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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.

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







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