It proved crucial to Union control of Kentucky and the interior South and shaped later developments in the war. Largely forgotten today, and overshadowed in its own time by battles at Shiloh and Fort Donelson, Mill Springs was the first significant Union victory of the Civil War. As Abraham Lincoln put it, 'I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.' Kentucky was the gateway to the Confederacy's strongholds in the interior South, especially in Tennessee, and so control of the state would profoundly affect the outcome of the Civil War. Yet both sides were ready to fight because they realized the strategic importance of Kentucky.

It was always some comfort to the soldier on a night such as this to think that his enemy over there, was at least as cold and wretched as he himself was.' turned out of their comfortable tents and dry blankets and for the next six weary hours were sloshing along in the mud and storm and darkness, we could have much enjoyed the contemplation of their physical and spiritual condition. Rain, sleet and fog filled the night, creating conditions so miserable that a Union soldier later noted, 'If we had known. It was just after midnight on January 19, 1862, when Confederate troops started towards the Union army camped near the Kentucky hamlet of Logan's Cross Roads. This lesson is part of the National Park Service’s Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) program.

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