George,

The description you posted about the battle of Riggins Hill is incorrect in terms of where it was fought - it was the source you used that has it wrong. It was many miles east of Dover - only a few miles west from New Providence/Clarksville actually. The place is where Dover Road (US 79) meets Dotsonville Road although skirmishing began a couple miles west of there. The ridge where the Riggins home and barn was located remains and I wrote the battle marker for the Tennessee Civil War Trails some years ago about the fight.

The units involved were Woodward's Kentucky Cavalry Battalion and some armed Clarksvillians versus the 5th Iowa Cavalry, four companies of the 71st Ohio Infantry, 13th Wisconsin Infantry and what was left of the 11th Illinois Infantry (after suffering 65 per cent casualties at Donelson and 50 per cent at Shiloh) plus four guns from two sections of Illinois artillery batteries. It was not much of a fight - the Federal artillery pounded Woodward's line for an hour and the 71st Ohio, itching for revenge for the 6 companies that had surrender to Woodward and Adam Rankin Johnson at Clarksville a couple weeks before, surged forward bringing the rest of the Union infantry with them. The 5th Iowa Cavalry pursued the breaking Confederate line into Clarksville which surrendered to William Lowe, provisional brigade commander.

Greg Biggs