Appalachian History Series
Setting the stage
On October 10, 1863, Ambrose Burnside’s Army of the Ohio cracked Confederate Brig. Gen. John S. Williams’s line at Blue Springs, between Bull’s Gap and Greeneville. Burnside sent infantry straight at the position while ordering a mounted column to slip to the rear near Rheatown, aiming to block the retreat route along the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad.
By nightfall the Confederates were pulling out. Burnside reported five days later that the enemy “retreated precipitately, leaving their dead on the field and most of their wounded in our hands.” He pushed infantry and cavalry before daylight on the 11th, intending to catch Williams on the roads between Greeneville and Rheatown.
Henderson’s Mill, just before sunrise
Near dawn on Sunday, October 11, Federal horsemen collided with the Confederate rear guard at or near Henderson’s Mill, a few miles northeast of Greeneville. Confederate staff officer Edward O. Guerrant, riding with the column, described volleys out of dark timber, rapid Confederate countercharges, and Federal cavalry giving ground toward a left fork in the road that led away from the main pike. His diary calls this brief, violent contact the “battle of Henderson’s Mill.”
Burnside’s parallel summary notes that an intercepting Federal force met the retreating Confederates at Henderson’s Mill but, because of a misunderstanding, withdrew and allowed them to pass with only a slight check. That decision set up the longer fight that followed around Rheatown later that morning.
The National Park Service’s compiled returns list the Union units engaged at Henderson’s Mill as elements of the 14th Illinois Cavalry, 5th Indiana Cavalry, 65th Indiana Mounted Infantry, 9th Ohio Cavalry, and 8th Tennessee Cavalry. Federal losses recorded there were 1 killed, 10 wounded, and 8 missing, total 19.
Rheatown, late morning into afternoon
As Williams’s column pressed on toward Rheatown, confusion over artillery movements and converging roads complicated the Confederate withdrawal. Guerrant remembered guns taking a wrong road and a momentary panic among portions of Col. James Carter’s cavalry brigade when Union skirmishers and artillery appeared in a gap opposite town. Order was restored, and Williams formed again east of Rheatown to check the Federal push for several hours before falling back toward Jonesborough.
Tennessee public history interpreters have long used the local nickname “Rheatown Races” for this phase of the action, a nod to the see-saw sprinting of cavalry and wagons through and beyond the village.
The National Park Service roll for “Rheatown, Oct. 11” repeats many of the same Federal regiments seen at Henderson’s Mill and gives a combined Federal total of 25 killed, wounded, and missing. As with many small actions, period newspapers relayed higher or conflicting claims. Northern papers filed roundups a month later mentioning “Rheatown” for home-front readers, and Indiana weeklies praised officers tied to the October pursuit. Such reportage helps track how news of these minor fights spread back home, even when exact numbers do not align with official returns.
What Burnside thought it achieved
Two days after the skirmishes, Burnside telegraphed from Rheatown to Gen.-in-Chief Henry Halleck: “We now occupy the country again up to near Carter’s Station,” and could likely hold it that far if the army was not stripped to reinforce Rosecrans. In other words, the Blue Springs breakthrough and the October 11 pursuit reopened the railroad corridor toward the Watauga River crossing, even if Williams’s small command avoided destruction.
Who fought, at a glance
Union mounted and mixed commands in the contact zone included the 14th Illinois Cavalry, 5th Indiana Cavalry, 65th Indiana Mounted Infantry, 9th Ohio Cavalry, 9th Michigan Cavalry, and the 8th Tennessee Cavalry (U.S.). Confederate leaders on the ground were Brig. Gen. John S. Williams with Col. Henry M. Ashby’s and Col. Henry L. Giltner’s Kentuckians and Col. James E. Carter’s brigade, with Alfred E. Jackson’s infantry close by along the railroad. The order-of-battle details come down primarily from the Official Records and compiled state and federal lists.
Where it happened
Henderson’s Mill sat on the road between Greeneville and Rheatown, in today’s Afton-Chuckey area of Greene County. Tennessee’s Civil War Trails and state GIS inventories plot event nodes for “Henderson’s Mill, 10-11-1863” and for Rheatown, which align with contemporaneous accounts that place the action along the pike and adjacent lanes leading toward Kingsport and Carter’s Station.
Why it matters
These were not large battles. They were the fast, improvised contacts that decide whether a broken line becomes a rout, or a rout becomes a pause that gives the other side time to reorganize. Burnside did not bag Williams’s command on October 11, but he did regain control of the railroad country up to Carter’s Station and buy time to consolidate Federal gains in East Tennessee. That was the strategic point of the Blue Springs push and its aftermath.
Primary sources
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 30, Part IV, Correspondence. Burnside to Halleck from Rheatown, October 13, 1863: “We now occupy the country again up to near Carter’s Station…”. The Portal to Texas History
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 30, Part II, Reports. Chapter XLII index entries list “Oct. 11, 1863 — Skirmishes at Henderson’s Mill and Rheatown, Tenn.” (useful for orientation within the volume). The Portal to Texas History
Tennessee State Library and Archives, Civil War Sourcebook. “Skirmish at Henderson’s Mill — Oct. 11, 1863” and “Skirmish at Rheatown — Oct. 11, 1863,” including Burnside’s after-action summary and contemporary excerpts. ShareTN+1
Edward O. Guerrant, headquarters diary. Eyewitness notes for October 10-14 describe Henderson’s Mill at first light and the confusion at Rheatown. (Published as Bluegrass Confederate and excerpted in TSLA and curated online transcriptions.) Google Books+1
Period press. Wilmington and Indiana papers relayed news and praise tied to the East Tennessee pursuit, for example the Evansville Daily Journal, November 10, 1863, and the Richmond Palladium, December 4, 1863. These reflect how small actions were reported to home audiences. Indiana Newspaper Archive+1
National Park Service, Tennessee Civil War Battles. Unit lists and Federal loss figures for “Henderson’s Mill, Oct. 11, 1863” and “Rheatown, Oct. 11, 1863.” National Park Service
Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association. Concise site summaries for Henderson’s Mill and Rheatown within the Blue Springs pursuit narrative. TCWPA+1
Tennessee Civil War Trails. State-issued interpretive overview that places Henderson’s Mill and Rheatown in the Blue Springs campaign chronology. TNMap
TNMap Civil War GIS. Official state event nodes that help verify locations for “Henderson’s Mill (10-11-1863)” and “Rheatown.” TNMap
Northeast Tennessee Civil War. Curated compilation with the key OR passages, diary excerpts, and period imagery tying Blue Springs to Henderson’s Mill and Rheatown. Northeast Tennessee Civil War
Author Note [Blank]