Appalachian History Series
Where and why Mossy Creek mattered
After the siege of Knoxville, both armies probed across East Tennessee’s roads and creek valleys. Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis protected the railroad corridor near Mossy Creek and Talbott’s Station. Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. William T. Martin covered Longstreet’s winter positions and kept pressure on the Federal outposts. The National Park Service’s battle summary ties the day together plainly: the Confederates struck about 9 to 11 a.m., the Federals steadied, and around 3 p.m. the Union line pushed forward and held the ground by nightfall. The NPS lists the result as a Union victory.
For map context, the Atlas to Accompany the Official Records indexes “Mossy Creek, Tenn.” and points to plates for the East Tennessee theater. Those plates place Mossy Creek along the railroad between Knoxville and the Holston valleys, the very ground described in the reports.
The morning at Talbott’s Station
Union department commander Maj. Gen. John G. Foster telegraphed that at 11 a.m. the enemy cavalry, with infantry and artillery supports, attacked Sturgis near Mossy Creek. He added that fighting continued until 5 p.m., and that Sturgis ended the day by driving the enemy off the field. Foster’s note appears first in the “Action at Mossy Creek” file and sets the timeline that later reports flesh out.
Brig. Gen. Sturgis’s dispatches, filed from Mossy Creek and Strawberry Plains on the 29th, describe the check at Talbott’s Station, the recall of his detachments that had ridden toward Dandridge, and the steadying of the line along the creek bottom as infantry came up. The official listing for the action shows that the cavalry reports were numbered through the day, then bundled with infantry and battery returns under the single heading “Action at Mossy Creek.”
On the other side, the NPS synopsis identifies Maj. Gen. William T. Martin as the Confederate cavalry commander who made the morning advance and then yielded ground in the afternoon once Federal reinforcements arrived. Martin’s own report for the East Tennessee operations was filed in the companion Confederate volume of the Official Records. It appears in Series I, Volume XXXI, Part II, which houses the Confederate reports that pair with the Union accounts cited above.
Who fought here
Contemporary Federal returns and later rollups agree on the core order of battle. Along Mossy Creek and Talbott’s Station the Federals included the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry, 2nd Michigan Cavalry, 9th and 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry, the 118th Ohio Infantry, Colvin’s Illinois battery, and the 18th Indiana Battery. The National Park Service’s Tennessee battles list gathers those regiments and batteries under the dated entry “Engagement, Mossy Creek, Talbott Station,” which is useful for cross-checking the OR roster.
Two named formations stand out in the field reports. First, the Hoosier gunners of Capt. Eli Lilly’s 18th Indiana Battery reported how they were brought up to support the counterstroke from near the creek toward Talbott’s Station. Lilly dated his narrative December 30, one day after the fight, and his report appears as “Numbers 9” in the Mossy Creek packet.
Second, Col. Edward M. McCook’s text notes a late-day push that included a charge by Col. William B. Brownlow’s 1st Tennessee Cavalry. The same page shows how the cavalry brigades overlapped with the infantry line as the Federal advance took hold before dark.
How the day turned
The NPS battle detail gives the inflection point simply. Some of Sturgis’s troopers who had ridden toward Dandridge returned in time to stiffen the line. Around 3 p.m. the Federals began to drive the Confederate line. By dark the enemy fell back to the position where they had started, and Martin withdrew during the night.
Those movements match the sequence in the “Action at Mossy Creek” dispatch string: Sturgis’s midday calls, Elliott and McCook bridging the gap with their divisions until the infantry and guns formed, and battery commanders like Lilly describing their part in the final push.
“In their own words”
“At 11 a.m. to-day the whole of the enemy’s cavalry, supported by a division of infantry and two batteries of artillery, attacked General Sturgis near Mossy Creek… [He] ended by driving the enemy entirely off the field.”
– Maj. Gen. J. G. Foster to Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant, December 29, 1863.
Sturgis’s relayed messages from Mossy Creek and Strawberry Plains recount the early check at Talbott’s Station, rapid recall of detached columns, and the afternoon counter that rolled the Confederate line back on its start point.
Col. McCook and Brig. Gen. Washington L. Elliott describe how their cavalry divisions screened and held until the infantry and batteries massed along the creek, then joined the late push. McCook’s page includes the reference to Brownlow’s Tennesseans charging as the line advanced.
Capt. Eli Lilly, writing on December 30, explains how his battery went into position near the creek and supported the counterstroke toward Talbott’s Station. His brief, same-week account fits neatly with the NPS timing and with the cavalry narratives above.
Maj. Gen. William T. Martin’s own narrative, filed in the Confederate reports volume that covers the Knoxville and East Tennessee operations, gives the Southern view of the same movements and fits beside the Union packet in the editors’ arrangement.
For a senior Union commander’s retrospective on this East Tennessee winter fighting, Jacob D. Cox’s Military Reminiscences of the Civil War volume two narrates the December to January cavalry sparring and Martin’s role in it, which helps frame Mossy Creek in the weeks after Knoxville.
Aftermath on the same roads
The skirmishing did not end on the 29th. Col. Oscar H. La Grange filed two follow-on reports from Mossy Creek. On January 5 a Second Brigade forage detail struck an outpost at Lawrence’s Mill east of Mossy Creek and brought in a dozen prisoners. On January 10 a scouting party surprised a Confederate outpost on the Dandridge road and reported four killed and seven captured without loss. Both reports fix Mossy Creek as the Federal base of operations in the first half of January.
Losses
The National Park Service records 151 Union casualties for the December 29 engagement, and lists Confederate losses as not reported in its standardized summary. As with many small Civil War actions, immediate tallies in the field reports can differ from later compiled figures, but the NPS count has become the widely cited baseline.
Walking the ground today
Two modern markers fix the fight on the landscape at Jefferson City. The state historical marker titled “Battle of Mossy Creek” stands near Talbott’s, and the companion “Mossy Creek Engagement” panel summarizes the same events and points visitors to other related sites. These are helpful for translating the Official Records’ place names to present roads and landmarks.
The Tennessee Civil War Trails site guide for Jefferson City situates Union batteries, including Lilly’s, and helps visitors match the creek line with the afternoon advance described in the reports.
Sources and further reading
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. XXXI, Part I, “Action at Mossy Creek, Tennessee,” numbers 1 through 11. Includes reports and dispatches from Foster, Sturgis, Elliott, McCook, Campbell, Jordan, La Grange, Palmer, Capt. Eli Lilly, and 118th Ohio officers S. R. Mott and T. L. Young. CivilWar.com transcript with the complete report list and Foster’s timed summary. Civil War
Official Records, Series I, Vol. XXXI, Part II, Confederate reports for the Knoxville and East Tennessee operations, including Maj. Gen. William T. Martin’s narrative that is cross-referenced from the Mossy Creek packet. Digital full view of the volume. The Portal to Texas History
Follow-on reports from Mossy Creek sector: Col. O. H. La Grange, reports from January 5, 1864, Lawrence’s Mill, and January 10, 1864, skirmish near Mossy Creek. Civil War+1
Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (1891), index entries for “Mossy Creek, Tenn.” providing plate references for the East Tennessee theater maps. Project Gutenberg
Jacob D. Cox, Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, vol. 2, chapters on the East Tennessee winter operations that frame the cavalry fighting around Mossy Creek and Martin’s command. Project Gutenberg
National Park Service, “Battle Detail: Mossy Creek,” CWSAC TN027, with concise timeline and result. National Park Service
National Park Service, “Tennessee Civil War Battles” roll-up page. Useful unit list and dated entry for “Engagement, Mossy Creek, Talbott Station” to cross-check regiments and batteries. National Park Service
Tennessee Civil War Trails, Jefferson City site description for “Mossy Creek Engagement,” with battlefield locality and unit placements. TNMap
Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association brief overview of Mossy Creek, for orientation before diving into the OR. Civil War
Historical Marker Database, “Battle of Mossy Creek” and “Mossy Creek Engagement” markers with coordinates and text, helpful for ground-truthing OR locations. Human Metabolome Database+1
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