ight mounted cannons and an impressive amount of artillery. The star shaped fort measured four hundred feet in length and over one hundred sixty feet wide. On the morning of March 25th , (Good Friday) before sunrise, Captain H.A. Tyler and a company of the Twelfth Kentucky set out to probe the outpost of Paducah. In 1864 Colonel S.G. Hicks commanded the fort. Forrest hoped he might surprise Hicks, but did not worry about whether he did or not. Hicks, knowing that Forrest was coming, but not knowing when, sent out pickets to watch The Old Mayfield Road and the other roads that led into the town. Hicks also readied the fort’s nine hundred men. In the fort were the First Battalion, Sixteenth Kentucky Cavalry, several companies of the Eighth U.S. Colored Artillery, and a couple of independent men who had been separated from their regiments. Around noon on March 25, the pickets that Hicks had sent out foolishly returned to the fort to report they had seen nothing. Hicks quickly sent them back with a stern warning “not to leave again until ordered to do so.” Within about three miles of the fort, at 2:10 p.m., on Eden’s Hill, Union soldiers made contact with Forrest’s force. Rebel, Otto Rosecranz, saw the Union picket coming up the other side of the hill. Rosecranz fired his pistol at the picket, and without returning fire, they ran for the city. J.V. Greif saw this and wrote “ Two of the men throwing away their sabres and as many losing their hats in the stampede.” Captain Tyler’s men, who had been sent out early that morning, went in hot pursuit after the fleeing pickets. Hearing the gunshots, Hicks ordered his men to the protection of the fort. Hicks reportedly said, “such was the impetuosity of the attack, that their rear was being fired upon by the enemy.” The Battle of Paducah had begun. It had been drizzling rain all day, and the streets were filled with ...
