined not to be ambushed — through woods, over fallen trees, wet ground, fences, fields, gardens and dooryards, up and down hills and ravines, for six or seven miles until dark. Jennison lay on three rails with nothing over him and "slept not a wink."

The abandoned camp. Next morning the artillery tried to burn a steamboat at the landing across the river, but the Confederates, all across by then, burned it themselves. The regiment marched into their entrenchments. The defenders had fled without even the small things one would take last — miniatures, watches, knives, pistols, letters. Fires still smouldered in the fireplaces, and Jennison took a corn-cake warm from the pan. There he wrote an earlier letter and picked up the commission he now enclosed. He had lost his revolver and gained "not a cents worth"; a comrade, "T.", got a sword and a fine trunk.

Afterward. The official report, he wrote, would show that the 2nd had been in a good place and — "negatively as least" — that he had done his duty: "I certainly tried, shunning no necessary exposure, and courting no needless danger." He had telegraphed two days before that he was unhurt. The regiment had no orders to move and might stay for days.

Sources

• National Park Service, Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument, "The Battle of Mill Springs - Samuel Jennison discusses the 2nd Minnesota Infantry's part in the battle." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-battle-of-mill-springs-samuel-jennison-discusses-the-2nd-minnesota-infantry-s-part-in-the-battle.htm
• Quotations are from Jennison's letter of January 24, 1862; the rest is rewritten in hubnx's own words.