Mossy Creek was a Civil War engagement fought in Tennessee, 1863. It was a Union victory.
Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis received a report on the night of December 28, 1863, that a brigade of enemy cavalry was in the neighborhood of Dandridge that afternoon. Surmising that the Rebel cavalry force was split, Sturgis decided to meet and defeat, and possibly capture, this portion of it. He ordered most of his troopers out toward Dandridge on two roads. After these troops had left, Maj. Gen. William T. Martin, commander of Longstreet's Confederate cavalry, now reunited, attacked the remainder of Sturgis's force at Mossy Creek, Tennessee, which included the First Brigade, Second Division, XXIII Army Corps, commanded by Col. Samuel R. Mott, at 9:00 am. First, Sturgis sent messages to his subordinates on the way to Dandridge to return promptly if they found no enemy there. The Confederates advanced, driving the Federals in front of them. Some of the Union troopers who had set out for Dandridge returned. Around 3:00 pm, fortunes changed as the Federals began driving the Confederates. By dark, the Rebels were back to the location from which they had begun the battle. Union pursuit was not mounted that night, but Martin retreated from the area. After the victory at Mossy Creek, the Union held the line about Talbott's Station for some time.
On December 29, 1863, Union and Confederate forces clashed in Jefferson County, Tennessee, in an engagement that would go down as a small-scale affair within the broader American Civil War, known to history as the Battle of Mossy Creek.
Union forces under Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis were camped at Mossy Creek and pushed out toward Talbott's Station when, on the night of December 28, 1863, word reached him that Confederate cavalry had settled into camp near Dandridge, south of his position, earlier that afternoon. Sturgis concluded that the enemy's strength had been divided, and he saw an opportunity to strike, overwhelm, and perhaps seize the isolated cavalry force. Acting on this belief, he sent part of his command marching away from Mossy Creek and Talbott's Station toward Dandridge.
This move left the position at Talbott's Station lightly held, and the Confederates took notice. Maj. Gen. William T. Martin, who led the cavalry serving under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet and was stationed at Panther Creek near Morristown, seized the moment. At nine o'clock on the morning of December 29, his men fell upon the reduced Federal detachment left behind at Talbott's Station.
Union forces gradually withdrew toward Mossy Creek, and Sturgis dispatched word to his officers heading for Dandridge, instructing them to turn back at once if no enemy appeared there. Meanwhile, Confederate troops pushed forward on Mossy Creek, forcing the retreating Federals ahead of them. The soldiers sent toward Dandridge discovered no opposing forces there, so they quickly reversed course and rushed back to Mossy Creek to rejoin the fight. By roughly three o'clock that afternoon, the tide had turned, with Union troops pushing the Confederates away from Mossy Creek and toward Talbott's Station and Panther Creek. When darkness fell, the Confederates had been pushed all the way back to their starting point at Panther Creek. Although the Federals did not pursue them further that night, Martin decided that with the season so far along, withdrawal toward Morristown for winter quarters was the wiser course. Following this Union success at Mossy Creek, Federal troops maintained their position near Talbott's Station for a considerable period afterward. In total, the fighting stretched on for about seven hours, leaving roughly 500 men from both sides dead or wounded.
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