As a member of Cobb's Battery CSA, I participated in the 1999 version of The Battle of Sacramento in McLean County, Kentucky on May 15th &16th. The actual battle was a running calvary engagement that covered some four miles of western Kentucky countryside. The battle raged through the community of Sacramento, Kentucky on December 28, 1861. Camp stories revealed that the original scrap was fought by 140 to 150 mounted calvary on both sides with about 22 dead and the Confederates being victorious.

This reenactment, in its 5th year has grown to 1000 men, 150 horses and 16 pieces of artillery. The whole community turns out for this event and its success is partially due to the hospitality they have shown the reenactors. As for our group, we have a battery meeting deep in the winter to decide which events we will participate in over the summer. Sgt. Mike Elliot said, " If you could only go to one event, don't miss Sacramento." Mike was right. They transported reenactors around town, to the showers, and from the parking lot in older model limousines. Some of the chauffeurs were decked out in ball caps and bibbed overalls. They were farmers, coal miners, and merchants that pitched in to help with this community event. The proceeds are to aid in the development of a Battlefield Park on the site.

As a further testimony to the locals' dedication, consider the Saturday night meal that was served from six hay wagons and several tables. Area churches rounded up the food and served it to a chow line that was a quarter mile long, winding through the camp. The people were gracious, and amazingly there was some food left after everyone had their fill. Individually folks came through the camp and asked how we were doing and if we needed anything.

I often think, that if the old soldiers could look down on us at one of these events, what would they think? Although a lot of effort goes toward the authenticity of uniforms, arms and accoutrements, we are a long way from the hardships and the difficulties these men faced.

While we purport to reenact the Battle of Sacramento, we must look to the actual history of each one of these events. We learn dates and names of famous people from history class. But, to single out a small battle in the story of the Civil War and immerse yourself into its characters is one of the benefits to reenacting or attending such an event.

As the story goes, the area around Sacramento held folks that sympathized with the South. Some 10,000 Union troops of the 5th Division of the Army of Ohio were encamped across the Green River in Calhoun. The realization that this enormous gathering of Union soldiers was only 10 miles away presented an ominous threat and uncertainty to the sparsely populated community.

According to Mrs. Cora Bennett, a local lady, on Saturday morning, December 28th 1861, Miss Mollie Morehead and her sister, Betsy, had been on an errand behind Sacramento Hill. They saw a Union Force watering horses in a local pond. The site of the blue clad Union soldiers must have been an overwhelming sight to the two un-chaperoned farm girls. Out of fear and excitement they had to get away quickly and warn someone, ANYONE.

Mollie sent Betsy to warn her father and brothers and Mollie went on to spread the alarm. An eyewitness account of Capt. Adam R. (Stovepipe) Johnson who said, " There came into view a young woman on a bare-back horse, wildly dashing up, frantically waving her hat. Her long hair was flying in the wind like a pennant, and her cheeks were afire with excitement. She exclaimed, " There the Yankees are! Right over there! She pointed over the hill whence she had just galloped. Mollie, just 18 years old, had gotten their attention and wheeled her horse to ride beside the leader of the column who was none other that Lt. Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest. Somewhere in the frenzied minutes that followed, with urging from Forrest, Mollie disengaged, and the Confederate forces mixed it up with the Yankees.

That day Mollie made the ride of her life but there was no hint of how her family or the community reacted or regarded her bareback ride or her bravery. Some of the neighbors armed themselves, hid in the hedgerows and fired upon the retreating Union soldiers, which would confirm southern sentiments of the area.

It is recorded that Mollie married one year after the war and four years later died in childbirth. The question comes to mind of what contributions could she have made to the community, had she lived? Could the fast jolting bareback ride on December 28, 1861 been a contributing factor to her death, years later? We will never know the answers.

Chapter No. 2605 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy bears her name as the Mollie Morehead Chapter.

Editor's Note:

Confederate Commander Nathan Bedford Forrest was respected and feared by his men and was a thorn in the side of the Union forces through out the war. The Battle of Sacramento was his first major engagement.
o His Calvary was involved and instrumental in many of the major battles in the Western theatre. They were also among one of the last commands East of the Mississippi to surrender on May 9, 1865
oU.S Grant called him " the ablest cavalry general in the South".
o William T. Sherman: " That devil Forrest must be hunted down and killed if it costs ten thousand lives and bankrupts the Federal treasury".

o Forrest was born on July 13, 1821 in Bedford Co., Tennessee from which he took his middle name.
o He was the son of a blacksmith and his wife.
o During the Civil War he had 29 horses shot out from under him by enemy fire.
o Forrest made a habit of leading his men into battle from the front lines. His favorite command was "Forward men and mix with them".
o Forrest died in 1877 with about 20,000 people attending his funeral and Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederacy, serving as one of the pallbearers.