USA > Pennsylvania > History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania volunteer cavalry which was recruited and known as the Anderson cavalry in the rebellion of 1861-1865; > Part 19
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While General Wood had his headquarters at Pelham and I was on the line between Pelham and General Crittenden's head- quarters, a dispatch was given me for General Crittenden it was late in the afternoon. The road led to a ford across a stream about seventy-five feet wide ; I never learned its name. I reached the ford all right, crossed the stream, which was about three feet deep. I noticed a mill to my right. The road led in a winding way through the woods. It was sundown when I delivered my dispatch. I received another for General Wood. As I started to return a drizzling rain began to fall; when I entered the woods
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it became dark. I rode down the road to where it forked and I took the left fork. I had not gone very far when I was halted by "Who goes there?" I began to think it might be a Johnnie, so putting on a bold front I answered "friend," and de- manded "What regiment is that?" The reply came, the "Michi- gan." Realizing that it was one of our pickets I felt assured, and riding up to the picket inquired the way to the mill. He told me to go back to the forks of the road and take the other fork. I thanked him, bade him good-night, retraced my way, took the other road, and after a while found myself not at the ford, but up against the mill race. I pulled a quick rein, for in a moment more I would have been in the race. I turned back toward the ford, which I soon found, and rode my horse into the water. It was so dark I could see nothing, and my horse was blind in one eye. All was suspense. I strained eyes and ears in a vain effort to see my way across the stream. Suddenly my horse made a spring, I grabbed his mane, and gave him the spur. We found ourselves up against a fence, and my horse's hind foot was slipping down the bank. I brought him alongside the fence, patted his neck to quiet him, dismounted, tied him and reconnoitered. I found that the fence ran to the edge of the stream in either direction. I threw down the rails, led my horse into a stubble field and again re- connoitered. To the right was another field; to the left were trees with a tangle of prickly vines. There was nothing to do but wait.
Taking three fence rails and putting the ends on a rail of the fence and the other ends on the ground, I lay down to rest till the moon would rise, which would be about 2 A.M. But there was no rest on account of the mosquitoes. A soldier has above all things to cultivate patience. When the moon was up so that I could see my surroundings I mounted and reconnoitered. I crossed the field to my right to a road which paralleled the road J should have taken ; then I struck a road running at right angles, was soon on the right track, and in a short time I was at our post, when the courier in waiting took the dispatch to General Wood.
I always thought my dispatch contained the news of the fall of Vicksburg and the victory at Gettysburg, for after I left General Crittenden's headquarters a salute was fired.
CARRYING DISPATCHES FROM GENERAL ROSE- CRANS TO GENERAL STANLEY.
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A. D. FRANKENBERRY, COMPANY K, POINT MARION, PA. .
.
S EPTEMBER 4, 1863, the escort companies of General Rose- crans were in camp at Stevenson, Ala. That day reveille was at 4 A.M., and at once "the general" was sounded. Soon General Rosecrans with staff, orderlies, and escort moved to Bridgeport, Ala. The dust was terrible and the ride was one of the most disagreeable I ever made. We crossed the Tennessee River on a combined pontoon and trestle bridge, and went into camp at Cave Spring, Ala.
About 10 A.M., Saturday, September 5, 1863, Serg. N. W. Sample said to me : "Frankenberry, have you a good horse-one able to stand a hard ride?" Eagerly I said "yes." "Report with three days' rations for yourself and horse at once at the General's tent."' I was ready in a few minutes and at the General's tent. General Garfield, Major Bond and a Lieutenant were present. I was given dispatches to be delivered to Major-General Stanley at not later than 10 A.M. of next day, Sunday, September 6th. I was to take the road over the mountains to Trenton, Ga., where I would find General Negley, for whom I had an order to furnishi me a guard of seventy-five mounted men. I was told that General Stanley was likely to be found on a line south of Trenton and west of Rome, Ga., and that I must allow nothing to delay me, but must travel all night and reach the General at time indicated. The Lieutenant of cavalry was to travel with me, but I was to be responsible for the delivery of the dispatches.
I left at once, and on reaching the mountains dismounted and led my horse up the steep road. I soon threw away all the forage for my horse and most of my own rations, believing that I could find food for both. I did not want to burden my horse with the extra weight. The road up the mountain was well filled with the train of the Second Division of Cavalry, and the road down on
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the Trenton side with the train of the Third Division of the Twentieth Corps. There was as much difficulty in moving the train down on the steep grade as there was in moving it up the grade on the opposite side. The Lieutenant did not seem dis- posed to save his horse, but rode all the time up mountain and down mountain.
In due time I reached General Negley's headquarters at Tren- ton, Ga., only to find that the General had no mounted men to guard me through to Stanley that night, but that he expected a regiment of mounted infantry to reach him during the early hours of next day. As the enemy was in some force on the road soutil, there was nothing to do but wait for the guard to arrive. Gen- eral Negley sent a dispatch to General Rosecrans informing him of my delay and the reason for it.
Early next morning I was ready, and soon the guard reached me-seventy-five men of the Thirty-ninth Indiana Mounted In- fantry. General Negley instructed the commander of the guard that he and his men were to travel as fast as I wished to go, and in that respect I was to have command, but if there was any fighting, which was to be avoided if possible, the officer was to command. The important matter was to get me to General Stanley's lines as rapidly as possible.
We moved at a rapid rate. Soon the day became intensely hot. Near noon we halted at a fine spring and rested men and horses, feeding the horses and getting some dinner of corn bread and milk, for which I paid twenty-five cents. During the march we were fired on often, and the men were very bitter because they were not permitted to return the fire. After a short rest we mounted and pushed on till we reached the cavalry pickets and I was inside of General Stanley's lines, when I dismissed the guard and pushed on alone, and at 2.30 P.M. reached General Stanley's headquarters and delivered the dispatch, four and one-half hours late.
At once the General read the important dispatch, the "general" was sounded by his bugler, and at once "boots and saddles," and soon the command moved, except his sick and disabled. Seeing something was not right with me, the General asked me what was the matter and if I was sick. I told him I never had been sick, and did not know what it was to be sick. He sent his old Sur-
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geon to see me, gave me some medicine, and told me to remain quiet. I lay down under an apple tree and slept some. It tran- spired that I had overworked myself; that the intense desire to reach General Stanley with the dispatches in safety had been the great exciting cause that had kept me up, but when the end was accomplished the excitement died away and I was in a very serious condition. General Stanley's old Surgeon knew more than I credited him with, and it would have been my duty to myself to have obeyed him.
Next day, Monday, I was not able to be up, seemed to have no life in me, and did not want anybody to speak to me. The Surgeon gave me some medicine, which I as promptly threw away. I slept much of the day. Late in the evening I learned that the way back to Trenton was occupied by our troops, and I determined to go back, as I learned that General Rosecrans was there ; so at an early hour I was up, fed my horse and soon left, and reached General Rosecrans at Trenton and reported. The General and General Garfield asked many questions as to my trip, and directed that I be excused from duty for three days. As we left Trenton for Chattanooga on September Ioth, I did not enjoy three days' rest.
This trip brought on a disability which developed September 10, 1862, soon after we reached Chattanooga, and from which I still constantly suffer. The executing of the orders contained in the dispatches to General Stanley was one of the main causes of the evacuation of Chattanooga by Bragg, and this, while it did not save us defeat at the battle of Chickamauga, was the real ob- ject of the wonderful campaign.
THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN.
CAPT. WILLIAM F. COLTON, COMPANY A, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.
T HE story of this campaign and the part taken by the Fif- teenth Pennsylvania Cavalry in the battle of Chickamauga can be better understood by a brief description of the physi- cal characteristics of the country traversed, showing the difficulties to be surmounted and the dominating position of the city of Chatta- nooga, the possession of which was the object of the campaign.
The railroads radiated from that city northeast toward the Cumberland Gap and Virginia, south to Atlanta and west to the Mississippi River. Owing to the peculiar topography and geology of its vicinity, its occupation by either side would control the fertile valleys of east Tennessee and threaten or protect Kentucky and western Tennessee, as well as Georgia, while closing or open- ing the way to Virginia.
Looking eastward from Winchester, Tullahoma and McMinn- ville, the Cumberland Mountains or plateau loomed up as a serious obstacle. The stratas here are horizontal-sandstone being upper most, underlaid by limestone. The harder stratum above pro- tected the softer beneath, and resulted in cliff walls and steep slopes at the edges of the rolling surface of the plateau. This condition is most marked on its eastern edges, presenting a very serious barrier to the movements of armies.
East of the Cumberland plateau there lie the somewhat broken and rich valleys of the Tennessee River, which flows southwesterly until near the southern boundary of Tennessee, when it breaks through the plateau by a gorge. below and west of Chattanooga. and winding between Raccoon Mountain and Walden's Ridge, passes into the trough of Sequatchie Valley, which it follows for about fifty miles before again breaking through the plateau in Alabama. This gorge is approached and followed by the railroad, which passes over the mountain at Cowan by an easily defended pass, but one not difficult to flank to the north and south.
Beyond the towns of Stevenson and Bridgeport, in the Sequat-
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chie trough, rises Sand or Raccoon Mountain, beyond which and separated from it by the Trenton or Lookout Valleys is Lookout Mountain, whose narrow, plateau-like summit is 1000 feet above the river. This could be crossed by artillery and supply trains only by widely separated roads or trails.
Beyond this mountain and parallel with its general northeast and southwest trend are ridges and small valleys, among which that of Chickamauga Creek carries its waters to the Tennessee River, above Chattanooga. A cursory glance at the maps of this region will show that a series of formidable obstacles lay in the path of our army in its efforts to drive the enemy from Chatta- nooga and hold that key to the military situation.
The problem then presented to General Rosecrans was to force Bragg out of Chattanooga by a series of flanking movements so planned as to minimize, during their progress, the danger of de- struction to the isolated units of the army and to bring these units together before a general engagement. But history records how he accomplished it and how the prize-Chattanooga-fell to us.
It remains to tell the story of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry in this memorable campaign and battle. Campaign B. H and K, under Captain Garner, served as escort to the Commanding General.
The movement of the army began August 16th, on which day the Regiment had its usual Sunday mounted inspection. On the 17th we marched at sunrise, reached the foot of the mountain at 8.30, passed on up to the summit and camped in the woods, about one and a half miles beyond. The ascent of the mountains was very steep and rocky, making it necessary for detachments of our own and other regiments to be posted along the road to help up the artillery and wagons by pushing and with ropes. Some wagons consumed five hours in ascending one mile. Lieutenant Kırk was in charge of our wagon guard, which only got as far as the foot of the mountain.
On the 18th we went down the mountain five miles and camped in Sinking Cove. Company E was sent back to help the wagons up the mountain, and with Companies C and F helped them down the descent.
August 19th .- Marched at 6.45 A.M. and arrived at Stevenson . at noon-this town being the junction of the Memphis and Chatta-
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nooga and Nashville and Chattanooga Railroads. Companies C, D and E assisted wagons to the foot of the mountain. Passing a cedar ridge from Sinking Cove, it took fifteen men five hours with axes to clear the timber blockade, and we then marched down Little Crow Creek to Big Crow Creek, which we forded, and so on eight miles to Stevenson, where we camped at the base of a mountain, about one and a half miles north of the town and three miles from the Tennessee River. In this fertile valley we found roasting ears plenty, but the corn was hardly ripe enough for our horses. Before the movement began one man from each company had been selected whose business it was, when on scouting duty, to sketch the roads to be marched over. The sketches were to include the names of all residents, the crossroads, creeks, general character and appearance of the country, water, forage, etc. From this camp parties were sent out on the different roads from day to day to make these sketches, and these, and many others made later, were exceedingly useful.
August 20th .- Companies G, I, L and M arrived with the head- quarters and other wagon trains. During the day the Regiment escorted General Rosecrans to Caperton's Ferry, and found rebel pickets on the opposite side of the river. Rosecrans had a talk with them, and they said: "That Dutchman Rosecrans is a pretty good man, but Bragg would turn out all right yet."
The weather was now bright and dry, hot in the daytime and cold at night, and the corn was ripening rapidly, so that we could scon begin feeding it to our animals.
August 22d .- Captain DeWitt with Companies D and I was out making a reconnoissance.
August 23d .- The Adjutant with a small party was sent down to the river, at the mouth of Crow Creek, to reconnoiter for a pontoon bridge, and made a favorable report.
August 24th .- Companies D, F and I escorted General Rose- crans again to the river, and at 5 P.M. Companies E, G, L and M, under Captain Kramer, scouted toward Jasper, and returned on the 26th.
August 25th .- Rosecrans visited Bridgeport at noon, and started toward Jasper, going as far as Nickajack Ferry, where the rebels had works for the extraction of saltpeter from the earth deposits in caves.
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August 29th .- Part of our forces commenced crossing the river on a pontoon bridge at Big Cove (or Crow) Creek, and General Rosecrans with our Regiment went across and returned, only two shots being fired.
August 30th .- Preaching in camp. Our troops are now cross- ing the river in large numbers.
August 31st .- The Regiment was mustered and inspected by Captain Harbert according to army regulations.
September Ist .- Company E forded the river, and built a small bridge on one of the roads going up Sand Mountain.
September 2d .- Mounted inspection in the afternoon. Our Commissary laid in rations for twenty-four days.
September 4th .- Marched at 7 o'clock. Our wagons crossed the river on the pontoon bridge, opposite Stevenson, but the Regi- ment forded the river about four miles further up stream, the men removing their boots and stockings and crossing in column of fours, finding the water about four feet deep. Passed on up Island Creek to Cave Spring, near the house of a Mr. Edwards, who was a Union guide. General Rosecrans arrived at 6 o'clock and camped near us. Company I was detailed as rear guard to our wagon train and the headquarters' train, and found some of the wagons so badly strained and weakened by their mountain experi- ence that they broke down and were abandoned. On this date we established a courier line between Stevenson and Bridgeport, with fifteen men from one of the escort companies, placing posts at Widow's Creek (Big Spring) and Beaver's Mill. At 1.15 P.M. a courier line of eight and a half miles was also established fron Cave Spring to Bridgeport, with posts at Edwards' and Clubfoot Moore's. Sergeant Beck was in charge at Bridgeport.
September 5th .- The Regiment went on with General Rose- crans about four miles to the foot of the mountain, and found the road blocked with wagons. Several Companies were out to-day, reconnoitering roads and making sketch maps.
September 6th .- In camp until II A.M. Many of our men visited Hill's Cave, and during a visit to this cave by General Rosecrans and staff, the General's rather bulky form became wedged in a narrow passage, and for a few minutes it was a ques- tion whether the campaign might not have to be continued under the next senior General.
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Parties of our men were again sent out to report on roads. Company F went to Whitesides to communicate with Crittenden and establish a courier line, which was on the 9th extended to Chattanooga.
At II o'clock the Regiment marched twelve miles up, across and down Sand Mountain to a camp, at 4 o'clock, beyond Trenton, nineteen miles from Chattanooga.
Two couriers from Company A were sent north, with dis- patches for General Burnside at Knoxville. We have also a courier line to Jasper.
September 7th .- Colonel Palmer, with the Adjutant, four men and a guide, reconnoitered up the eastern side of the valley six miles to Nickajack Trace, an old Indian trail from Shellmound, and the same day the Regiment moved camp nearer to Trenton, where it was discovered that a canteen of whisky could be had for fifty cents.
A courier post was established about three miles from Trenton, on the Chattanooga road, to connect with Crittenden, and at 5 o'clock, Captain Betts, with Company F, was ordered to extend his line to Whitesides and take through some dispatches to the nearest telegraph operator. Lieutenant Mather and Sergeant Marshall with five men halted at Van Cleve's headquarters, but Captain Betts with four men pushed on, via Shellmound, to Bridgeport, and delivered the dispatches to the operator there on the 8th and rejoined the Regiment on the 9th.
September 8th .- Captain McAllister with a small party exam- ined the region down the valley, while Captain Clark with four men examined another road up Lookout Mountain. Lieutenant Logan had charge of the pickets toward Nickajack and McKaig Traces, and Commissary Hinchman went out with a party for forage. At midnight Companies L and G were sent out to form a courier line, of twenty-five miles, from Trenton, to communicate with McCook at Winston. On this date the center of the army was at or near Trenton, and Crittenden's headquarters were near Whitesides, six miles north. On the 8th, 9th and Ioth Company I was sent out without rations-living on the country-scouting the mountains toward Bridgeport and Caperton's Ferry.
September 9th .- Crittenden entered Chattanooga with music and colors flying, the Ninety-second Illinois being the first Regi-
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ment to enter the town. A good many details for courier and other duties left very few of our Regiment in camp.
September 10th .- The Regiment marched at 3 o'clock in the morning, Company E guarding the wagons. The march was very slow, but at half past nine we entered Chattanooga with General Rosecrans. Thomas is now crossing at Steven's Gap, and Mc- Cook twenty-five miles farther south. At this time we had but two companies and our wagon train with us. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, under orders from Colonel Goddard, we moved southward six miles up Chattanooga Valley, and camped at Hick's place, where there was good water and forage, but at half past ten at night Colonel Palmer brought out orders from Chatta- nooga for us to cautiously break camp and return to Chatta- nooga, as the enemy's pickets were only a short distance south, and four companies of our infantry had been captured near there.
September IIth .- The Regiment-four companies, including Company I-marched to Lee & Gordon's mill, on a reconnoisance with Harker's brigade, and skirmished with the rebel cavalry. We reached the mill at dusk, and returned by another road.
Soon after passing General Harker's pickets there came a chal- lenge from the darkness in front "Halt! who goes there?" As none of our troops were in that direction a few men from the advance company charged the enemy, who fired a few shots and then ran. The column continued its march and at each house we came to an officer was sent to question its inmates as to name, roads, and other information necessary for our Colonel to compile a map for the use of the Army. At one place at a house on our right, in answer to the inquiries who lived there, the answer came "Widow Toe," and all the preliminary maps used in that campaign were so marked. Later it was found that the "widow" was a man named Vidito, one of a Swiss colony, who had settled there and the later maps bore his name.
Arrived in camp 3 o'clock in the morning. On that day and the next considerable fighting was going on along Bragg's rear, about fourteen miles south of Chattanooga, in which Company C was engaged, without loss. On this day General Crittenden reported that Captain McCook met a company of the Anderson Cavalry at Rossville, and sent them in pursuit of a party of about twenty-
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three rebel cavalry who had attacked him. Afterward firing was heard in that direction.
September 13th .- Marched at 11.30 A.M., Company I in ad- vance, and with General Rosecrans and staff passed up the moun- tain road to the summit of Lookout Mountain, then along the plateau and down by Cooper's Gap to General Thomas' headquar- ters, near Steven's Gap, where we camped at II P.M., keeping our horses saddled ready for any move to the front.
September 14th .- Company E reported to Major Bond for duty. Tom Gitt, of Company C, was shot to-day while carrying a dis- patch. He got on the wrong road, and coming to the place where he supposed our courier post was, found no one there. Starting back, to report the post captured, he was shot and wounded severely, but not dangerously. It is supposed he was shot by one of Wilder's men. Company I on courier duty from General Thomas' headquarters to Gordon's mill, fourteen miles.
September 15th .- Marched at 2 P.M. up Chattanooga Valley, and camped eleven miles from Chattanooga and five miles south of Hick's place, from which we had so suddenly withdrawn on the night of the Ioth. One of our men had his horse shot to-day. Our courier line between Trenton and Chattanooga was with- drawn. Lieutenant Kirk and ten men were sent to establish a line to Crittenden, who was supposed to be at Lee & Gordon's mill, but he had withdrawn and moved down the Crawfish road. On the 16th a post was established at his headquarters, at Cave Spring. Afterward Kirk received orders to bring his men to Pond Spring and make a post near to D. Dickey's. This order was soon coun- termanded. Captain DeWitt should have established a courier post at Pond Spring, but failed to do so, and this threw the courier line into confusion. About midnight five men from Company M established a post from Pond Spring to Singleton. Captain Clark with Company E returned from a trip on the mountain.
On the same day the Regiment marched east four miles, to Crawfish Spring-a very large and beautiful spring, the stream from which is about 200 feet wide. Missionary Ridge was now in our rear and the enemy east of Pigeon Mountain. Pond Spring is six miles south of Crawfish Spring, and to our right were the infantry and cavalry, as far as Steven's Gap. We had but one company at regimental headquarters here, but our courier lines
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having been contracted and two companies of the Ninety-second Illinois Mounted Infantry being assigned to Colonel Palmer for courier duty, by the 18th all our nine companies were in camp. Of the three companies attached to department headquarters, one has been sent back to Chattanooga with our wagon train.
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