Mumfordsville, battle of.
The Confederates under
General Bragg crossed the
Cumberland at
Lebanon, and entered
Kentucky on Sept. 5, 1862.
His advance, 8,000 strong, pushed on towards
Louisville; and on the 13th two of
Buckner's brigades encountered about 2,000 Nationals, under
Col. T. J. Wilder, at Mumfordsville, where the railway crossed the
Green River.
There the Nationals had hastily constructed some earthworks.
A demand for a surrender being refused, the
Confederates drove in the
National pickets early the next morning.
Then a battle began, which lasted about five hours, when
[
310]
a reinforcement reached
Wilder, and the assailants were repulsed with heavy loss.
Assured of final success, the
Confederates remained quiet until the 16th, when a heavy force under
General Polk, not less than 25,000 strong, appeared.
Wilder had been reinforced, and, with 4,000 effective men, sustained a battle nearly a whole day, hoping
Buell (then at
Bowling Green) would send him promised relief.
It did not come; and when, at sunset, another demand for surrender was made, and
Wilder counted forty-five cannon trained upon his works, he gave up, and at 6 A. M. the next day his troops marched out with the honors of war.
Wilder reported his entire loss at thirty-seven killed and wounded. The Confederates admitted a loss of 714 killed and wounded.
