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 28
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Henri Le Caron-One of Our Characters.
tanooga, on the ground Sheridan's Division had fought over only a few months before. The campaign had been such a hard one that our Colonel gave us a couple of weeks' complete rest from all drills. The time came, however, when the health of the men and the discipline of the Regiment caused him to order the drills resumed. Le Caron took his position in the open space between the line of officers' tents and the companies, and went through all the preparatory steps to sound the drill call. The principal thing the bugler had to do was to compose his face and get the muscles of the lips in proper trim, and it is then impossible to smile even, let alone to give out a hearty laugh, but these were the things that had a resting place close to Le Caron's mouth, and seemed to be set on a "hair trigger," they went off so easily. Some of the men nearby had an inkling of the coming call, and began making good- natured, facetious remarks, at which Le Caron grinned, and post- poned the call. As soon as he could get his face straight, up came the bugle, and his lips took on that severe expression necessary to produce sound, and then another remark by some soldier brought out the grin and the call was again postponed. By this time other men had reinforced those who began the peculiar attack, in which mother wit was the ammunition used, and their united efforts made Le Caron wear a smile that wouldn't come off. Try as hard as he could, it was impossible to succeed. The first note or two was all that his efforts could sound, and perhaps he never would have got it all out had not the Adjutant, who orders all calls and was wondering why he did not hear this one, come to his rescue, drove off his persecutors, and then at last the call was sounded.
It was in the summer of 1864, while we were at Nashville wait- ing for a new lot of horses, that Le Caron wooed and won a lady residing there, and his marriage in the Catholic Church and the reception afterward at her home was an eventful occasion to many of us who were there.
Soon after both of us got commissions in the Fifteenth United States Colored Infantry, and the casual acquaintance ripened into an intimacy which continued for many years after the war closed. He was an odd character when in the Regiment, and was still odd all the years I knew him, but the oddest thing of all was that with all our intimacy I never knew or suspected what he really was.
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History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
Before he left the Fifteenth Infantry he and some other of our officers had joined a "Fenian Circle," then in Nashville, and started in to make war on England, via Canada, and in the latter part of 1866 began to invade that country, with our Le Caron as Major and Aid-de-camp. They all got captured, of course, but were later liberated.
In a book, which he published, entitled "Twenty-five Years in the Secret Service : The Recollections of a Spy," we are told another tale about him. He says he was raised in Colchester, England, and that his name was Beach. He ran away from home, and after working at several places landed in Paris, where he lived several years. When our Civil War broke out he caught the "war fever" from some American associates, came to this country, and, at- tracted by the natty uniforms of the Andersons, joined our Regi- ment, under the name of Henri Le Caron, posing as a Frenchman. In 1867, while on a visit to his home and at the request of his father, he was appointed an agent for the English Government, to see what the Fenians were doing.
I met him here in Philadelphia, and after that in Chicago, when he told me he had become a doctor, and had two drug stores in Illinois-one at Braidwood and the other in a nearby town-where I made a call on him, and found him apparently settled in a good business, surrounded by a wife and several children ; but, accord- ing to his book, he was still an English "agent." A few years after the Fenians tumbled to his real character, and then our Le Caron abandoned his home in Illinois, fled to England, and wrote a book, in which he gloried in having associated himself with all the Irish societies and Fenian leaders for a quarter of a century and kept the English authorities posted on all the move- ments they intended making, which he could well do, as his posi- tion among them was next to the chief.
I do not know what became of him. They tell me that he is dead, but he fooled me so well before that I'll try not to be sur- prised if he walks in to see me some day. I do not care to glorify the actions of anyone who seeks friends that he may do them an injury, but there was something in the personality of the man I could not help liking. Had the ability which he showed in his chosen profession been used in some other sphere of life, he would have achieved great success, financially and socially.
FIRST EAST TENNESSEE CAMPAIGN-DECEMBER 3, 1863, TO FEBRUARY 11, 1864.
LIEUT. COL. CHAS. B. LAMBORN (DECEASED).
I MMEDIATELY following the victory of Missionary Ridge, which forced General Bragg to hurry toward Atlanta with a shattered and disheartened army, and relieved the beleagured army of the Union which had been shut up for two months in the narrow limits of Chattanooga, a large body of infantry was de- tached under Generals Sherman and Granger and ordered to march to the relief of General Burnside at Knoxville. Long- street had invested Knoxville, into which Burnside had withdrawn his little army and which he had hastily fortified with earthworks. Repeated assaults had been made by the rebels, but they had been uniformly repulsed with loss, and although few in numbers, and now reduced to the last extremity by want of supplies, Burnside's troops held their position successfully against Longstreet's force without and the more dangerous enemy-starvation-within.
Generals Sherman and Granger marched their weary and foot- sore veterans from the field of Missionary Ridge up the eastern valley of the Tennessee, while the available cavalry of the Army of the Cumberland, sadly reduced in numbers by the siege of Chattanooga, in which nearly 10,000 horses and mules perished by starvation, were ordered to accompany them or join them at Knox- ville. Three Companies of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry had been retained at the headquarters of the army at Chattanooga. The rest of the Regiment with several detachments of mounted troops had been previously sent to Sequatchie Valley, to gather the rich harvests of corn and to protect the long wagon trains, laden with supplies, that toiled across the mountains from Bridgeport to feed the army holding Chattanooga.
On December 3d, Colonel Palmer with 175 men of his own command and a detachment of 100 men from the Tenth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, under order of Major-General Thomas, left
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camp near Pikeville, in Sequatchie Valley, for Knoxville. On the evening of the 7th they reached that city, being the advance , of the troops sent to reinforce General Burnside. The rebel troops under Longstreet had withdrawn two days before, and were at this time moving eastward, as it was believed, for Virginia, with their rear in the neighborhood of Strawberry Plains, sixteen miles northeast from Knoxville, on the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad. Sherman's and Granger's commands were within a few miles of Knoxville, marching up, and it was expected that an active movement would be made to press heavily on Long- street's army.
Colonel Palmer had received orders to join General Shackle- ford at Strawberry Plains, when information was received at headquarters that the rebel Colonel Thomas with 250 Cherokee Indians and Confederate troops had come down from the moun- tains of North Carolina and entered the town of Sevierville- twenty-eight miles east of Knoxville-captured the loyal home guards who were there and robbed the citizens of considerable property. A large proportion of the population of Sevier County were known to be thoroughly loyal to the Union, and had con- tributed a goodly number of efficient soldiers to our army. Gen- eral Burnside desiring to protect the loyal citizens from rebel depredation, ordered Colonel Palmer to march at once in pursuit of Thomas and his rebel Indians and to recover the stolen prop- erty.
In the afternoon of December 8th the command moved out toward Sevierville. Learning that the rebels had retreated with their spoils to Gatlinburg, a little hamlet on the Pigeon River, at the very foot of the Great Smoky range of mountains and at the head of a long, narrow defile easily defended, Colonel Palmer deemed it best to march across Cove Mountain by a bridle trail, and if possible strike the enemy unexpectedly in the rear. With this object the command crossed into Weir's Cove, and on the evening of the 9th had reached a point whence a narrow and exceedingly difficult bridle path led over a lofty spur of the Smoky Mountains, some eighteen miles directly to the rear of Gatlinburg. Another road ran directly to the front of the position in which the rebels were encamped. The people everywhere evinced the great- est delight to meet our cavalry, and attested the sincerity of their
FIRST LIEUT. HARVEY LINGLE Killed at Mossy Creek, East Tenn .. December 29, 1863
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loyalty by feeding our men and horses and guiding the command through the difficult and unknown mountain paths.
Colonel Palmer divided the command into two divisions. The larger one he led across the mountains. The other, under charge of Lieutenant-Colonel Lamborn, took the direct route to Gatlin- burg. Both detachments made a night march, and at daybreak the next morning simultaneously attacked the enemy in their camp at the foot of the main range of mountains. The surprise was complete. The pickets deserted their posts at the first fire, and our troops were within carbine range of their camp before the enemy were prepared to resist. The position was a very strong one. A direct and open attack with our force could not have carried it or even reached the camp through the narrow and easily defended defile up which the road ran.
Lieutenant-Colonel Lamborn opened a lively fire from his dis- mounted men into the front of the camp, and Colonel Palmer moved down rapidly with the main column upon the rear and flank. The enemy were outwitted and terrified by the suddenness of the attack, and after a sharp skirmish abandoned their camp and fled in disorder to the mountains, into whose unknown and impassable recesses cavalry could not follow. Six rebel Indians are believed to have been killed or wounded, but they were carried off during the fight. Capt. Chas. M. Betts received a flesh wound in the arm and Capt. Geo. S. Clark, of Company E, a musket ball in the knee, from the effect of which he was permanently lamed and rendered incapable of future active field duty during the war. Our troops burned the rebel camp, destroyed the cap- tured arms, ammunition and supplies, and returned the horses which were found in the camp to the citizens from whom they were stolen. The unexpected boldness and celerity of this attack on the rebel Indians in one of their own strongholds in the moun- tains proved very serviceable in protecting the border counties of East Tennessee from further depredation, and so thoroughly was this band disheartened and routed that the North Carolina Indians did not venture again, during the Civil War, to make predatory incursions into these Union districts.
Finding further pursuit of the scattered rebels useless, Colonel Palmer marched the command across the country to Dandridge, on the French Broad River, in order to communicate with General
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Parke and to secure supplies for men and horses. For subsist- ing the command the rich plantations along that river furnished abundance of corn, wheat and bacon.
The pursuit of Longstreet had not been pressed with much vigor. General Sherman, finding Knoxville relieved from siege, returned with his troops to Chattanooga, and the remaining infan- try forces under Granger and Foster, the latter having relieved Burnside of his command, were camped within a few miles of Knoxville. Longstreet moved slowly and leisurely toward Rogers- ville and Russellville, and fed his large body of well-mounted cavalry on the rich corn fields of the Holston and French Broad Valleys.
Colonel Palmer received orders to scout with his command along the flank of the main body of the enemy, to harass the foraging parties and gather information of the movements of the supposed retreating army. Both armies were mainly dependent upon the country for their supplies, and the extended corn fields, laden with ungathered harvests, which stretched for miles along the rich alluvial bottom lands skirting the Holston, French Broad and Watauga Rivers, were the scenes of many severe skirmishes and even heavy cavalry engagements.
After the advance of our infantry had been stayed by a lack of supplies and perhaps by the mistaken belief that Longstreet was slowly retreating, the struggle in East Tennessee for two months became virtually a fight for corn and bacon between the cavalry forces of the opposing armies. For two weeks Colonel Palmer with his command scouted through the country along the Holston and between Dandridge and Russellville, sometimes ad- vancing under cover of night to the immediate vicinity of large bodies of the enemy, capturing provisions, stock and various supplies, and getting much valuable information which was duly forwarded to headquarters at Knoxville. Scarcely a day passed without a skirmish with the enemy, and the safety of the command made it necessary to practically "camp in the saddle," to march rapidly and for long distances, and rarely to rest two nights suc- cessively in the same place. Extreme watchfulness was required to prevent a surprise, since this small body of men was a long distance from any support and in the immediate vicinity of bodies of rebel cavalry many times superior in numbers. On the night
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First East Tennessee Campaign.
of the 22d of December, 1863, the command made a rapid march ten miles above Dandridge, and seized twenty-six head of stock and thirteen horses, with five of the rebel soldiers guarding them, almost from the picket line of a brigade of rebel cavalry encamped on the French Broad River, and successfully carried them off, in spite of a lively pursuit to Flat Gap, beyond which General Sturgis' command was encamped.
On the 24th of December a detachment of the Fifteenth Penn- sylvania was the advance of a movement by two brigades of Federal cavalry against a rebel force reported at Dandridge. The rebels, after a sharp skirmish, were badly worsted, and were in full retreat when they were reinforced by a brigade from Morris- town that arrived in season to turn the tide of battle, and our troops were forced to withdraw from the field, bearing with them most of their killed and wounded.
In this engagement a brilliant dash was made by Colonel Palmer and ninety men on the rear of a portion of one of the rebel regi- ments, which was speedily demoralized, but on the return from the charge a heavy fire was unexpectedly opened from another body of dismounted rebels, by which ten of our men had their horses shot under them, and they fell prisoners into the enemy's hands. Among these was Capt. Washington Airey, of Company L, a gallant and exemplary officer, who remained a prisoner for some months, and was finally released only to die a lingering death from a terrible disease engendered by the hardships of his im- prisonment at Charleston, Florence and other points. The detach- ment in addition to the loss of these prisoners had three men wounded in the engagement. The total loss of all our troops in this skirmish was seventy-five killed, wounded and prisoners. We took twenty-five prisoners.
The bulk of our cavalry forces encamped about Newmarket, and the Regiment was again sent to scout along the flanks of the rebel cavalry, near Morristown. On the 29th of December, 1863, a sharp engagement occurred at Mossy Creek. The rebels made the attack, and after six hours of changing fortune they were finally handsomely and decidedly repulsed and pursued for four miles in rapid retreat. The enemy numbered about 5000 cavalry ; our own forces were perhaps equal in number. The Fifteenth Pennsyl- vania was engaged throughout, and made two fine charges, gain-
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History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
ing and holding an important position on the field. For these services of the command Colonel Palmer was handsomely compli- mented by General Sturgis, the Commander of the cavalry. Five men of the Regiment were wounded, and First Lieut. Harvey S. Lingle, a fine officer and acting Adjutant, was killed.
The winter now set in intensely cold, for three days the mer- cury ranged within a few degrees of zero, and any movement of large bodies of troops was almost impossible. Longstreet seemed to have placed his infantry in winter quarters above Russellville, and his cavalry was again sent to the corn fields of the French Broad.
The cavalry Commander, General Sturgis, finding that the men of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania could render most valuable service in the way of harassing the detached portions of the enemy and in gathering the much-needed information of their movements, again ordered Colonel Palmer to move down in the vicinity of Dandridge, and from that point to scout the country and to watch the enemy and make report. The especially dangerous and fatiguing military duty of scouting had now become a specialty with this command.
Few officers of the army, as later campaigns fully displayed, possessed higher qualities for the command of troops in dangerous and difficult expeditions than Colonel Palmer, and no regiment in the service could boast of men better suited for active, intelligent, dashing scouts than the Anderson Cavalry. For two weeks they scouted the whole country, on the enemy's flank, pouncing down upon them at the most unexpected and unguarded moments, marching day and night and picking up prisoners and gathering stock almost within the limits of the rebel encampments. "Pal- mer's Owls" became a synonym for the Regiment among the sim- ple-hearted loyal citizens of that country.
During all this time men as well as horses must be fed, and through the good management of Lieutenant Hinchman, the Regi- mental Commissary, who watchfully foresaw every need and profited by every advantage, grist mills were seized and set to work night and day, with our own men for millers; and good stores of bacon and beef which the rebel plantations supplied were gath- ered in, and our men and horses were provided with subsistence from the country fought over throughout the whole of this winter
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campaign. For two months nothing but limited quantities of sugar and coffee were drawn from the Government, the country itself supplying all other needs.
On January 13th news came to camp that the rebel General Vance, from North Carolina, had suddenly come down from the mountains with 300 Confederate cavalry, and had captured twenty-eight wagons, near Sevierville, belonging to a foraging party sent out from Knoxville, and was rapidly retreating with . his spoils through the mountains. Colonel Palmer instantly started with his command in pursuit, and the next day, after a rapid march of forty miles, struck the rebel force on Crosby Creek, twenty-three miles from Sevierville, defeated and routed the whole command by an impetuous charge, making prisoners of General Vance, his Adjutant General and Inspector General and fifty-two other Confederates, and capturing 100 horses, as well as releasing all the Federal prisoners and recapturing the wagons and mules. The prisoners and wagons were forwarded to Knox- ville. For this gallant and brilliant achievement, so complete in its results and accomplished without the loss of a man, General Stur- gis especially recommended Colonel Palmer to General Foster, and this officer, appreciating the valuable services of the Regiment and the sterling qualities of its Commander, at once telegraphed General Grant nominating Colonel Palmer for promotion to the rank of Brigadier General. This nomination was forwarded to Washington, with highly flattering indorsements, and Colonel Pal- mer was soon after nominated by the President to the new rank ; but his confirmation by the Senate did not occur until the next session, and after another nomination accompanied by urgent recommendations based upon greater services.
Colonel Palmer returned with his command to the neighborhood of Dandridge, but as the main body of our cavalry had fallen back to Knoxville, from the front of Longstreet, on the Holston, and 8000 of the rebel cavalry had been thrown into the corn fields of the French Broad, the position became too exposed, and it was deemed advisable to draw back toward Sevierville.
In the meantime our cavalry, under Sturgis, having crossed to the south side of the river at Knoxville, moved slowly up with the main body, and sent Col. Jim Brownlow with the First Tennessee Cavalry to join Colonel Palmer and to act under his orders. On
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History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
January 22, 1864, Colonel Palmer, strengthened by Brownlow's regiment, moved up for a reconnoissance against the enemy, above Dandridge. Having learned that they had sent out heavy foraging parties to Indian Creek, he pushed up about ten miles, and in a sharp running fight of five miles captured three officers and sixty- eight enlisted men, with seventeen wagons and ninety mules, hav- ing killed two rebels and wounded one, suffering a loss of one man of the First East Tennessee regiment, wounded.
Three days later the main body of the cavalry had come up to . Sevierville, and the command was again joined with them. For some days the whole cavalry force remained about Sevierville, feed- ing up the stock, during which time small detachments of the An- dersons, under good corporals and sergeants, to whom the country had become familiar, were kept constantly scouting along the river and in the neighborhood of the enemy. These non-commissioned officers, with small details, were very efficient in this service, and in addition to the valuable information which they acquired, rarely returned to camp without prisoners.
On the 27th a small party of our scouts discovered a division of the enemy a few miles out on the Newport road, and from the information they obtained and the admirable knowledge of the country shown by Col. W. J. Palmer, McCook's division of cavalry was enabled to gain a brilliant victory, routing Morgan's rebel division and capturing two pieces of artillery and eighty prisoners. The following day another engagement was fought near Fair Garden, East Tennessee, without decisive results.
This was the last battle of this campaign. The forage of the country within our lines being now almost exhausted and tlie infantry being still retained quietly in winter quarters at Knox- ville, it was decided to withdraw all our cavalry to Marysville and the valley of the Little Tennessee, and the following day tlie movement was begun. Longstreet was thus left in quiet posses- sion of the corn fields of the upper French Broad and Watauga, and the 10,000 cavalry under his command remained there until spring opened, and the main body withdrew to Virginia and re- joined General Lee, from whose army they had been sent the preceding autumn to reinforce Bragg at Chattanooga.
Colonel Palmer's command had been ordered back to Chatta- nooga by General Thomas some time before the final withdrawal
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First East Tennessee Campaign.
of our cavalry was decided upon, but General Foster was unwill- ing to let him go. But now that the entire campaign was closed, the command moved back, by slow marches, by way of the corn fields of the Hiawassee and Tennessee, and on the IIth of Feb- ruary, 1864, arrived at Chattanooga, reported to General Thomas and were rejoined by the rest of the Regiment, which had been left in Sequatchie Valley.
This winter campaign of seventy days had been one of severe service. The main body of the command, in addition to the daily scouts, had marched and countermarched about 1000 miles. They had taken part in six severe engagements of the cavalry forces, and had themselves captured 194 rebel prisoners, including one Brigadier General, three Captains: and three Lieutenants, seven- teen wagons and mules, 250 stand of arms and 150 cavalry horses and equipments complete, and had recaptured from the enemy twenty-three U. S. soldiers and nineteen U. S. army wagons and mules. The losses of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry had been one officer killed, two wounded and one captured; nine en- listed men wounded and ten captured.
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