FELIX KIRK ZOLLICOFFER
was born at Bigbyville, Maury County Tennessee, May 19, 1812; son of John Jacob and
Martha (Kirk) Zollicoffer. Attended “old field schools,” then Jackson College, Columbia, Maury
County. Married at Columbia on September 24, 1835, to Louisa Pocahontas Gordon, daughter of John and Dolly
(Cross) Gordon; fourteen children of whom six were sons and two daughters died in infancy, names of remaining
six -- Virginia Pocahontas, Ann Marie, Octavia Louise, Mary Dorothy, Felecia Kirk, and Louise Gordon
Zollicoffer. After working one year on father’s plantation and study one year at Jackson College,
entered newspaper work, at age sixteen, at Paris, Henry County, 1828-30; when that paper failed, worked
as journeyman printer at Knoxville, Knox County Tennessee, 1831--32; in 1834, became editor and part owner
of Columbia Observer; in addition helped edit during these years Huntsville (Alabama) Mercury and Southern
Agriculturist; editor, 1841, of the powerful Nashville Republican Banner, state organ of Whig Party; made
state printer for Tennessee, 1835.
Zollicoffer served in the Seminole War of 1836, bolding rank of lieutenant; after service in
military and state office, returned, 1850, as editor of Republican Banner. Adjutant General of
Tennessee, 1841-43; Comptroller of Tennessee, October 4, 1843 to October 15, 1849;
he served in the Tennessee Senate, 28th General
Assembly, 1849-51; representing Davidson County; elected
as a Whig to U.S. House of Representatives of
33rd, 34th, and
35th Congresses, serving from March 4, 1853 to March 3, 1959. His
influence greatly helped carry Tennessee for the Whig candidate, General Winfield Scott, in the Presidental
campaign of 1852 and to secure his own election to the U. S. Congress at the same time. He was a delegate
to Whig National Convention, 1852; on State Executive Committee of Whig Party, 1855; State Executive
Committee of Opposition Party, 1859; elected, January 24, 1861, a delegate to the peace convention at
Washington, D. C., called in vain attempt to prevent Civil War.
Zollicoffer served in the Confederate army; he was commissioned Brigadier General, by Governor Isham G.
Harris, May 9, 1861, in the newly formed but poorly organized Provisional Army of Tennessee .
(The Provisional Army of Tennessee became the Army of Tennessee under the official C.S.A. banner
when the Confederate legislature “nationalized” the state army in late in 1861.)
General Zollicoffer was given command in East Tennessee in effort to check the disgruntled Unionists (a.k.a. Tories)
there, and to block any Federal force from taking East Tennessee and eastern Kentucky. It was the policy
of the authorities in Richmond to reserve the military stores (food, gun powder, etc.) in Tennessee for
the use of the C.S.A. forces in Virginia. Also, since East Tennessee was the poorest food producing area of the
state, living off the land was not a good option. Therefore, Zollicoffer’s East Tennessee army
was both under fed and under armed. His under supplied army was also thinly stretched across East Tennessee
and the Cumberland Plateau, trying to block ever gap and pass.
By 1862, C.S.A. Major General George Bibb Crittenden, had assumed command of the East Tennessee forces, and he ordered
Zollicoffer to attack the Federal forces of U.S.A. General George H. Thomas at Mill Springs, Kentucky.
The advance toward Mills Springs started on a rainy midnight and the attack started about 6:00 am in the
morning of 19th of January, 1862 on Fishing Creek.
In the rain, fog, and smoke, General Zollicoffer mistakenly rode into the lines
of the 4th Kentucky, U.S.A. Clad in a white raincoat, his
uniform was covered, “ … as he conversed with an enemy colonel, neither realizing the other’s
identify, a Confederate aide rode out of the fog and began firing at the Federals. In the return fire,
Zollicoffer was killed instantly. ... The West had lost its first general, who was potentially an
able commander.Ӡ
General Zollicoffer is buried in Old City Cemetery, Nashville; he is one of Tennessee
generals whose figure is carved on Stone Mountain, Georgia. There is a monument dedicated to him near the
town of Nancy, Kentucky.
His brother-in-laws, Bolling and Powhattan Gordon,
were sometime members of Tennessee General Assembly.
Death of Gen. Felix Zollicoffer
Bibliography
Sources: Warner,Generals in Gray, pp. 349-50; Dictionary of American
Biography; Biographical Directory of American Congress; Bond, Family Chronicle and Kinship
Book, 144-46, 152, 373-97; Miller, Official Manual, 171; White, Messages of the Governors of
Tennessee, V, 697; Tennessee Blue Book, 1965-66, p. 260.
† Connelly,
Thomas Lawrence, Army of the Heartland; The Army of Tennessee, 1861-1862, pp. 88-99.
Note : The flag at the top of the page is the Army of Tennessee flag which was developed in
early 1862. Original versions had a light blue field.
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