First Blood II - The Affair at Travisville

Courtesy hmdb.org

One year, in coming home from my annual March sojourn to Chickamauga, I decided to drive up the Sequatchie Valley and follow my friend Braxton Bragg as he maneuvered the Army of Mississippi towards Kentucky in what would be called the Heartland or Perryville Campaign. Climbing out of the valley, I headed north through Crossville towards Alvin York country, passing around Jamestown, turning off U. S. 127 after passing the York store and home at Pall Mall. I then decided to cut up Caney Creek Road, or at least Google Maps told me to head that way as I worked towards Kentucky, no longer following Mr. Bragg. Shortly after turning onto Caney Creek Road I passed a Tennessee historical marker and a Civil War Trails directional sign, which led me to Travisville Cemetery, the few locals certainly thinking "he ain't from 'round har." The CWT sign was cracked and faded, but it provided a little information on the September 29, 1861 engagement that took place in the area, the first action in Tennessee. Nearby lies the grave of James Saufley, a Confederate killed at Travisville, a member of the Sixth Kentucky Cavalry Regiment...or was he?

Courtesy hmdb.org - the sign today is in rough shape

Travisville lies about fifteen miles southeast of Albany, Kentucky. The site of a Confederate camp in 1861, today there is little to remind passersby that Travisville was the site of a Civil War action. A few scattered homes, a Methodist church, and the cemetery are all that define Travisville today. But in September the camp was just thirteen miles from the Kentucky-Tennessee state line, and the one hundred or so men there had been attacking Federal supply columns, causing Federal Colonel William A. Hoskins, commander of the Twelve Kentucky Infantry, to move to Albany and establish a Federal military presence in the area. Hoskins had been a prewar farmer and miner, residing in Clinton County, Kentucky.

Hoskins ordered a detachment of the First Kentucky Cavalry under Captain John A. Morrison, along with mounted men from the Hustonville Home Guard, to move on the camp and demand its surrender, and if refused, to open fire on the Confederates gathering there. Morrison and his mounted men arrived around noon, undetected, and demanded that the lunching Confederates surrender. As the Confederates either refused to surrender or attempted to flee, the Federal forces opened fire, causing the deaths of four Confederates and the capture of four more. The remaining Confederates scattered into the hilly countryside. The Federals and Union Home Guard were proud of their small victory, as Thomas Huddleston, reported to Colonel Hoskins that he had “fired several rounds, captured one soldier and two horses, and looked for more, but they were all gone.”

Colonel Hoskins would write in his report: This morning I received information that the Confederate forces were forming another encampment at Travisville, distant from us 13 miles. Accordingly I ordered Capt. Morrison to take the effective force under his command and proceed to that point, and after reconnoitering sufficiently to satisfy himself that the number was not too great to justify an attack, to take them by surprise, order a surrender, which, should they refuse, to fire upon them. In obedience to my orders he proceeded to that point as directed. In about two hours after Capt. Morrison left camp Lieut. Adams joined us, as also the Home Guards of Hustonville Cavalry. I ordered a detail of 15 men from the company under command of Lieut. Adams and 30 from the Hustonville Home Guards, which were placed under command of Maj. Brunets, and he ordered to proceed to Travisville, to support Capt. Morrison in the event he was repulsed; but before reaching that point Capt. Morrison had surprised the camp, finding about 100 troops, which, being ordered to surrender, fled, when they were fired upon and 4 killed, the balance effecting their escape by fleeing to the hills. They also took 4 prisoners, 2 of whom, as also 2 horses, were captured by Thomas Huddleston, a private in Capt. Morrison's company; after accomplishing which, to use his own expression, "He looked for more, but they had all fled."

The recently installed Confederate gravestone in Travisville Cemetery indicates that James M. Saufley, a member of Company H of the Sixth Kentucky Cavalry (C. S. A.) died on September 29, 1861. Sources mention that Saufley was killed by Federal fire, making him one of the four Travisville Confederates mentioned in Hoskins' report as having been killed in action. However, there is no James M. Saufley on the roster of the Sixth Kentucky, a regiment that was not organized until a year after the Travisville affair. There are two Saufley's in the Sixth, Samuel (who joined Company H of the Sixth as a First Sergeant in April, 1862 and was from nearby Livingston, Tennessee), and R. H., who joined the same day as Samuel, also as a First Sergeant. It is possible, as some Confederates operated in quasi-organized units until being fully organized into service, that both of these men served with a group that would later become Company H of the Sixth Kentucky, but the roster of the Sixth carries no James, nor any casualties for the regiment are listed prior to December 15, 1861.

Federal John A. Brents, a member of the First Kentucky Cavalry, had this to say about Saufley: "James M. Saufley, a young man of good education, who had just graduated at the Law University at Louisville, Ky., and who reposed entire confidence in Chrisman, his uncle, was persuaded by him to abandon his home and follow him to Tennessee. Young Saufley was not willing to go, nor did he intend to join the rebel army ; but Chrisman conveyed him to a rebel camp in Fentress county. Capt. Morrison, with his company of Union soldiers, attacked the camp and put the rebels to flight. Poor Saufley was left dead upon the battle ground. His death was regretted by all his acquaintances. He was considered innocent, but a victim to Chrisman's treason. Although several young men of Wayne county whom Chrisman seduced were in this camp, Chrisman himself was not there. He always sought a safer place than a camp. Who can estimate the magnitude of the crime committed by Simon B. Buckner, John C. Breckinridge, and James S. Chrisman, in misleading and corrupting the youth of Kentucky."

One source mentions that the man who killed James Saufley was none other than James Ferguson, the brother of the notorious Champ Ferguson, James being a Union man. Apparently James Saufley, a pre-war graduate of the Louisville school of law, in company with his maternal uncle and law partner James S. Chrisman, had departed nearby Wayne County, Kentucky to join the forces gathering at Travisville. (James' father Henry R. Saufley is most likely the R. H. Saufley appearing on the roster of the Sixth) Ferguson was serving as a corporal in Morrison's Company C of the First Kentucky Cavalry. On September 29th, Ferguson took aim from a fence post, ignored Saufley's attempts to surrender, and shot and killed Saufley. However Saufley's original gravestone simply says "Killed by James Ferguson of 1st Ky. Cav. U. S. A. Sept. 29, 1861."

Courtesy hmdb.org

The Federal attack on the camp did not have any long lasting effects, Colonel Hoskins reporting just a few days later that the Confederates were again active at Travisville, and by the end of October there were over 4,000 Confederates gathered. However, the September 29 action at the camp was the site of Tennessee's first Civil War engagement.

The Sixth Kentucky Cavalry was not organized until September 1862, Saufley does not appear on its roster, and Saufley had just left Kentucky two days before his death, therefore James M. Saufley was most likely never a member of the Sixth Kentucky.