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Union line collapses at Richmond; Kirby Smith's men take 4,300 prisoners

Nelson's routed troops make a last stand in a cemetery outside town before that too gives way.

By late August 1862, Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith was pushing into Kentucky, hoping to help install a friendly government and pull the border state into the war on the South's side. On August 30, near Richmond, Confederate forces under Edmund Kirby Smith struck the Union lines: Brigadier General Patrick Cleburne's men hit Zion Church while Brigadier General Thomas Churchill's men turned the Union right until the whole position broke. Union major general William "Bull" Nelson tried to rally survivors in a cemetery outside town, but the line gave way there too. Confederates took more than 4,300 Union prisoners in one of the most lopsided defeats of the war…

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More from August 30

MacArthur steps onto the tarmac at Atsugi, alone but for a corncob pipe

The newly named Supreme Commander arrives on an airfield American troops had held for only two days.

Challenger lights up the pre-dawn sky on the shuttle program's first night launch

Guion Bluford rides along, becoming the first African American to fly in space.

Four generals form a council to rule Germany; the German Army ceases to exist

Zhukov, Eisenhower, Montgomery and de Lattre de Tassigny sign in as Berlin's new governing body and outlaw the old uniform on the same day.

Eleven weeks after Johnson named him in the Rose Garden, the vote clears the Senate floor.

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More from Civil War & Reconstruction

Shaw is killed at the parapet; the 54th Massachusetts storms Fort Wagner

One of the first Black regiments in the Union Army leads the beach assault on Charleston harbor's fort, suffering heavy losses but silencing doubts about whether these soldiers will fight.

Hood's first attack as commander breaks against Thomas's line north of Atlanta

Two days into the job, the new Confederate commander throws two corps at Sherman's advancing army and cannot make them give ground.

Green troops collide at Bull Run; the Union army breaks and runs for Washington

Spectators drove out from the capital with picnic baskets to watch; they fled home in the same traffic jam as the soldiers.

Tennessee is back in the Union; no other rebel state gets the deal

Congress lets Tennessee skip military rule because it ratified the Fourteenth Amendment first.

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