The Battle of Tebbs Bend occurred on July 4, 1863, during Morgan's Raid, a Confederate cavalry expedition intended to divert Union Army attention from Southern forces in Tennessee. Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan, commanding approximately 2,460 cavalrymen, had departed Sparta, Tennessee on June 11, 1863, and crossed into Kentucky on June 23. By July 3, Morgan had advanced to Cane Valley, camping between Campbellsville and Columbia, and planned to cross the Green River at Tebbs Bend on July 4. The crossing was strategically vital because it protected the Lebanon-Campbellsville-Columbia Turnpike, a crucial Union supply line and the easiest route for Morgan to reach Louisville.
On the morning of July 4, Morgan's approximately 800–1,000 cavalry and 4 artillery pieces attacked the Union garrison of five companies of the 25th Michigan Infantry, numbering approximately 200 men under Colonel Orlando Hurley Moore. Moore had prepared earthworks with an abatis of felled trees and rifle pits positioned in the woods near the river crossing. At sunrise, Union pickets opened fire on approaching Confederate cavalrymen. Morgan demanded surrender under a flag of truce around 7 a.m., but Moore refused. Morgan then launched eight separate attacks throughout the day, employing dismounted regiments under Colonel Adam R. Johnson and the 5th Kentucky Cavalry. Despite numerical superiority, each Confederate assault stalled under heavy fire, particularly from Union sharpshooters who silenced Morgan's artillery battery and inflicted heavy casualties among Confederate officers. After approximately three hours of fighting, Morgan acknowledged the fortifications could not be seized and requested a truce to collect wounded and bury dead.
The battle resulted in a decisive Union victory despite the defenders being vastly outnumbered. Morgan withdrew southward along the Green River bluffs, crossed at Johnson Ford, and headed back toward Campbellsville. The Confederate casualties—35 killed and 45 wounded, including 24 experienced officers—proved significant, while Union losses were 6 killed and 23 wounded. The following day, Morgan would engage in combat again at the Battle of Lebanon.
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.
35 Confederate killed and 45 Confederate wounded; 6 Union killed and 23 Union wounded
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