USA > Mississippi > A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river > Part 27
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The State of Texas had only recently been admitted into the sisterhood of the Union-"an indissoluble Union of indestructible States,"-and the "lone star," which had glittered on the ensign of Texas in solitary splendor, had been transferred to the constellation of stars which were blazoned in ever-living light on the flag of the Union. The news of the brilliant victories won by General Taylor spread fast and far through the Union, and created a blaze of enthusiasm. A call for volunteers, made by the govern- ment at Washington, was promptly complied with, and in no section of the country was more promptness and alac- rity displayed in responding to the call of the government than in the Southern States of the Union. And, in no State, north, south, east or west, was there a more enthusiastic response made than in the commonwealth of Mississippi.
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There was a demand for only one regiment of volunteers from the State, but more companies were formed and ten- dered than would have constituted two full regiments, and both the Governor and his Adjutant-General were greatly embarrassed by the tender of volunteer soldiers, so much beyond their ability to accept.
Ten companies were finally accepted, and were ordered to rendezvous at Vicksburg. In obedience to orders, these ten companies were assembled and went into camp near that city. The following companies were present, and pro- ceeded to organize the regiment by the election of regi- mental officers :
Company A-John M. Sharp, Captain, with P. J. Burrus as First, and Ferdinand Bostick as Second Lieutenant. Later, Amos B. Corwine, Thomas P. Slade and S. M. Phil- lips served in the capacity of Second Lieutenants in Com- pany A; Mr. Corwine became First Lieutenant, and Mr. Slade became Assistant Quartermaster for the regiment.
Company B-Douglass H. Cooper, Captain, with Carnot Posey as First, and James Calhoun as Second Lieutenant. Later, Samuel R. Harrison served as Second Lientenant.
Company C-John Willis, Captain, with Henry F. Cook as First, and Richard Griffith as Second Lieutenant. Later, Rufus K. Arthur and William H. Scott served as Second Lieutenants.
Company D-Bainbridge D. Howard, Captain, with Dan- iel R. Russell as First, and E. W. Hollingsworth as Second Lieutenant. Subsequently Thomas J. Kyle, L. T. How- ard and Leon Trousdale became Second Lieutenants in the company.
Company E-John L. McManus, Captain, with Crawford Fletcher as First, and James H. Hughes as Second Lieu- tenant. Charles M. Bradford became Second Lieutenant later.
Company F-William Delay, Captain, with William N. Brown as First, and F. J. Malone as Second Lieutenant. Later W. W. Redding, John P. Stockard and Josephus J. Tatum served as Second Lieutenants.
Company G-Reuben N. Downing, Captain, with Stephen A. D. Greaves as First, and William H. Hampton as Sec-
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ond Lieutenant. Later, Francis J. McNulty and Samuel B. Thomas served as Second Lieutenants of the Company.
Company H-George P. Crump, Captain, with Robert Lindsay Moore as First, and Hugh M. Markham as Second Lieutenant. Subsequently J. S. Clendenin, James E. Stewart, John Bobb, Jr., John J. Poindexter and Richard Hopkins served as Second Lieutenants, and after the battle of Buena Vista, where Lieutenant R. L. Moore, command- ing Company H, was killed, J. S. Clendenin became Cap- tain.
Company I-James H. R. Taylor, Captain, with Christo- pher H. Mott as First, and Samuel H. Dill as Second Lieu- tenant. Later, William W. Eppes served as Second Lieu- tenant.
Company K-Alexander K. McClung, Captain, with W. H. H. Patterson as First, and W. P. Townsend as Second Lieutenant. When Captain McClung was promoted to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy, William P. Rogers became Captain and William R. Wade served as Second Lieutenant.
These companies represented the following counties : One was from Carroll, Captain Howard; two from Hinds, Captains Downing and McManus; one from Lafayette, Captain Delay ; one from Marshall, Captain Taylor ; one from Lowndes and Monroe, Captain McClung ; two from Warren, Captains Crump and Willis; one from Wilkinson, Captain Cooper, and one from Yazoo, Captain Sharp.
The election for regimental officers, held at Camp "Brown " (so named in compliment to the Governor), near Vicksburg, resulted in the choice of the following :
For Colonel-Jefferson Davis.
For Lieutenant-Colonel-Alexander K. McClung. .
For Major-Alexander B. Bradford.
The choice of regimental officers was admirable in every respect. Colonel Davis was a graduate of the Military Academy at West Point. and had seen seven years of hard and active service on our western frontier, and was in every respect fully equipped for command.
Lieutenant-Colonel McClung was a man of superb ability and unquestioned courage, and had served several years as a midshipman in the navy of the United States; and Major
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Bradford had had large experience in the Indian war in Florida, where he had participated in several sanguinary battles with the red men, led by the distinguished Osceola,. the Chief of the Seminole Indians.
Col. Davis at the time he was elected to the command of the First Mississippi Regiment was serving as one of the Representatives of the State in the National Congress. Lieutenant-Colonel McClung at once assumed the command of the regiment, and appointed Lieutenant Richard Griffith, a subaltern in one of the Vicksburg companies, as Adjutant. of the command, which office he retained during the entire service of the regiment in Mexico, and discharged the oner- ous duties of his position with a fidelity, accuracy and ability rarely surpassed.
Col. Davis at once resigned his seat as a Representative- in Congress, and accepted the command of the Mississippi Volunteers, and orders were soon issued to the regiment to proceed to New Orleans, and there to embark for Point Isabel, at the mouth of the Rio Grande river. Col. Davis immediately procured from the War Department an order to have his regiment armed with rifles, and sailed from New York for the seat of war. The same vessel which bore Col. Davis to the field of his fame, carried also the rifles with which to arm his gallant band of soldiers. After a brief but uneventful voyage, Col. Davis reached his destination, and the new arms were distributed to the command.
It is unnecessary here to go into any detail of the ser- vices of the First Mississippi Regiment in Mexico. The world knows by heart the wondrous performances of that veteran band. After several months of drill on the banks of the Rio Grande, the regiment was ordered to join General Taylor's advance on Monterey. It is idle now to recount how the soldier boys of Mississippi charged through fire, smoke and slaughter, in the streets of Monterey, in those sultry days of September, 1846. Lieutenant-Colonel McClung was desperately wounded while leading an assault. on the "Black Fort." The soldiers suffered severely from the fire of the enemy who were posted on the tops of the houses on either side of the streets, but the stern valor of
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the men, coupled with the dogged perseverance of sturdy old General Taylor, who had already obtained the soubri- quette of "rough and ready," prevailed against superior numbers, protected as they were behind strong fortifica- tions.
After three days of carnage a white flag was displayed from the Mexican stronghold, indicating a desire for a truce and a parley. The parley was granted. Col. Davis was appointed by General Taylor one of the commission- ers to arrange the stipulations for a surrender. The strongly fortified city of Monterey, held by a force greatly outnumbering that of the assaulting party, was surrendered to the American army, and continued to be held by the successful forces as a depot of supplies until the close of the war.
It is not creditable to the National House of Representa- tives at Washington to remember, that while that body was passing a vote of thanks to General Taylor, and the officers and men under his command, for the signal and brilliant victory their valor had won, the House, by a small majority, loaded the resolution down with a proviso which implied a disapproval of the terms of the capitula- tion of Monterey. It is deeply to be regretted that the author of that proviso was a Representative from Mississippi (Hon. Jacob Thompson). Thanks, when tendered at all, should be offered in unstinted measure, but when accompanied with a proviso they should be withheld altogether. The expression of gratitude should be sincere and hearty, and any attempt to handicap that expression with an "if" or an "and." or a "proviso," destroys the entire value of the thanks tendered, and robs it of the grace and the gracious- ness which should always accompany the utterance of gratitude. Without that grace and graciousness, the ex- pression of thanks becomes as valueless as a withered flower or a worthless weed.
But new honors and greener laurels awaited the First Mississippi Regiment in its career of glory. General Tay- lor had determined to penetrate into the interior of Mexico, and offer battle to General Santa Anna who was busily engaged in raising an army of many thousands of all
und
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arms, with which he fondly hoped to crush the small force under the command of General Taylor. The opposing forces met on the field of Buena Vista on the 21st day February, 1847. After vigorous and fierce fighting for three days General Santa Anna and his army of twenty thousand soldiers were driven from the field in disgraceful flight. During the stubborn conflict of those three memora- ble days, the First Mississippi Regiment bore a most con- spicuous part. They not only fought under the immediate direction of their gallant commander, Colonel Jefferson Davis, but their action fell under the observation of their heroic old General.
By his celebrated "V formation," in a narrow pass-way, with a mountain on one side and a deep gorge on the other, Col. Davis was enabled to repel the advance of the lancers of the Mexican army, commanded by General Mig- non, and thus was able to snatch victory from the very jaws of defeat. By this masterly movement Col. Davis drove General Mignon and his lancers flying from the field, and saved the day for the American army. Col. Davis was severely wounded in the operations of the last day of the conflict, but though suffering excruciating pain, he refused to retire from the field until the victory was com- plete and the Mexican hosts commanded by General Santa Anna were flying ingloriously from the theatre of their disaster.
A few years after the close of hostilities in Mexico, Col. Davis had the gratification of seeing his "V movement" successfully repeated by General Sir Colin Campbell, the distinguished English commander in India, subsequently better known as Lord Clyde.
After the battle of Buena Vista, General Winfield Scott, with a strong force of the army, aided by the United States navy, was sent to Mexico to assail the strong fortification of San Juan de Ulloa, at Vera Cruz. That strong fortress soon yielded to the impetuous assault of the American soldiery, and General Scott made instant preparations to move on to the capital of Mexico, the ancient city of the Aztecs. It does not fall within the scope of this work to
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enter upon the details of the splendid march of the American army from the sea to the City of Mexico The battles of Cerro Gordo, Chapultepec, Cherubusco, Mil del Rey and Contreras, followed in rapid and brilliant succession. These splendid triumphs brought the victorious army of General Scott within plain view of the ancient and beauti- ful capital of Montezuma, and the army that had never encountered defeat on the soil of Mexico made instant preparations to attack and capture the city. With what impetuous valor the American soldiers assaulted and carried the Garita Belen, (the Belen gate,) and other ap- proaches to the city need not be told. The world knows the wonderful and fascinating story, and to-day the recital reads like one of the marvelous stories contained in the "Arabian Nights Entertainment," a volume that has en- tranced and delighted millions of young hearts in every quarter of the civilized globe, and will continue to do so until "the letters Cadmus gave" are lost in the dim twilight of the world's decay. And it was a Mississippi Major Gen- eral, John A. Quitman, who gave the order to fling to the breeze the first American flag that ever floated above the ramparts of the conquered capital. He was also the first American Governor that ever held sway in that city.
Shortly after the capture of the City of Mexico, the officers of the American army formed a social organization called the "Aztec Club," and Major-General John A. Quit- man was the first and only president of the Club.
The officers and privates of the First Regiment of Missis- sippi Volunteers were, for the most part, young and beard- less fellows, representing the best families in the State ; they were fresh from school and college; fresh from their ยท fathers' plantations ; fresh from the counting rooms in the various towns in the State; fresh from the work shops of industrious and intelligent mechanics ; and fresh from their studies in the offices of learned lawyers and eminent physicians. All unused were those eager spirits to the toilsome march, to the lonely bivouac, to the dull. mono- tonous routine of camp duty, and utterly oblivious to the dangers of the battle field, and all were eager for the stir-
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ring, joyous "rapture of the strife." They went forth to avenge the outraged honor of a common country. They periled their lives on a foreign soil, and under strange stars. They fought, they bled and they died, under, and to uphold the honor of the flag they loved better than their lives, the beautiful star-spangled banner of the free, immor- talized in undying verse, by the genius of Francis S. Key, while a prisoner on board a British man-of-war, during the bombardment of Fort McHenry, in the harbor of Balti- more, in 1814. And well did those gallant sons of Missis- sippi emulate the ancient renown won by the fathers of the State. They well remembered the honors accorded to the soldiers of Mississippi on the plains of Chalmette, when the great victory of New Orleans was an accom- plished fact, as well as the record their fathers had made in many a fierce and stubborn conflict with the merciless Indian foe. At Monterey, and in the gorges of Buena Vista, they entwined the "old flag" with fresh laurels, and emblazoned its starry folds with radiant and imperishable glory. And yet, those heroic men who lived to engage in the defence of Mississippi, in defence of their homes, and all that man holds dear in the world, are to day flippantly denounced as "rebels" and "traitors," who should daily and nightly, on bended knees, thank a "magnanimous govern- ment" that they are still permitted to live and breathe the atmosphere which a good and merciful God vouchsafes to all of his creatures.
These political vampires, in the exuberance of their detraction and calumny, forget, if they ever knew the fact, that General Joseph Warren, one of the first great martyrs of liberty, and the rights of man on this continent, fell at Bunker Hill "a red-handed rebel," and filled a rebel's crim- son grave. They also forget the history of the great Eng- lish apostle of liberty and patriotism, John Hampden. After resisting the encroachments of King Charles the First, in Parliament, he retired to his estates in Bucking- hamshire, where he raised and equipped a regiment at his own expense, and led it to battle under a banner, upon whose silken folds were inscribed the words, "no step backwards." John Hampden fell in his first battle, and
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no man can be found in "Merrie England" to-day, so lost to all sense of shame or decency, as to couple that honored name with the foul, dishonoring name of traitor or rebel.
It is not creditable to the American government that these heroic Mexican veterans, who achieved so much glory for the national arms, extended so vastly the area of American freedom, and added so much to the national wealth, should have been denied a pension, until a vast number' of them had passed "over the river to rest under the shade of the green trees," which greeted the dying gaze of Stonewall Jackson. If the government had been poor and unable to pension those gallant sol- diers, no complaint would have been uttered. But this was not the fact. The government was great, rich and prosperous, and from, the inception of a later and more gigantic war, money has been poured out like water, to pension the defenders of the "old flag;" and the golden stream continues to grow and swell, until more than a billion and a quarter of dollars have already been ex- pended for pensions, and yet the tide rises higher and higher, and like Tennyson's brook, promises to "flow on forever."
As a possible explanation of this heartless injustice on the part of the government, it may be added that more than one-half of the entire number of the American soldiers engaged in the war with Mexico were furnished by the Southern States, the States "lately engaged in rebellion," and this, despite the fact of the great disparity of the pop- ulation in the two sections of the Union.
Nothing can better illustrate the splendid material com- posing the rank and file of the First Mississippi Regiment in Mexico, than the gallantry displayed by them in the great war between the States.
Captain Douglass H. Cooper, of Company B, and his first lieutenant, Carnot Posey, each became brigadier gen- erals in the Confederate army. The latter was colonel of the 16th regiment, and was soon promoted to the rank of brigade commander. General Posey was killed in battle in Virginia.
Second Lieutenant Richard Griffith, of Company C, and
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adjutant of the regiment, entered the Confederate army as colonel of the 12th Mississippi Regiment, was made brigadier-general, and was killed in battle in Virginia while leading his brigade.
First Lieutenant Daniel R. Russell, of Company D, en- tered the Confederate service as colonel of the 20th Mis- sissippi regiment.
First Lieutenant Wm. N. Brown, of Company F, was chosen lieutenant-colonel of the 20th regiment, and subse- quently succeeded to the colonelcy in the Confederate service.
Second Lieutenant Samuel B. Thomas, of Company G. entered the Confederate service as captain of a Hinds county company in the 12th, and finally rose to the colonelcy of the regiment.
Sergeant Horace H. Miller, of Company H, and later sergeant major of the regiment, entered the Confederate service as a company commander in the 12th, was for a time lieutenant-colonel of the 20th, during the imprison- ment of Lieutenant-Colonel Brown, who was surrendered at Fort Donaldson, and finally became colonel of a fine cavalry regiment, which he commanded until the close of hostilities.
First Lieutenant Christopher H. Mott, of Company I, entered the Confederate army as colonel of the 19th Mis- sissippi Regiment, and was killed at the battle of Wil- liamsburg, in Virginia, on the retreat from Yorktown in 1862. Colonel Mott died a brigadier-general, though he had not received his commission when he fell mortally wounded.
Captain William P. Rogers, of Company K, died on the breast-works of the enemy at Corinth, Mississippi, pierced by a dozen balls, while leading a Texas regiment of which he was the colonel.
And finally, Private James Z. George, of Company D. then a beardless stripling, returned home after che war. studied law and was admitted to the bar; was elected by the Legislature as reporter of the decisions of the High Court of Errors and Appeals; became colonel and briga- dier general of State troops, and after the war, became
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Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; and is now closing his second term in the United States Senate.
Another regiment of Mississippi volunteers was called for in the autumn of 1846, and was promptly furnished. This regiment sailed for Mexico with the following field and staff: Reuben Davis, Colonel ; J. H. Kilpatrick, Lieutenant- Colonel ; Ezra R. Price, Major; Beverly Mathews, Adju- tant; William Barksdale, A. C. S .; Charles M. Price, A. Q. M .; Thomas N. Love, Surgeon ; D. A. Kinchloe, Assistant Surgeon.
After some seven months of weary and monotonous in- activity, Colonel Davis and Lieutenant-Colonel Kilpatrick resigned and returned to their homes. The regiment was re-organized by the election of Captain Charles Clark, of Company G, as colonel, and Lieutenant John A. Wilcox, of Company A, as lieutenant-colonel.
This second regiment of Mississippi citizen soldiers was composed of splendid material, but they did not, during their entire service in Mexico, have the pleasure of partici- pating even in an insignificant skirmish. If the oppor- tunity had been afforded them there can be no question that they would have shed additional luster upon the American arms, and added new glory to the escutcheon of Mississippi. To show the soldierly material of the second regiment, it may be stated that the roster of that regiment furnished two Brigadier-Generals, and one Major-General to the army of the Confederate States.
The first of these was Brigadier-General Charles Clark, who was severely wounded at the battle of Shiloh, and desperately wounded at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. On each of these occasions he was in command of a division.
The second was Brigadier-General William Barksdale, who had been commissary for the second regiment. He entered the Confederate service as Colonel of the 13th Mississippi regiment, was promoted to Brigadier-General, and fell "devoted but undying," at the head of his brigade on the heights of Gettysburg.
Second Lieutenant Thomas C. Hindman, of Company E., entered the Confederate army as colonel of an Arkansas regiment. He was soon promoted to be a brigade com-
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mander, and was finally made major-general. Having re- moved to Arkansas, General Hindman was chosen a repre- sentative in Congress from that State before the commence- ment of the war between the States.
Captain Andrew K. Blythe, of Company A., entered the service of the Confederate States as colonel of an infantry regiment, long known as "Blythe's Regiment." and was killed while leading his command at the battle of Shiloh on the 6th day of April, 1862.
Second Lieutenant P. F. Liddell, of Company C., served in the Confederate army as lieutenant-colonel of the 11th Mississippi regiment, and was killed at the second battle of Manassas, September 30th, 1862.
First Lieutenant William C. Falkner, of Company E., entered the Confederate army as colonel of the Second Mississippi regiment. He participated in the first battle of Manassas, resigned his command a few months after and raised a cavalry regiment of which he became colonel.
Second Lieutenant Chesley S. Coffee, and later captain of Company G., entered the Confederate army as a captain in the 19th Mississippi regiment, and fell heroically in battle in Virginia.
Captain Adam Mc Willie, of Company H., was killed at the first battle of Manassas on the 21st day of July, 1861, while commanding a company in the 18th regiment Missis- sippi Volunteers.
Second Lieutenant Eli G. Henry, of Company H., was killed in battle in Virginia, as major of the 18th Missis- sippi regiment. At the expiration of his second term as Governor, Mr. Brown was elected a Representative in the National Congress, and he was twice re-elected. Before his third term expired in the House of Representatives, he had been elected to the United States Senate, and took his seat on the 4th day of March, 1853. He was re-elected in 1859. but retired with his colleagues of both houses, on the 12th day of January, 1861, three days after the seces- sion of Mississippi, and a few months subsequently the Senate enacted the solemn farce of "expelling" him and his colleague, Jefferson Davis, long after these gentlemen had, of their own free will, shaken the dust of the Senate chamber from their feet.
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When ex-Governor and ex-Senator Brown returned to his home, he immediately raised a volunteer company for service in the army of the Confederate States of America, of which he was at once and unanimously elected captain. He and his company formed a portion of the 18th Regi- ment Mississippi Volunteers, and they participated in the first battle of Manassas, and in the bloody engagement in the following October at Leesburg.
In the winter of 1861-'62, ex-Senator Brown was elected to the Confederate Senate, where he continued to serves until the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and the close of hostilities.
After the war, ex-Senator Brown never held any official position, though he sometimes gave the people some re- markably sound advice.
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