Rowlett's Station was a Civil War engagement fought in Kentucky, 1861. The outcome was inconclusive.
After Brig. Gen. Don Carlos Buell took command of the Department of the Ohio in early November, he attempted to consolidate control by organizing and sending troops into the field. He ordered Brig. Gen. Alexander McD. McCook, commanding the 2nd Division, to Nolin, Kentucky. In the meantime, the Confederates had established a defensive line along the Green River near Munfordville. McCook launched a movement towards the enemy lines on December 10, which the Rebels countered by partially destroying the Louisville & Nashville Railroad bridge over the Green River. As a result, the Union sent two companies of the 32nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment across the river to prevent a surprise and began constructing a pontoon bridge for the passage of trains and artillery. When the bridge was completed on December 17, four more of the 32nd Indiana companies crossed the river. The combined force advanced to a hill south of Woodsonville where, in the afternoon, they spotted enemy troops in the woods fronting them. Two companies advanced toward the enemy in the woods, which fell back until Confederate cavalry attacked. A general engagement ensued as eight Yankee companies fought a much larger Confederate force. Fearing that the enemy might roll up his right flank, Col. August Willich, commanding the regiment, ordered a withdrawal to a stronger position in the rear. Knowing of McCook's approach, the Rebels also withdrew from the field. Although the results of the battle were indecisive, Union troops did occupy the area and insured the movement of their men and supplies on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.
On December 17, 1861, Union and Confederate forces clashed near the small rail stop of Rowlett's in Hart County, Kentucky, in an engagement also called Woodsonville or Green River. Neither side could claim a clear win, though Union troops kept their grip on the prize they had set out to secure, a railroad bridge spanning the Green River.
In November 1861, Brig. Gen. Don Carlos Buell took charge of the Army of the Ohio and launched a series of field movements designed to tighten Union authority over the region. Among these was the advance of the 2nd Division, led by Brig. Gen. Alexander McDowell McCook, into Kentucky, aimed at pushing Confederate forces out of the state. At the same time, General Albert Sidney Johnston, commanding the Confederate Western Department, established a defensive position along the Green River near Munfordville, Kentucky.
Acting on McCook's instructions, Brig. Gen. Richard W. Johnson sent troops toward the Confederate positions near Munfordville on December 10, 1861, with orders to secure the bridge carrying the Louisville and Nashville Railroad across the Green River. Confederate divisions under Brig. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman, including Terry's Texas Rangers, infantry from Arkansas, and artillery from Mississippi, answered by destroying the bridge's south pier along with roughly 100 feet (30 m) of track. In response, Col. August Willich of the 32nd Indiana Infantry Regiment dispatched two companies across the river to guard the men repairing the structure and to assist in constructing a temporary pontoon crossing. Once that pontoon bridge was finished on December 15, Willich sent a further two companies to the south bank to strengthen the existing garrison, while stationing four companies on the north side. On December 16, civilian stonemasons traveled from Louisville, Kentucky, to begin repairing the rail bridge.
The bulk of the Union troops involved belonged to the 32nd Indiana Infantry Regiment, nicknamed Indiana's "1st German" regiment because its ranks were filled largely with German immigrants and their descendants from the Midwest. Willich had taken command of this unit at the urging of Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton. Known for strict discipline, he directed his men using Prussian bugle signals both during drills and in combat.
On the Confederate side, the main force consisted of the 8th Texas Cavalry Regiment, organized by Col. Benjamin Franklin Terry and later famous as Terry's Texas Rangers. Johnston had asked Terry to bring his men into the army he was assembling, offering him an independent command in return. The 8th Texas subsequently voted to join Johnston in Kentucky.
Near noon on December 17, 1861, as work crews labored to fix the stone railroad bridge, a Union picket pushed onward past the span to its south. Moving forward into the tree line, the Federals came upon enemy skirmishers stationed below Woodsonville. These Confederates pulled back to await the arrival of Texas cavalry, then turned and struck the Union companies that had crossed the river to assist their fellow soldiers.
Fewer than 500 men from the 32nd Indiana, led by Lt. Col. Henry von Trebra, found themselves facing a Confederate force of 1,300, among them Terry's Texas Rangers, Mississippi artillerymen, and Arkansas infantry commanded by Brig. Gen. Hindman. Badly outnumbered, the Indiana troops formed themselves into a defensive square, prompting the Rangers to charge directly at the Union position. From the river's north bank, Battery A of the 1st Ohio Light Artillery and Battery A of the Kentucky Light Artillery lent support to the beleaguered infantry, even as Mississippi's Swett's Company, Light Artillery, known as the Warren Light Artillery, shelled Union reserves and skirmishers positioned along the Munfordville road. The Rangers pressed their assault, engaging in close combat with the Indiana infantrymen, before Confederate forces were at last driven back.
Col. Terry, commanding the Rangers, suffered a mortal wound in the course of the fighting. Among the Union ranks, Lt. Max Sachs of the 32nd Indiana became cut off along with a platoon of his men by the surrounding Rangers. Refusing multiple calls to lay down their arms, they kept fighting until Sachs and three others in his group were killed or fatally wounded, with seven additional soldiers from the platoon sustaining injuries.
Col. Willich, absent at division headquarters when the engagement began, made it back in time to direct his men toward a more defensible position to the rear. Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Hindman, having learned that McCook's Union reinforcements were drawing near, gave the order for Confederate troops to pull out of the fight entirely.
Neither army could claim a clear-cut win, since the fight ended without a decisive result for either side. Federal troops held the ground once the fighting ceased and kept the Louisville and Nashville Railroad open for the passage of Union troops and provisions. Because the dead and wounded lay spread across such a broad stretch of terrain, sorting out who had been killed, injured, or was simply missing proved a genuinely hard task.
In the days and weeks that followed, newspapers across the country began praising the 32nd Indiana for how it held its ground against Confederate attackers at Rowlett's Station. This engagement stood out as one of the rare instances in the war when Union foot soldiers beat back wave after wave of Confederate horsemen while fighting in open terrain.
Figures on the dead and wounded differed widely and were exaggerated at first. Buell put Confederate losses at 33 killed, a number that included Col. Terry, along with roughly 50 wounded at minimum. Hindman confirmed that Terry had died but insisted his own losses were minor while claiming Union dead may have reached 75. Willich's early tally for the 32nd Indiana listed one officer and ten enlisted men killed, 22 wounded, and five missing, though the regiment's ultimate total came to 46 losses, broken down as 13 killed, 28 wounded, and 5 taken prisoner.
Soldiers from the 32nd Indiana who died in the fight were first laid to rest close to where the battle occurred. Kentucky authorities, in 1867, moved the remains of 21 Union soldiers, fourteen of whom belonged to the 32nd Indiana, along with a limestone tablet inscribed in German honoring the infantrymen, to Cave Hill National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky. That marker, known as the 32nd Indiana Monument, was taken out of the cemetery in December 2008 because its condition had worsened and it needed conservation work. By August 2010 it had found a new indoor home at the Frazier History Museum in Louisville, placed there as a long-term loan arranged through the National Cemetery Administration. Even though it no longer stands where it was first placed, this stone marker is widely regarded as the oldest Civil War monument still existing in the country. On December 16, 2011, a new monument honoring the 32nd Indiana was formally dedicated at Cave Hill National Cemetery to replace it.
To honor their fallen commander, the men of the 8th Texas Cavalry Regiment adopted a new name, becoming known as Terry's Texas Rangers.
Not long after, this clash at Rowlett's Station faded from public attention once Union triumphs at Mill Springs, Kentucky, and at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee took center stage.
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