The Battle of Vaught's Hill, also known as the Battle of Milton, took place during the American Civil War on March 20, 1863, in Rutherford County, Tennessee. The infantry brigade of Union Colonel Albert Sereno Hall won against the cavalry division of Confederate brigadier general John Hunt Morgan.
During the American Civil War, the Union Army in Tennessee lost the Battle of Thompson's Station on March 5, 1863. On March 18, Union colonel Albert S. Hall left Murfreesboro, and went northeast on a reconnaissance mission with 1,300 men. He was supposed to find Confederate brigadier general John Hunt Morgan, whose army had been raiding Tennessee. Hall's army was made up of the 101st Ohio, 105th Indiana, 80th Illinois and 123rd Illinois infantries, the 1st Tennessee Cavalry, and had one of the 9th Indiana Artillery's batteries.
Hall eventually started returning to Murfreesboro, and on March 20, he met Morgan's cavalry division of around 3,500 men. Learning that Morgan had a large army, Hall started taking up position on Vaught's Hill in Rutherford County (one mile west of Milton and 14 miles from Murfreesboro).
The Battle of Vaught's Hill, also known as the Battle of Milton, started at 11:30 a.m on March 20. Morgan's men dismounted, and started attacking the flanks and rear of Hall's men, who had not finished taking position. Hall's men were nearly encircled, but Morgan could gain no further advantage. Hall's army was protected by large rocks. Morgan's men launched assaults for three hours, each one defeated by Hall's artillery. Around 2:00 p.m., Morgan decided to stop engaging, learning that Union reinforcements were coming. However, his men still kept shelling for some time.
The battle with ended with either 373 Confederate and 62 Union casualties, or 180 Confederate casualties (30 dead, 150 wounded) and 48 Union casualties (6 killed, 42 wounded). Five days later, the Union suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Brentwood. Morgan's men started an ambitious raid into the North, and also lost heavily.
Tucker, Spencer C. (2013). American Civil War: The Definitive Encyclopedia & Document Collection, Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85109-682-4
Katcher, Philip (2017). Civil War Day by Day, The Quarto Group. ISBN 978-0-7858-3565-3
Frederick Converse Beach, George Edwin Rines (1904). The Encyclopedia Americana, The Scientific American.
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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