USA > Illinois > History of the Fourth Illinois cavalry regiment > Part 7
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Colonel T. L. Dickey of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry is hereby assigned to the command of a cavalry brigade which brigade will be composed of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry, Fifth Ohio Cavalry, one squadron Second Illinois Cavalry, one squadron Thelman's Independent Cavalry, Eleventh Illinois Cavalry, Curtis Horse First Nebraska Cavalry, Stewart's Independent Cavalry,
Carl Michael's Independent Cavalry, O'Harnet's Independent Cavalry and Dolin's Independent Cavalry, being the entire cavalry force of the army corps of the
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Tennessee and District of West Tennessee, except the First Ohio Cavalry. He will immediately sign one company of cavalry to each of the Division Commanders as an escort. Company A of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry will remain on detached service at these quarters. All reports and returns required by existing orders and requisitions for supplies will be made through him. By command of
MAJOR GENERAL U. S. GRANT.
The above order was revoked June 20th as will be seen in the following:
Headquarters Army of the Tennessee, in field Corinth Mississippi, June 20, 1862. General order No. 56 to J. A. Rawlins, Assistant Adjutant General.
General Order No. 54, current series from these headquarters of date June 11, 1862, Brigading the Cavalry of this command and assigning Colonel Dickey of Fourth Illinois Cavalry to the command thereof is hereby revoked and the cavalry will report to the commanding officers of the several divisions to which it was attached before the publishing of said order. By order of
MAJOR GENERAL U. S. GRANT.
Headquarters District West Tennessee. Memphis, June 24, 1862. General Order No. 57 to J. A. Rawlins, Assistant Adjutant General.
Brigade Surgeon J. F. Holston, senior medical officer of this District is announced medical director of the same. Colonel T. L. Dickey of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry is appointed Chief of Cavalry Force of this district. All orders from him will be obeyed and all reports required by existing orders will be made to him. By order of
MAJOR GENERAL U. S. GRANT
The next day a detachment from our regiment, Companies G, H, I and L, went to Memphis as guards for a train of fifty wagons with supplies for the army. The distance was thirty miles and we were gone two and one-half days.
While we were stationed at this place we had to furnish thirty men for a picket station, four or|five miles out on the Holly Spring road, under a commissioned officer.
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This force was usually made up of a detail from the different companies.
June 30, 1862 -- General Sherman with his division, headed by the balance of our regiment, came along and we, the pickets, were ordered to fall in as advance guard. Enoch Hunter and I were advance vedettes. We found a few rebel cavalry at Hutsonville, but they gave way after a slight skirmish. We found them in ambush about two miles from Holly Springs. The road at this point was in a deep cut long enough to take in all the regiment. The videttes and advance guard were allowed to pass through unmolested, but soon as the cut was filled with our regiment, the rebels fired a volley at them and broke and run. Our boys whelled instantly into line and gave the retreating rebels a volley and then jumped off their horses and went for them on foot. The rebels were soon on their horses and out of reach.
Just as our column was fired upon the head of a heavy column of rebel cavalry came in sight over the hill not over three hundred yards ahead of us (the vedettes) This force was under General W. H. Jackson. We had just exchanged shots with their vedettes when we heard the firing from ambush in our rear.
We learned from a rebel source that Jackson's plan was to throw our columns into confusion by his attack from ambush and then charge down the road and cut us to pieces, but he did not see sufficient confusion to justify him in carrying out the latter part of his program so he immediately sought the friendly shelter of the woods beyond Holly Springs.
When we (the vedettes) passed through the cut I picked up an old fashioned carpet bag containing a nice piece of boiled ham. I transferred the latter to my saddle bags remarking to Hunter that some rebel had lost his dinner but I would make a meal out of it.
A Mr. Cox, living just opposite the road, was out in his yard and in answer to our inquiries told us positively that there were no rebels nearer than Holly Springs. He
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knew the rebels were in ambush and within hearing of our voice.
We had one man killed, Corporal Tuesburg of Company G, and three wounded.
We were in the vicinity of Holly Springs about a week. When the command returned to camp Company I was left on picket at the same place we were when the command went out. We remained there two days. On our arrival in camp we found our Captain and ten furloughed men had returned from their homes.
The expedition as reported below by Major M. R. M. Wallace probably went out while we were in the vicinity of Holly Springs with General Sherman:
Headquarters First Division, District of Jackson, Tennessee. Jackson, July 7, 1862. Major M. R. M. Wallace, Commanding Cavalry Expedition:
You will proceed at once with your command to Brownsville Landing by way of Brownsville and make that place the base of your operations and encamp there until otherwise ordered. You will enforce strict discipline and order in your camp by keeping your command together and not allowing them to straggle outside your lines. You will use your utmost endeavor to protect the rights of private property, suffering nothing to be taken except what is absolutely necessary for your command and then only by paying or agreeing to pay to the owner a just compensation for the same.
You will keep a vigilant guard posted around your camp to prevent surprise and also to prevent your men from straggling outside your lines: Information has just been received that a force of some three hundred of Jackson's Cavalry are in the vicinity of where you will be and beyond you.
You will take active measures to take them, if in your power without hazarding your command, upon receipt of information that you may receive at any time respecting them or their movements. You will co-operate with Colonel Ozburn who will be stationed at Brownsville.
You will endeavor to cultivate a conservative friendly feeling with the people where you will be.
You will report to me your operations from time to
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time and any other information that you may see proper to communicate to these headquarters. Respectfully yours, J. A. LOGAN,
Brigadier General Commanding.
Jackson, July 10, 1862. Major M. R. M. Wallace, Commanding Cavalry:
Your report is received which is entirely satisfactory I desire you to make a reconnoissance up the Hatche river on this side as often as you can and crossing over on the other side if you think it expedient. You will notify Colonel Ozburn to move up his command to your present camp at Brownsville Landing and support you in every move that you make up the river. Send and get six days more of rations. Communicate with me as often as you can. Respectfully yours,
J. A. LOGAN, Brigadier General Commanding.
July 12, 1862-Our regiment train was out for forage with a guard. Four boys of our company, namely, Joel Carter (First Sergeant), Lycurgus Hyde, Jim Ferguson and Jake Stevens, went with the guard voluntarily. When returning to camp, being some distance in advance of the guard, they were fired on from ambush. Hyde was mortally wounded and died before they could get him into camp. Carter and Stevens were wounded with buckshot but Ferguson escaped unhurt.
The rebels made good their escape, they were believed to be citizens living near there. I believe Joel Carter was discharged from the effects of this wound and a broken leg at Trenton, Tennessee.
July 18, 1862-Sherman abandoned this railroad and started for Memphis. We were camped in a nice piece of open timber, just below the city of Memphis. We remained here with but little to do except routine duty till August 23d.
Aug. 15-Lieutenant Hyde and B. F. Kyes from Company I, and probably others from other companies, started for Earlville to enlist recruits for our regiment.
Aug. 23d-We started for Trenton, Tennessee, which
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is about one-hundred miles distant. We arrived in
Trenton on the 29th without any serious incident, although we passed through where it was reported there was quite a force of rebel cavalry. They kept out of our way, though we picked up several prisoners.
I think the whole regiment was at Trenton at first, excepting Company A which was with General Grant and Company D which was at Columbus. On November 11th, following, Companies B and C went to Humboldt, Tennessee.
Sept. 11th-Just a year, to a day, from the time we went into camp at Ottawa, Illinois, we drew new Sibley tents. They are not so large as our old ones but will accomodate ten persons very comfortably. Sixteen could . get into the old tents. On Oct. 10, 1862, Charley Dickey was promoted Second Lieutenant of Company B. On Oct. 11, 1862, Captain Mindret Wemple of Company H was promoted Major of the Second Battalion and on the same day Second Lieutenant Alexander 'T. Crego of Company B was promoted First Lieutenant and Adjutant of the regiment.
We were kept very busy while here. We scouted the country thoroughly in every direction, sometimes for twenty-five miles and of course picketing was an every day duty wherever we were. We had little or no fighting to do while here. There were a good many small bands of bushwhackers but they would dodge us and never give a fight, but we did a great deal of running after them.
To describe all of our moves would be to tedious, so I will select a few incidents, only.
Sept. 22d-A detachment, consisting of a detail of ten men from each company, made quite an extended trip northeast through Huntingdon (county seat of Carrol county) and Camden (county seat of Benton county) and on the Tennessee river. We were gone nine days and we lived off the country, mostly. When within three miles of Huntingdon, on our way back, the Company I detail under Sergeant Robert Boston, got permission to go to a planters house, a short distance from our bivouac, and get
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our suppers. We put our horses in the stable and fed them and in due time our supper was ready and it was a very good one too. It is needless to say we did ample justice to it. Coffee and tea are almost unknown luxuries in Dixie. The good lady of the house brought out their substitute, sassafras tea, remarking by way of apology that the oftener sassafras tea was steeped the better it was. This, she said very politely, had been steeped three times. Charlie Munnikhuizen sipped his a little and did not like it, so he passed it back to her, saying with utmost suavity and politeness, "I wish, madam, you would please steep mine again." We all laughed immoderately, I felt sorry for the woman for she had done the best she could.
Joel Carter, Orderly Sergeant of Company I, was thrown from his horse and had his leg broken. Lieutenant Parker of Company I was made Provost Martial of Trenton.
Nov. 3, 1862-The effective mounted force of our regiment was ordered out at seven p. m. with four day's rations. We started out on the Brownsville road but soon left it and went west in the direction of Chestnut Bluffs on the South Fork of the Deer river.
We bivouacked at ten p. m. and ferried the river at Chestnut Bluffs the next morning. We stopped at Lee's plantation, five miles from the ferry, to feed and remained over night there as Lieutenant Colonel Mccullough, commanding, was too drunk to proceed further. He wanted to hang Mr. Lee because he was a rebel and ordered Sergeant Toothill to get a rope and hang him. The Sergeant started off as though to get a rope, but the Colonel went to sleep and that was the last of the hanging.
We started for Brownsville early the next morning and arrived there about sunset, marching twenty miles that day.
Brownsville is the county seat of Haywood county and is thirty-two miles southwest of Trenton. We made many stops to make arrests and to confiscate property
A detachment from the Fourth Ohio Cavalry came in
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Joel Carter was born June 24, 1837, in Earlville, Illinois. He enlisted in Company I, Fourth Illinois Cavalry, September 3, 1861 and was made Orderly Sergeant. He was wounded on July 13, 1862, and on October 2, 1862, had his leg broken which caused his discharge November 13, 1862.
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here in the night from Jackson and fired on our pickets taking us for rebels.
We started back for Trenton the next morning, crossing the South Fork of Deer river at Sherman's ferry, and camped that night a mile from Lanefield. Company I guarded prisoners the last twenty-four hours. We arrived in Trenton on the afternoon of Nov. 6th, bringing in sixteen prisoners, one of whom was a Captain, another a Quartermaster and some of General Jackson's men, some horses and mules, twenty bales of cotton and, as usual, a drove of. the colored race.
Nov. 16th -- A detail of sixty-four men from Companies E, F, G and I, under Lieutenant Wallace of Company E, was ordered out with three day's rations. We crossed the South Fork of Deer river at Chestnut Bluffs on a ferry at five p. m. and dividing up in three squads scoured the country for bushwhackers and Forest's men who were home on furloughs.
Company I, under Sergeant Moulton, was sent to arrest Steve Jorden and his two sons at their home. To do so we had to go through a heavy belt of timber with no road. We had a guide but he soon got lost in the darkness and after wandering around until midnight, it was given up as a bad job and we all laid down until daylight. It rained the latter part of the night. The next morning we again took up our march and arrived at Jordens all right but one of the other detachments had been there and made the arrests while we were lost in the woods.
Jordens negroes cooked us a good breakfast, the first we had eaten since we left Trenton the morning before.
Lieutenant J. B. Cook of Company F had command of one of the other detachments and below he gives a very graphic account of the expedition, including the part he took in it himself:
Nov. 1, 1862-An intelligent colored man came to our regiment at Trenton, Tennessee, stating that his name was Randall Johnson and that he lived west of the Forked Deer river, forty miles west of Trenton. He also stated
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LIEUTENANT COLONEL J. B. COOK.
J. B. Cook was born at Pleasant Grove, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, June 22, 1834. He spent some years before the Civil war in California and on the frontier. On September 20, 1861, he enlisted in Company H, Fourth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. On September 1, 1862, he was promoted from Sergeant to Second Lieutenant in Company F, First Illinois Cavalry. On October 1, 1863, he was made a Major in the Third United States Colored Cavalry, and on November 27th, 1864, Lieutenant Colonel. He commanded the Third Brigade of the Memphis Cavalry Division at the close of the war, being senior officer of the brigade in active service, and was mustered out with his regiment, January 26, 1865. He went to Labette county, Kansas, in 1874, where he farmed a short time, since which he has been engaged in the real estate and loan business at Chetopa, Kansas. He has served one term in the Kansas legislature and is serving his fifth term as mayor of Chetopa.
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that a large number of Forest's Confederate Cavalry were at home on furlough, in his neighborhood.
Lieutenant John Wallace of Company C had a long interview with him and became thoroughly satisfied of his intelligence and veracity. The Lieutenant secured permission to take sixty-four men from Companies E, F, G and I, fifteen men from Company F, commanded by Second Lieutenant J. B. Cook and go after the Confederates.
That night at nine o'clock they reached the river and crossed by means of a rope ferry at Chestnut Bluffs. The ferry could only carry six men and horses, necessitating an hour in crossing the stream. Wallace gave Cook the colored guide, Randall Johnson, and sent him on the outer circle of the territory to be invaded, with an appointed place to meet. Cook reached the meeting place at three a. m. with fifteen men and a prisoner for each of his men. Wallace joined him soon after with ten more prisoners, making all twenty-five prisoners and twenty-five good horses.
Lieutenant Cook gave the following details of the last house he visited:
It was a two-story log house owned and occupied by a Mr. McCaleb. His two nephews, Jim and Charlie McCaleb, were up stairs in bed and had their two fine horses in the barn.
A personal description of McCaleb and a plan of the house had been secured before hand.
At two a. m. McCaleb, who had remained up to protect the soldiers, sat dozing in his chair, with a lamp on the table turned partly down. Not a sound could be heard inside or outside the house, when, without the sound of footsteps, the Lieutenant stood beside him, alone, and recognizing him from the description, took his hand and said to him in a low tone, "How are you Mack I want to see the boys a moment." McCaleb seemed dazed and stupid and asked, "what boys" when he was answered, "Jim and Charlie," but still perserving absolute silence and a bewildered expression.
The Lieutenant took the lamp, went up the stairs and
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brought the young cavalrymen down and in a few moments had them on the march with the other prisoners on their own fine horses.
Lieutenant Cook, shaking hands when he left the host, said, "Good night, Mack, if you come over to Trenton come and see me." McCaleb had not uttered a word during the whole visit which occupied about fifteen minutes from first to last.
The events above narrated took place in the northwest portion of Tennessee in Lauderdale county and within about fifteen miles of the Mississippi river.
During the fall of 1893, thirty-one years after the events above narrated, Randall Johnson met and recognized Lieutenant Cook on the streets of Parsons, Kansas, where he then lived and well remembered guiding the little party of fifteen men of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry. J. B. COOK.
That evening we were joined by Captain Shepardson with forty-five men at the ferry at Chestnut Bluffs. He was sent in search of a force of rebel cavalry, reported to be coming this way, that had made a raid on the Memphis & Charleston railroad shortly before.
The Captain's instructions were to pitch into anything he came across and whip or get whipped. Lieutenant Wallace with a detail from Company E was sent back to Trenton with the prisoners we had taken.
About two miles out we struck a fresh cavalry trail which we immediately proceeded to follow up. Company I was in the lead, myself and two others, D. M. Nettleton and E. B. Powers were advance vedettes. We traveled several miles before we overtook them when we found them to be a force of one hundred and seventy-five rebel cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel Dawson.
Just as we started to charge down to where we thought they were we saw two rebel cavalrymen riding along in the timber to our right and front. They made no effort to escape, in fact did not seem to see us till we were right onto them. One of them said he was not a soldier, the other gave me his revolver, the only weapon he had.
Captain George J. Shepardson was born November 2, 1828, in Clarendon, Vermont. He emigrated to Illinois in 1853. On August 27, 1864, he enlisted in the army and was commissioned Captain of Company I, Fourth Illinois Cavalry. On November 18, 1862, he was severely wounded and taken prisoner. He was honorably discharged Nov. 3, 1864. He died in Chicago March 18, 1902.
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The other boys dashed on with the charging column and left me with the prisoners in the rear. I learned from them that they were two hundred strong, were expecting us and were in position, waiting for us a short distance ahead.
Lieutenant J. B. Cook with Company F, the only other officer in the command, had been sent off in another direction shortly before this, which left us with sixty men.
I thought that every man would be needed at the front, so I let the prisoners go and joined the command
just as they were dismounting. The rebels were dismounted in a thick wood near William Jorden's waiting for us. They immediately charged us dismounted. We gave them a few rounds from our carbines when the Captain ordered us to mount and fall back, which we did in some confusion. Ed Powers did not hear the order and was taken prisoner. The Captain was wounded and fell into the enemy's hands. We soon formed, however, when Lieutenant J. B. Cork joined us with his men, directly, and took command, and it was thought best, as the rebels had so much the larger force and were between us and the ferry and had the advantage in position, to let them go and try and get back to camp. Some were in favor of charging again and trying to rescue our captain.
We took a circuitous course to get to the ferry and went probably three miles out of our way. We ferried across the South Fork of Deer river just at night where we crossed in the morning. We returned to camp at Trenton the next day.
Captain Shepardson and Ed Powers were paroled the next day and came to camp in a carriage which they had "pressed." The Captain reported that the rebels were glad to let us go. He said they were badly frightened and expected another attack from us. The Captain helped it along by blowing about what fighters his men were. He said the rebels had six men and four horses killed and several men wounded. We had three men slightly wounded, two taken prisoners and (my diary says) eight horses killed, including the Captain's horse.
Nov. 22d-We drew new McClelland saddles and turned over our old Grimseys.
Nov. 24th -. We broke camp and left Trenton for good.
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Three days later we joined Grant's army at LaGrange where we were assigned to the First Cavalry Brigade, under Colonel Lee of the Seventh Kansas. The brigade was composed of the Seventh Kansas, Second Iowa, Third Michigan and the Second and Fourth Illinois Cavalrys. We immediately took the advance of the army.
We came onto a large body of the enemy just below Holly Springs on the Tallahatchie. We were skirmishing almost constantly, the cavalry and a section of the Third Michigan battery doing the most of it. The rebels made quite a stand at the Tallahatchie and again at Oxford but were dislodged without much difficulty. We took a good many prisoners, probably averaging two-hundred a day.
Dec. 4th-The second day out from Oxford our regiment had the head of the column and Company I the extreme advance, which brought us on the skirmish line.
We were skirmishing with the rear of the rebel army all day. We were following Pemberton with ten thousand men. We had a good deal of timber, with thick underbrush to go through and it was quite difficult at times to keep in line with the head of the column in the road.
Lieutenant Hyde and Lieutenant Wallace were riding together on the left at one time, with the skirmish line. They suddenly came out of the woods into the edge of a field where, not far off, were some plantation buildings and ten or twelve soldiers, some in blue and some in gray. They supposed they were some of our men from the advance with some prisoners so they started down to where they were but before they got fairly among them, but to late to retreat, they discoved that they were ten rebels with two of our men as prisoners-Lieutenant Maxwell and a private of the Seventh Illinois Cavalry, who were taken in an engagement earlier in the day, with Colonel Hatch's command. They put on a bold front and rushed up to them, Lieutenant Hyde demanding their surrender, at the same time reaching for one of their guns, saying "Give me that gun." The rebel was about to give it up but on seeing only the two he drew back, saying "I
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don't know about ten of us surrendering to two of you. You surrendered." The tables were turned. The Lieutenant's weapons were called for. Wallace had a four-inch Colts revolver which he gave up. Lieutenant Hyde had only an old rusty sabre that was fast in the scabbard, caused by the horse laying down on it and bending it. He told them they might have that if they could get it as it was strapped to the saddle. This disarming occupied a little time which was quite to the advantage of our captured Lieutenants. By this time one of our men, Matt Movern, made his appearance in the edge of the clearing and the spokesman of the rebels, who proved to be a Captain, rode out toward him and ordered him to surrender. Matt was not in a humor to surrender just then. He answered by drawing his carbine to his face, and he was near enough for the rebel to hear the click of the lock as he cocked it, and yelled back "D-n you, you surrender, " and the rebel Captain obeyed instantly.
. Lieutenant Hyde was all this time trying to make the rebels believe they were surrounded by our men and they had better surrender for they could not get away. Finally two of them said they would go while they could and started off.
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