The Battle of Panther Creek (also known as Battle of Sutherland's Hill) was fought on September 20, 1862, south of Owensboro, Kentucky. It was the only battle that took place in Daviess County, Kentucky during the American Civil War.
On July 18, 1862, a small Confederate force of about 35 men led by Colonel Adam Rankin Johnson launched a successful raid on the small town of Newburgh, Indiana. This raid would become a known as the Newburgh Raid, becoming the first town in a northern state captured during the American Civil War. Using this success Johnson would recruit more men in the western Kentucky area and launch several more attacks throughout the state of Kentucky, and even into Tennessee. These new men would become part of the newly formed 10th Kentucky Partisan Rangers.
On the other side of this famous raid, it caused much fear throughout Union leaders of the local area as well as the Indiana wartime Governor Oliver P. Morton. After the Confederate victory at Fort Sumter the previous year, Governor Morton called for the raising and arming of a local militia force for the defense of the state. Colonel John W. Crooks took command of the 4th Indiana Legion Regiment, also known as the Spencer County Legion, which would make up majority of the Union strength during the battle, numbering 350 men total. The rest of the force would be made up by the 15th Kentucky Cavalry . The 15th Kentucky Cavalry organized by Colonel Gabriel Netter in the summer of 1862, would make up 60 men during the battle. Colonel Netter was born in France in 1836 to a large Jewish family, he would immigrate to America in 1855. Colonel Netter joined the Union Army at the start of the American Civil War in 1861. During the winter of 1861–1862, Netter excelled as a company commander in the 26th Kentucky Infantry. In his first taste of action, he pushed far ahead of the main Union body during an attack on a Confederate Calvary camp in Woodbury, Kentucky. He led a successful raid behind Confederate lines that resulted in the burning of the Whippoorwill Bridge, an important part of the rail link between Confederate controlled Bowling Green, Kentucky and Clarksville, Tennessee. In May 1862, charges were brought against Netter by his commanding officer Col. Stephen Burbridge, accused of behavior that was "insubordinate" and using "mutinous language to a superior officer", as well as "disobedience of orders." Netter then traveled back home to Hartford, Kentucky to recruit his new regiment, the 15th Kentucky Cavalry. By August 29, Netter transferred his command from Hartford to Owensboro, and encamped on the fairgrounds west of town near the Ohio River, called Camp Miller.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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