150 years ago today a battle was fought which would secure eastern Kentucky for the Union until the summer of 1862. The Battle of Mill Springs took place on January 19th, 1862 and involved over 10,000 participants. Mill Springs would be his last battle for one Confederate soldier named Joseph H. Clay from Grenada, Mississippi. Official records do not detail the end of his service career, but we found out his fate from another very interesting source.
From what little information we could find on Joseph Clay we can only determine that he was born around 1841, and by the time the Civil War erupted was living in or near Grenada, Mississippi.
He enlisted in Mississippi’s state forces on April 19th, 1861, a few days after the firing on Fort Sumter. As all the Confederate states mobilized their forces they gathered recruits at rendezvous points to muster them in to Confederate service. Joseph Clay and the 4th Mississippi would be sent to Corinth, Mississippi where they were consolidated with other units to become the 15th Mississippi Volunteer Infantry in May of 1861. The 15th would be sent to East Tennessee in late summer of 1861 to eventually join Confederate General Felix Zollicoffer’s incursion into eastern Kentucky. By January of 1861 they occupied fortified positions along the Cumberland River in Pulaski County, Kentucky. Zollicoffer’s force represented the easternmost extension of a series of Confederate defenses that ran west through southern Kentucky to the Missouri border.
Looking to shatter Confederate resistance in eastern Kentucky was a small force of about 4,500 men under George Thomas. Thomas was marching his forces towards Zollicoffer in the cold month of January when he stopped to organize and rest his force near a place call Logan’s Cross Roads north of Mill springs. Around that time, a new Confederate commander, George Crittenden, had arrived to assess the situation around Zollicoffer’s force. He saw the threat that Thomas posed and resolved to attack the federals before they could reach the main Confederate defenses.
On January 19th, 1861, Zollicoffer’s men had reached the vicinity of Thomas’ camps after a hard march through rainy weather. Joseph Clay and the 15th Mississippi were in the vanguard of the Confederate advance, and were the first to make contact with Union pickets to open the battle of Mill Springs.
The Mississippians pushed forward against the Union regiments in from of them, gaining some ground. The federals fell back to a more prominent position and the Confederates repeatedly tried to dislodge them without success. During the fighting Zollicoffer mistook a regiment of federals for Confederate troops and rode into them, only to be shot down as an aide rushed forward to warn him. The loss of Zollicoffer and the arrival of Union reinforcements started to turn back the exhausted Confederates.
A distinct disadvantage of the Confederates was that many of them were armed with antiquated flintlock muskets that were vulnerable to wet conditions. In the rainy weather that day many of the soldiers found that their weapons would not shoot because of wet powder. Unable to shoot, tired, and facing increasing odds the Confederate attack turned into a rout and the federals surged forward sensing the weakened state of the Confederates.
Amongst the Union regiments pushing back Joseph Clay’s comrades was the 2nd Minnesota Infantry. A member of the 2nd Minnesota came across a dead Confederate and found a letter amongst his belongings. He mailed the captured letter home, and it was published in the local newspaper:
The Rochester City Post
Rochester, Minnesota
Saturday, February 8th, 1862
The following is a letter found on the person of a dead Rebel, who was shot at the Battle of Mill Spring, has been forwarded to us from the camp of our brave heroes…for publication.
Mill Spring, Friday Night, Jan 17, 1862
Dear Sister:
As I have an opportunity to send you a letter I thought I would write you a few lines as you may be glad to hear from us. One of the Duck Hill boys will start home in the morning or next day, so I will send this by him. Ed and I both enjoy fine health at present and hope this may reach you the same. I received a letter from Counsin Sallie a few days ago. Ed also received one from Cousin Bettie the same day. They were only in tolerable health, complaining with bad colds. Our box of goods arrived safe and sound today, that Captain Gage started from Grenada with a month or so ago, and had to leave then on the road on account of those bridges being burned. We have our winter cabins all up, but I cannot say we are comfortably situated, neither do I know when we will be, for guard duty comes about twice a week and besides that, we have to work on the breast works tomorrow. I am afraid we will have a bad day as it is raining now, but that makes but little difference here. We have a very strongly fortified position here, but I don't know when we will need them for it seems that the Yankees will never attack us. I expect we will have to break the ice first or open the ball as old Zollicoffer calls it.
Crittenden of KY is now in command here. Ed and I were on grand guard last night, but had a quite pleasant night's rest, notwithstanding we had only two pair of blankets and besides I had a very nice rock pillow. I felt blest even to be that comfortably situated. It was only about two miles from camp.
A small steamboat come up from below last week. We thought it was some 25 or 30 miles below here, and our Regiment and another were started down to guard it by Jimtown, where it was thought they would be troubled by Lincoln's forces, but we only went 6 or 8 miles over the roughest hills and roads I nearly ever traveled, when to our surprise, but still greater joy, we heard her whistle only a few miles down the river, as we turned back. I don't know whether it will go back or not, we will need her here for the purpose of bringing forage for our teams, also provisions for us from a short distance below, for provisions are getting rather scarce here now, but our mess which only contains six, was fortunate to get a small sack of flour some time back, so we have plenty of bread. Frank Dement has been quite sick, but is getting better. He has the Aerosypoius in his face and head, we had one case of it before. I will close by asking you to look over all mistakes &c. Give my love to all, accept the same for yourself, write soon.
Your brother,
Joseph H Clay
This is how we know Joseph was killed in the battle. His service records simply stop at the end of 1861, leaving no trace of what happened to him. Joseph was likely killed during one of his regiment’s attacks on the Union defenses, or possibly during the rout which ensued.
At the beginning of his letter, Joseph mentions to his sister how she might like to here from one of “us.” There was a Samuel E. (possibly Edward, or Ed for short) Clay in Joseph’s company and likely his brother, who he was referring to in that line. According to his service records Samuel was sick at the time of the battle and not with the regiment. This contradicts what Joseph wrote in his letter so perhaps Joseph wasn’t being completely honest to ease worries at home about their safety. Samuel survived the rest of the 15th Mississippi’s battles and campaigns until February of 1864 when he deserted in Alabama.
We don’t know what became of Joseph Clay. We found no burial record for him, and there is no grave with his name at Mill Springs National Cemetery. Still, we remember him here as one of the hundreds of thousands of now faceless soldiers who gave their lives during the Civil War.