USA > Illinois > History of the Fourth Illinois cavalry regiment > Part 10
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The company was in confusion and many shots were fired at the Captain who rode rapidly into town. He was taken into a house and died the following day.
During this occurance I was at the court house one-half mile from this scene. I immediately dispatched the commanding officer of the regiment with a company to quell the mutiny. It was readily quieted though the men remained much excited.
The state of my command and the inclemency of the weather convinced me that it would be unwise to continue a further search for the enemy, especially as we were burdened with many lead animals.
I immediately withdrew the main portion of my command from the town, leaving Lieutenant Colonel Wallace of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry in charge of the detachment of the Seventh Kansas, to await the return of parties sent out.
The main body proceeded some distance, and fed their horses, halting until all came up. That night we
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bivouacked south of Wolf river near Moscow and the next morning reached our camp, bringing with us nearly three hundred head of captured horses and mules.
At Somerville two or three stores were opened and some plundering effected by men. From complaints made and proven to me I had no doubt, too, that robbery and outrages were committed. The officers of the command were sober and did all in their power to enforce order among the men. My personal staff, especially, risked their lives in quelling insubordination of drunken men.
Arriving at camp I directed regimental court martials to try all men who had become intoxicated. This was done and the next day the command was paraded and sentences of the courts, depriving more than two-hundred of one months pay and inflicting further punishment, were published. At my request a general court martial was called to try the graver offences, which has continued until a recent date.
Regarding this unfortunate expedition I can only say in mitigation of its excesses, for more than a month immediately preceding, these troops had been engaged in the most arduous, dangerous and fatiguing service and during most of that time had subsisted alone on what could be gleaned from the country. They were almost worn out. The absence of two successive meals and the suffering incident to the severe exposure of the night previous, induced them readily to drink and the liquor was necessarily speedy in its effect. Before anyone could suspect the possibility of such an event, numbers were drunk. I am, your obedient servant,
A. L. LEE, Colonel Commanding Second Brigade Cavalry Division.
We staid at Moscow about two weeks and were kept busy picketing, guarding forage trains, patroling and scouting. While here we had a picket station four or five miles out on the Holly Springs road. It took about
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twenty men for that post and it was so far from camp it was necessary to be very vigilent.
One bright moonlight night Jim Carter's relief came from twelve till two. He suddenly saw a man coming down the road toward him and without a challenge banged away at him. The report of Jim's carbine brought the reserve out in a jiffy. When we arrived Jim was standing at his post looking foolishly at the object he fired at. It looked just like a man before he fired but it looked just like a stump now, and that is what it was.
Jan. 23d-We moved to Colliersville, twenty-five miles east of Memphis, on the Memphis & Charleston railroad, where we staid some months.
Lieutenant J. B. Cook of Company F was in command of the company. Captain Shepardson and Lieutenant Hyde were engaged in a court martial case and Lieutenant Parker was on detached service.
Jan. 27th-Several scouting parties were out in different directions. Twenty-six men of Company I made up a party that went out on the Mount Pleasant road. We soon struck the trail of a rebel cavalry force. Further on we met three of our infantry men on two old horses. They said they had been taken prisoners the evening before near their camp by a force of rebel cavalry in our uniforms. They were paroled that morning.
The rebels numbered sixty-four. Lieutenant Cook was determined to give them a fight if we could overtake them. We took after them at a gallop, for about two miles, when we surprised them at a house off in the woods. They were dismounted and did not suspect that we were in pursuit, until we fired on their picket. We did not suppose that we had surprised them but thought they had a trap laid for us as they had a mounted picket in the gateway near the house and he let us come up in close rifle range and in plain view without giving the alarm. We then dismounted and proceeded to fight thiem on foot.
We were in open timber and they were hid, somewhat, by brush about the house, but at the first fire the rebels broke and run as though they thought the devil was after
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them. We mounted as soon as we saw them breaking and gave chase but they had too much the start of us and all got away.
Lieutenant Hitt was out near Center Hill the same day with about the same number of men as there was of us from Company I. They ran onto a force of about forty rebel cavalry who charged Lieutenant Hitt's command and routed them, killing two and wounding and capturing several, including Lieutenant Hitt who was both wounded and taken prisoner.
Feb. 9th-A scouting force of twenty-six men, seventeen from Company I and nine from Company F, under Lieutenant Cook, went to Mount Pleasant and started to return on the Hernando road.
About two miles this side of Mount Pleasant we met a force of about forty rebel cavalry, under Captain Mitchel. The Lieutenant made a mistake here for instead of charging them in column he deployed and dismounted us. We gave them a few rounds, when the rebels turned off in the woods and disappeared at a pell mell gait. We charged after them but they had too much the start of us and all escaped.
We came across the trail of another rebel force, reported to be Wall's Legion, one-hundred strong, but we did not see them.
Feb. 25th-Company I musters fifty men; sick and absent, nine; detailed, five; leaving thirty-six for duty. I am told Company I has more men for duty than any other company in the regiment. Our good health is believed to be largely due to our having stoves in our tents, which no other company have. We bought them ourselves at $8.00, and sheet iron at that.
Our regiment musterers one-hundred and seventy-six men and one-hundred non-commissioned officers for duty, exclusive of Company A who are still with General Grant as his body guard.
Besides the affairs mentioned above we have been kept
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quite busy scouting, picketing and guarding forage trains, when nothing occured worth relating.
Expedition from Colliersville, Tennessee. Report of Lieutenant Colonel M. R. M. Wallace of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry. Colliersville, Tennessee, March 12, 1863- I have the honor to report that at 9:30 a. m., March 9, 1863, in pursuance of orders from Brigadier Headquarters, dated March 8, 1863, I took 210 men of the Seventh Kansas and 170 men of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry and proceeded west from Little bridge on the Wolf river, about three miles west of this place, northeast through Fisherville to the Memphis and Somerville stage road, where we met five of the enemy's cavalry who fled at our approach. Thence along the road over the Cypress levee to about two miles east of that place, then turned to the left and proceeded to a little villiage called Wythes depot, and there fed the command.
While there one of the troopers, who had been placed on picket, left his post and rode to a house near by for the purpose, he said, of taking prisoner a couple of Richardson's men he had heard were there eating dinner. He was himself taken prisoner and is now in camp with his parole.
Several shots were fired at the guards in the road while at this place. From thence we proceeded in a northwestern direction to Jackson's mill on the Loosahatchie and captured, near the river, one of Richard- son's men.
Here a very unfortunate circumstance occured. A man by the name of Forbes, being near the road and seeing my flankers coming through his field, armed himself and on the approach of two of the flankers to the house and being ordered by them to come out, refused to do so and immediately fired, cutting the carbine belt and riddling the overcoat of one of the soldiers. He then ran to another house and refused to come out. The men burst the door open and rushed in, firing upstairs at him and lie in turn firing at them. One man of Company E, Fourth Illinois Cavalry, fell in the house badly wounded and one
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of Company B fell mortally wounded and has since died.
The soldiers immediately set the house on fire. This brought Forbes out and when I rode up it was hardly possible to save the house. It might probably have been done, had we nothing else to do. The first words spoken by Forbes were "Oh, gentlemen, I am mistaken, " and from that time protested he was a Union man. He was severely wounded in the right arm and we left him at his house, he being unable to travel. The evidence is overwhelming that he is a genuine Union man.
After disposing of the dead and wounded I proceeded with the command to Galway station on the Mobile & Ohio railroad, about twenty-five miles from this place, by the road we traveled, not being able to communicate with Colonel Grierson as yet.
At daylight on the morning of the 10th inst., I proceeded on the north road to Concordia. Here I learned that Captain Grierson with the Sixth Illinois Cavalry had, at about ten o'clock on the day previous, surprised Richardson in his camp, and, after a fight of about twenty minutes, Richardson and his men fled, leaving their camp an easy prey, which he wholly destroyed. I immediately sent a party to community with him and his reply was he did not know I was out and I might do what I thought proper.
I also sent a party back to Jackson to pick up the wounded man and bring him to camp. I proceeded with the balance of the command west on the Randolph road and after traveling about two miles and just entering the bottom of East River Dam Creek, I ran onto a squad of Richardson's men.
The advance guard, under Lieutenant J. Smith of Company C, Seventh Kansas Cavalry, engaged them and drove them rapidly along the road. Iimmediately ordered forward Company A, Seventh Kansas, to the support of Lieutenant Smith and they pursued the flying rebels, taking several prisoners.
When I reached the edge of the bottom with the head of the column I found the main body of the rebels had left
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the road, turning south. I then ordered back the advance and took the trail of the main body and followed them into the swamp of Beaver Dam Bottom until they were scattered to the four winds of heaven. From the best information I can gather there were about one-hundred in the party when we first met them.
The rain came down in torrents all day and made the bottom and swamps very difficult to pass over. After becoming satisfied that Richardson's force was well scattered, I turned back and proceeded to near Gallaway station, the place where I had encamped the night previous.
Thence to the Brownville and Memphis road, thence southwest towards Memphis, Tennessee, and crossed the Loosahatchie river, near the house of Captain J.H. Murray of Richardson's command, near Wyatt's station of the Mobile & Ohio railroad.
After passing Wythes' about one and one-half miles, the advance guard came upon a negro picket, who ran upon our approach, to the house of General Hayes at present occupied by his son, A. J. Hayes. The advance promptly moved up and surrounded the dwellings on the plantation, but some of the birds had flown. Colonel R. F. Looney, called Brigadier General Looney, formerly Colonel of Thirty-eighth Tennessee, Major R. A. Sanford formerly of said regiment and Captain D. Bright all fled but were overtaken and captured by the promptness of the advance. After securing the prisoners I encamped the command on the plantation.
At daylight on the morning of the 11th inst., I moved about one mile to the southwest towards Memphis, crossing Clear Creek at that place, then in a southeast direction towards Morning Sun on the Mississippi State road to Fisherville, thence to Little Bridge on the Wolf river.
Here I divided the command, sending the Seventh Kansas with the prisoners, under Major Merriam of that regiment, to Germantown with orders to report to Colonel
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A. L. Lee commanding Brigade, and the Fourth Illinois came into camp at this place.
The following is a list of prisoners with rank taken on this expedition: Colonel R. F. Looney, Thirty-eighth Tennessee, Colonel Partisan Rangers; R. A. Sanford, First Lieutenant and Adjutant of Thirty-eighth Tennessee; Captain D. Bright of Company K, Eighteenth Mississippi. The names of nine men omitted. Where all acted cheerfully and bravely. it would be invidious to discriminate.
Respectfully submitted, M. R. M. WALLACE,
Lieutenant Colonel, Detachment Second
Brigade, Cavalry Division.
This expedition was out at the same time and not far from the place where Colonel Wallace was:
Report of Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson of the Sixth Illinois Cavalry, Commanding First Cavalry Brigade. Sixteenth Army Corps, LaGrange, Tennessee, March 16, 1863:
In accordance with instructions from General Hamilton I left camp on the 8th inst. with 900 men of the Sixth and Seventh Illinois Cavalry, on an expedition against Richardson and his command.
When about three miles of Somerville our advance came upon a party of rebels who immediately fled. Encamping here for the night, I sent a company of the Seventh Illinois in pursuit of the enemy and succeeded in wounding four and capturing one man and a few horses.
Here I received information of the removal of Richardson's camp, which was confirmed by a communication which I received from scouts whom I had previously sent out to go into his camp.
On the 9th at three a. m. I proceeded northwest, making a forced march of thirty-five miles in seven hours, over roads almost impassable from the recent heavy rains. We came upon him on Big Creek, three miles southeast of Covington, attacked and completely routed him, killing twenty-two, wounding and capturing over seventy, among whom were Captains Cobb and Cushman, also taking and destroying his camp and equipage, commissary and
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quartermaster's stores, his trains, ammunition and records.
I find among the latter over two-hundred paroles of Federal Soldiers, all his muster roles, lists of conscript letters and receipts, giving the names of a number of citizens who have been engaged in smuggling arms, ammunition and equipments from Memphis and other points for the enemy. Also some valuable maps of the country between the Memphis & Charleston railroad and the Hatchee river.
We scoured the country thoroughly in the vicinity of the Hatchee and Covington rivers, also south towards Partersville. On the 10th I moved southeast to Mason's depot, whence a detachment of the Second Brigade, under Lieutenant Colonel Wallace of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry, reported to me and whom I ordered to scout the country southwest towards Gallaway and Wythe depot.
I encamped near Belmont on the night of the 10th and four miles south of Somerville on the night of the 11th, returning to this place on the 12th about two p. m. I have the satisfaction to report the success of the expedition, having lost none, killed or wounded, and but four prisoners who have since returned paroled.
Respectfully,
B. J. GRIERSON, Colonel Commanding.
I have copied below from my diary one month's operations as I recorded it at the time. This is taken at random and is a fair sample of the duties we have had to preform, not only while we were at Colliersville but for months before and afterward until we were discharged:
March 2d, 1863-Fifty men from Companies B, I and M, under Lieutenant J. B. Cook, went out on the Coldwater foraging for beef cattle. We brought in twenty head.
March 3d-Have been hauling lumber from deser ted buildings for stables.
March 4th-A force of thirty-five men went out this morning at daylight, under Lieutenant Allshouse of Company M. When near Mt. Pleasant they discovered a force of the rebel cavalry, about their own number,
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entering town from the opposite direction. The Lieutenant ordered the command to fall back, which they did, unobserved. He then sent word to a party of the Fifth Ohio Cavalry from LaFayette, that happened to be near there, to go round in the rear of them. After waiting for some time for them to get to the rear he charged into town. The Johnnies made no resistance but broke and fled in great disorder. If the Fifth Ohio Cavalry had been prompt in getting around we would have furnished the material for a small grave yard and hospital, but they were a little too late and the rebels escaped. At eight a. m. another expedition, consisting of thirty-one wagons with a heavy guard, went out near the Coldwater for forage.
March 5th-Scouts brought in the report that the pickets on the Fisherville road were to be attacked last night so a force of thirty men from our regiment were sent out to support them. We left camp at tattoo and came cautiously up to the picket post and watched until morning but no enemy appeared.
March 7th-A force of fifty men, under Captain Collins of Company B, went out near Mt. Pleasant. They found a lot of sugar cured hams and shoulders stored away, probably for the use of the rebel cavalry, but they brought all into camp.
March 8th-Our wagon train, with the effective force of our regiment and one-hundred infantry as guards, went out on the Coldwater for forage. While the wagons were being loaded a squad of thirty men from Companies H, I and K of our regiment, under Lieutenant Callon, were sent across the creek for pickets. While there a force of rebels attempted to cut us off from the bridge but we saved ourselves by a scratch.
March 9th-The effective force of our regiment, excepting Company I, crossed Wolf river at an early hour this morning accompanied by the Seventh Kansas Cavalry, Lieutenant Colonel M. R. M. Wallace commanding. It is understood this force is to co-operate with Colonel Grierson's command against Richardson's Partisan
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Rangers. (See Grierson's and Wallace's report elsewhere.)
March 11th-Our regiment came in this afternoon. Colonel Lee's Brigade did not get out in time to assist Colonel Grierson, who had already routed Richardson, taken his camp, killed a number and took many prisoners. Our men picked up a few stragglers among whom were General Looney and his staff.
March 13th-A force of sixty men from our regiment went on a scout south at daybreak.
March 15th-Our wagon train went out this morning for forage with a guard of 150 men from our regiment. When they arrived at the place where they intended to load the wagons they found about 250 rebel cavalry waiting for them. The rebels made a faint attempt to take the wagon train but were repulsed with some loss. The casualties on our side were two men wounded. The train returned empty.
March 16th-The effective force of our regiment was ordered out at 1 p. m. with rations for one day. They were joined by three-hundred men from Germantown of the Seventh Kansas and the Fifth Ohio Cavalry.
March 17th-The force that went out yesterday returned today. When out near Mt. Pleasant they struck upon a cavalry trail going east. They followed it up for ten or twelve miles, when they suddenly came upon a force of rebel cavalry, about one-hundred strong, which they charged immediately and scattered to the four winds. The enemy had three killed and ten or twelve taken prisoners. There were no casualties on our side. After scouring the country for some distance and finding nothing more the expedition returned to camp.
March 19th-A small force, under Captain Wallace, went out early yesterday morning to Mt. Pleasant and returned.
March 20th-Our regiment was paid off today. We drew two month,s pay and are now paid up to November last.
March 22d-The effective force of our regiment was
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ordered out at day break this morning. We went to Mt. Pleasant by the Hernando road and returned to camp by way of LaFayette. We went out on the strength of a report that a force of four-thousand rebel cavalry had crossed the Tallahatchie and were to camp at Mt. Pleasant last night. We saw nothing of them.
March 23d-A small party of our regiment went out last night at ten o'clock. They crossed the Wolf river and went to the house of Captain Dailey, a guerilla leader, arresting him and another officer, returning to camp at three o'clock the next morning, riding all night, traveling in all about thirty miles.
March 28th-A scouting force of fifty men went out at day break and returned. At one p. m. "boots and saddles were blown" and every man ordered to saddle immediately and in a few minutes we were in line. A force of rebel cavalry made an attack on the railroad near Moscow and we were sent out to try to intercept them. We made a rapid march to the Coldwater and from there to Mt. Pleasant, hoping to cut them off somewhere along the road, but they did not cross in that direction. We returned to camp, having traveled about thirty-five miles. Major Townsend was in command.
March 30th-A force of sixty men from our regiment, under Lieutenant Taylor, made nearly the same circuit that was made Saturday, under Major Townsend. We started at four a. m. and got back to camp at noon.
April 3d-At three p. m., yesterday, seventy-five men, under Major Wemple, crossed Wolf river and started out in the direction of Macon, a town six or seven miles north of LaFayette. The object of the expedition was to surprise some guerillas at their homes, if possible. At Captain Porter's two miles west of Macon, we learned that a force of our men, from another direction, had been there during the day, so we returned to Porter's Mills and bivouacked until morning. It was one o'clock a. m. when we got to the mills. We returned to camp this morning, bringing in five or six horses that we picked up on the trip.
April 27th-The entire effective force of our regiment
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started out, under Colonel Wallace, and arrived in LaGrange the next morning, after traveling all night, much of the time in the rain. Here we were joined by the Second Iowa Cavalry, Sixth Iowa Mounted Infantry, a battalion of the Second Tennessee Cavalry and four pieces of ten-pound artillery, in all about 1500 men, Colonel Hatch from here in command.
We went to Ripley, New Albany, passed near Pontotoc, through Chesterville, near Tupelo-a station on the M. & O. R. R. thirty miles south of Corinth-and south through Vernon to the Tewappa river. The bridge being burned we turned back and went west on the Pontotoc road and crossed the Tallahatchie river at New Albany, passed through Ripley and on to LaGrange and back to camp, over the road we went out on, where we arrived at three p. m. May 6th.
We left the trophies of our trip at LaGrange, consisting of about three-hundred horses and mules, one-hundred and fifty wagons and twenty-seven prisoners.
The object of our expedition was to divert the attention of a large force of rebels that were in that section, under General Chalmers, from Colonel Grierson who started on his famous raid through central Mississippi the same day we started on our expedition. We accomplished this expedition without firing only a few guns. We took four day's rations and were gone ten days and of course we lived off the county.
Report of Colonel Edward Hatch, Second Iowa Cavalry, Commanding Cavalry Brigade to Captain William Morgan, Assistant Adjutant General.
LaGrange, Tennessee, June 5, 1863 :- Complying with Brigadier General Smith's orders we left LaGrange on the morning of April 29, 1863, with the Second Iowa Cavalry, Sixth Iowa Mounted Infantry, Fourth Illinois Cavalry, four ten-pound powder guns and eighty men of the West Tennessee Cavalry, in all an effective force of 1300 men, to attack the forces of the enemy concentrating at New Albany and Pontotoc, to intercept the supposed return of Colonel Grierson.
We marched thirty-eight miles south of Ripley,
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learning that General Chalmer (confederate) with a force of 1500 men and one piece of artillery, had encamped at New Albany and would dispute our passage of the Tallahatchie river, passed at this point by two bridges each about two-hundred feet long, on the morning of the thirthieth, threw forward a detachment toward the bridges, moving with the main body to the crossing at Lee's Mills, eight miles above, recrossed the Tallahatchie at Rocky Ford going south.
I immediately took up the line of march toward Pontotoc, marching nearly all night in a rain storm, hoping to come upon him at any point. When within six miles of Pontotoc my scouts informed me that Chalmers had again taken flight, hurridly, for Greneda.
Learning there could be no doubt of Colonel Grierson having moved rapidly to Baton Rouge, on May 3d, we took up our line of March toward LaGrange, arriving here on the 5th of May, bringing in about four-hundred captured stock and twenty prisoners.
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