Historical Marker
Bragg Invades Kentucky Setember - October 1862
Sparta, White County · Tennessee
Bragg's army reached Sparta by two roads. He moved all his infantry by railroad from Tupelo to Chattanooga, while the cavalry and artillery went overland. The campaign was meant to draw Union attention away from Vicksburg and Chattanooga. On October 4 Bragg attended the inauguration of Richard Hawes as provisional Confederate governor of Kentucky. After the tactical win at Perryville he ordered a retreat through the Cumberland Gap to Knoxville. White County also had partisan units whose settling of old scores kept the region in turmoil.
What the plaque says
Bragg Invades Kentucky Setember - October 1862 The Army of Mississippi passed here. Forrest's Cavalry Brigade, reporting Sept. 3, moved out to screen the left flank. Here, Sept. 5, Bragg advised his army of Kirby Smith's victory at Richmond, Ky., Aug. 30. At Milledgeville, 10 mi. N. Bragg, with Polk's Right Wing, turned west to pass through Carthage. Hardee's left Wing, screened by Wheeler's Cavalry Brigade, moved north through Gainesboro. The columns reunited at Tompkinsville, Ky.
Where it stands
35.93179, -85.47627 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Burgess Falls State Park — 10 miA day-use park on the Falling Water River, where a short trail passes three smaller falls on its way to a drop of more than 130 feet into a limestone gorge.
- Rock Island State Park — 13 miA park where the Collins, Rocky and Caney Fork rivers meet at the head of Center Hill Lake, with a gorge of waterfalls below a 1917 dam and the remains of a cotton-mill town.
- Cookeville Depot Museum — 16 miThe 1909 Tennessee Central Railroad depot in Cookeville's west side, now a museum with a model of the town in 1955 and a steam engine in the yard.
- Fall Creek Falls State Park — 20 miA New Deal park on the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau, where Cane Creek has cut a gorge and a 256-foot waterfall drops into it.