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 40
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The enemy now being dispersed, the command was formed for
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the return march. We had captured two Captains, four Lieuten- ants, over 100 privates and non-commissioned officers, besides 100 good horses and a lot of plunder they had stolen in Kentucky, consisting of boots, shoes, hats, shirts, silks, gloves, etc. I had charge of the rear guard, and for a time was attacked from a dis- tance by some of those who had escaped.
When we had all arrived at the river we awaited the arrival of the gunboats. Kirk was ordered to announce our presence by firing the captured gun. He succeeded in firing three rounds, without injury to anyone, we having taken the precaution to give the gun a wide berth, and as the sound of the firing echoed among the hills, we heard whistling, and soon saw the smoke of the ap- proaching boats. They came toward us prepared for action, the men at the guns and others were stationed at different parts of the vessels with muskets in hand. A white undergarment, fastened to a branch, announced us as friends, and soon the gunboats "Grant," "Thomas," "Stone River" and "Burnside," under Fleet Com- mander Forrest, took us on board and across the river. We were cordially · received by the officers, and handsomely entertained during our short stay on board.
We spent another day in search of part of Lyon's party, who still remained on the north side of the river, and were said to be in Rogers' Cove, but they had taken alarm and disappeared. We succeeded, however, in dispersing Colonel Mead's guerrillas, after capturing several of their number, and gave them a more vigorous pursuit later.
We now took up the march for Huntsville, where, on our arrival, we turned over our prisoners and cannon to the proper authorities, and received their commendation for our success. The movement was splendidly managed by Colonel Palmer, and our victory saddened only by the loss of that hero, Arthur P. Lyon, and the escape of the General.
Lyon's body was sent to his home, in New York State, under special escort of members of the Regiment; and in the cemetery in which he is buried there has been a monument erected to his memory.
There never lived a nobler son, a braver man or a better soldier than Arthur P. Lyon, Sergeant in charge of the advance guard of the Anderson Cavalry.
SERGEANT LYON'S LAST RIDE.
CORP. S. A. ABBEY, PUEBLO, COL.
I N writing about incidents that occurred almost forty years ago, one is apt to make mistakes as to minor details, but the principal facts were such that they impressed themselves upon my mind so clearly that I can write of them with some certainty.
Arthur P. Lyon belonged to Company A, being a Sergeant. The object of this expedition was to attack the brigade of the rebel General Lyon, which had been raiding in Kentucky and had just effected a crossing of the Tennessee River. The advance guard was composed of twenty men selected by Arthur P. Lyon from the different companies, and were under his command. Sergeant Lyon was selected by Colonel Palmer for this hazardous duty because of his known bravery and daring. The Regiment at the time was encamped at Masten's plantation, from which we rode on a cold January evening in 1865. Huntsville was four miles away, and in passing through that place we halted there perhaps an hour. The Regiment followed the detail, which acted as an advance guard.
Captain Kramer joined us without an overcoat, and borrowed a gum coat from a member of our company. Sergeant Lyon and a scout named Harris led us up the valley, and I judge it must have been midnight when we turned into the Tennessee River bottom, which was overflowed to at least three or four feet in depth. Previous to turning into the water, Harris, the scout, had us equipped with pine torches, and after going quite a distance toward the channel he ordered a halt. We lighted these torches and began to swing them over our heads.
In the course of a short time we could hear a steamer coming up the river, under a slow motion and exhaust. When very nearly opposite to where we were, the boat, without warning, turned loose with apparently a thirty-two-pound gun. The shell, passing through the timber and striking the surface in our rear, made
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more noise than any Rocky Mountain thunderstorm I ever heard. Harris ordered us to continue to swing our torches. No other shot was fired, but we could hear a boat being lowered. We could see nothing. When the boat got close enough to hail, the men in it asked who we were, and in course of time they recognized Harris' voice. They came on, and Harris made arrangements for the crossing of the Colonel and the full command on the following day.
We all remember the crossing of the Tennessee, by taking our horses and ourselves on that pretty gun deck, polished as highly as soap and water could make it.
After disembarking we shortly began to climb to higher ground, and I remember that I rode with Lyon most all that afternoon, and I recall distinctly also that late in the afternoon on winding around that crooked, uninhabited mountain road we heard horses and talk on the road ahead of us.
Lyon rode his horse like a soldier-always on the alert. The least sound or noise ahead on the road attracted his attention. Throwing the spurs into his horse, he said, "Come !" and we all followed, and in course of 100 yards we ran into two men, one old and one young. They were pretty nearly scared to death at our wild approach, but Lyon saw they were unarmed, and told me to stay with them, and turn them over to Colonel Palmer, which I did.
The Colonel and Captain Harris began to ask questions, and finally Colonel Palmer said that we would take their horses and let them go. The old gentleman spoke up, saying, "Mister, if you take my horse I will starve to death right here in the road, as I have been unable to use my legs for the past twenty years." The Colonel smiled, and told him he could retain his horse.
While traveling that lonely road, Lyon remarked to me that he was sorry that we were again on the south side of the Tennessee. He said we had just escaped having a very serious time on that side of the river, and he hoped we would be successful in return- ing from the present raid.
I recollect of no incident occurring from there to where we halted late at night. From this place the Colonel sent Harris down into the valley, for the purpose of locating the rebel camps.
Upon his return, the command moved off the high ground
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Sergeant Lyon's Last Ride.
into a valley. After turning to the left and going up this par- ticular valley, Lyon told us what was expected, and directed us in riding through between two rebel regiments-one on each side of the road-to hold our sabers so that they would make no noise. As we learned afterward, there was no picket on that road, the sentries being to the north of the command. Lyon's orders were to go along at an ordinary gait, and if not challenged to pass through these regiments in camp and get to the General's house without a fight, if possible ; but if he found it necessary to cut his way through, he was ordered to do so.
We who composed that twenty will all remember our experi- ence with those rebel soldiers lying covered under their blankets, with horses tied to trees and ropes. The fires were dim, it being almost daylight, and there was not a sound. As it was, we passed through, and had begun to trot when one man, apparently on guard at the commissary, called out, "What are you fellers in such a hurry about?" Some person answered, "We are always that way." The next question he asked was, "What regiment is that?" We answered, "The same old regiment with new clothes on." By that time we were beyond the challenger. From there to the rebel General's house we traveled at a lope.
Serg. Levi Branthoover told me in Leadville, Colo., in 1879, that Colonel Palmer, Harris, Lyon and himself had in detail all that Harris had learned, on his return from his scout, and under the instructions of the Colonel, he (Branthoover) was to ride with Lyon, and on arriving at the house where the rebel General Lyon was staying, he (Branthoover) was to dismount, go into the house and secure the rebel General. Sergeant Lyon's instructions were to go beyond the house, turn to the right, go through a swinging gate into the yard, and then in the immediate rear of the house capture the escort. We who were on the advance know that the order was not obeyed. His last command to us before he dis- mounted was: "Under no circumstances should any man dis- mount." Every man under Lyon's command understood that lie was expected to obey him.
There was in our Regiment but one Arthur P. Lyon. Born a soldier, daring, reckless and ever alert for a fight, he was the ideal raider. He had no sense of fear and no admiration for cautious soldiers. On this occasion he immediately walked in alone through
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the gate, leaving the detail outside mounted, and fortunately found a negro boy gathering wood to start the morning fire. He learned from this negro where General Lyon's room was and immediately afterward he rapped on the door, and when the rebel General opened it the Sergeant said, "You are my prisoner." The Gen- eral replied, "To whom am I surrendering?" Sergeant Lyon told him to a Sergeant of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry. The General asked permission to return and get his clothing, as he was in his night robe. My memory makes it appear but an instant until General Lyon returned and fired a shot from a revolver straight at the Sergeant. We knew it meant death-the stricken soldier with a bullet lodged in his brain fell heavily on the floor. General Lyon escaped in his night clothes through the woods in the rear of the house.
We immediately started into the lane where the rebel escort was and-I am not sure, but I think Sergeant Branthoover gave the order. I will not be positive as to this, as I was at that time about midway between the front and rear of the advance guard. I do know that I had a contest with a great, long-haired, mounted man at the gate. He called for his men to come, but they did not respond. Finding himself alone he passed back into the yard out of sight, and I and others proceeded to help ourselves to some good horses that were in the yard.
The rebels had absolutely deserted everything and disappeared in the woods in the rear of the house, for when I reached the road Colonel Palmer was there with the command.
Somebody told him Sergeant Lyon was dead. He seemed ter- ribly shocked. It appeared as if he would never be able to com- mand. But when he recovered, he immediately turned to Captain Kramer and told him to take charge of Sergeant Lyon's advance guard, as there was more work ahead, and for the men to let go of the extra horses they were holding.
There was a rebel battery to the left, camped in the woods, that must be taken before daylight. Captain Kramer came up on the jump, with his gum coat flying in the air, and cried "Come on, men !" and we charged from there to the battery, but found that the detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel Lamborn had already captured it, first driving off the rebel regiment who were sup- porting it.
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I do not know of any incident worth mentioning until we ar- rived at the river, where our gunboat apparently awaited us. I have never forgotten how pleased the officers and crew were to receive that gun and prisoners, and evidently made up their minds not to lose them, as they placed the prisoners on the hurricane deck with a guard apparently every three or four feet, each armed with a cutlass. These prisoners were the rebels who had fired a shell from the captured gun that struck in the center of the bow of the boat and went clear through to the gun deck without ex- ploding.
If this had been the only brave act performed by Sergeant Lyon, he would be deserving of a finer eulogy than I can pen. But this was simply the culmination of a series of like daring deeds, reaching back all through his service. He was one of the bravest, and belonged to that devoted number of Union soldiers who did the actual fighting in the Civil War. He was always voluntarily at the extreme front, right against the enemy, where danger was the most imminent. If the firing at any other point was heavier, there he would hasten, without orders, taking with him all under his immediate command and as many others who would follow.
ON THE LYON SCOUT.
SERG. WM. MCGEE, REGIMENTAL SADDLER, TOLLGATE, W. VA.
I WAS in what is known in the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry as "the Lyon raid." I don't propose to write a history of the raid, but only a part of my personal experience. We reached the enemy's camp just before day. I was mounted on a mule, and, as every cavalryman knows, a mule is not a satisfactory cavalry horse. The soldier who is mounted on a mule feels dis- graced. He soon loses self-respect, and if he sees anyone looking at him he wants to apologize. He is sure to commence using pro- fane language, even in his sleep.
When the rush was made into the camp I went in with the rest, not to fight, but to trade horses. The first horse I came to I jumped off my mule, and felt of his ears, throatlatch, legs and feet. Remember, it was very dark, but I decided he was all right. It took but a moment to strip the mule and transfer my traps to the horse and mount. I immediately felt my self-respect coming back in great hunks. When daylight came I discovered I had made a fine trade. My horse was a mouse color, with dark holster marks down the shoulders and a dark stripe the full length of his back, young and sound as a dollar.
After we got back to Huntsville, Ala., in a short time an order came to camp from headquarters for all the horses captured on the Lyon raid to be brought to headquarters. It was talked around camp that the commissioned officers wanted to select the best for their own use. I didn't like to give up my fine horse, and I concluded I wouldn't without an effort to save him. I took him down to the creek and wet him thoroughly and turned the hair all the wrong way, tied him to a tree, and left him to dry. In the afternoon I took the horse down, tied him up with the others for inspection, and stepped back some distance to watch. Pretty soon the officers came out and went along the line, and they all passed my horse without taking the second look at him. He was the best horse I had while in service, and lasted me until way down in North Carolina with Stoneman.
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ARTHUR PEACE LYON.
SERG. E. W. ANDERSON, COMPANY M, PHŒNIXVILLE, PA.
M Y first acquaintance with Sergeant Lyon dates from the time of my enlistment in the Regiment, I having had the good fortune to meet him in our neighborhood, at the residence of a friend, when he was here on a "French" furlough from Carlisle. He had been in the employ of the Adams Express Company, at Phoenixville, before he enlisted, and as neither he nor I knew anyone in the Regiment, we became companions and formed a friendship which lasted until his death.
One day we were sitting at the big spring in Carlisle reading a letter from a lady friend greatly encouraging us to be good soldiers, and then and there we made a compact for a race for honors in our Regiment, and strange to relate, our promotions and favors were the same throughout our military career. It is appropriate that I should write this account of Sergeant Lyon's life, as our lives were thus strangely linked together.
We will pass over our early campaign life of 1862, as both of us avoided all military duty as much as possible, until we reached the battlefield of Stone River, on the 27th day of December, 1862, when military life commenced in earnest.
At this time Lyon commenced to distinguish himself before the Regiment. Discipline being lax and officers scarce, he was able to leave his command, acting as a staff officer under General Stan- ley, during the fight with the Texas Rangers. Here he first came into prominence in the sight of the officers. On our return to Nashville he was twice sent out to the battlefield of Stone River with ambulances for the wounded, remaining each night at the home of Dr. Manson, where Major Ward died.
In March, 1863, he was promoted to the rank of Corporal. Being chiefly engaged around headquarters at Chickamauga, there was no opportunity for him to distinguish himself until the Knox- ville campaign after Longstreet, where innumerable opportunities were presented, of which he promptly availed himself.
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Scarcely a week passed during which he was not engaged in driving in the enemy's pickets, or out with a scouting party, fre- quently bringing in more prisoners than he had men in his com- mand. It was a common occurrence to see him at the head of his advance guard, on his gray bobtailed horse, flying after the enemy with the speed of an Arabian charger, and as Colonel Palmer told. me, "He was a battalion in himself."
News having been brought to the camp that a number of the Confederate soldiers belonging to General Martin's and General Armstrong's brigades had been accustomed to spend the nights with their families, we were detailed with twenty-five or thirty men to capture them. Having succeeded in capturing twenty-two prisoners, among the number Captain Walker, and drawing near to their pickets, Corporal Lyon was restrained with difficulty from making a dash on the enemy's picket post and thus starting the whole brigade in pursuit. However, we stopped at Nick Swan's for breakfast, and then proceeded on our way after feeding our horses, but had not been gone a half hour when the two brigades reached the place in hot pursuit, but they followed us no farther.
After the Knoxville campaign, Corporal Lyon on his return to Chattanooga was promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and com- plimented at the head of the Regiment for his soldierly conduct.
But little remains for me to relate regarding the remainder of his military career, as I have had the good fortune to secure a copy of a letter sent to his mother by Colonel Palmer himself, giving the following sketch of his military career :
"HEADQUARTERS FIFTEENTH PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY, "HUNTSVILLE, ALA., February 15, 1865.
"My Dear Mrs. Ferguson,-I avail myself of the opportunity afforded by the departure of Lieutenant-Colonel Lamborn to the East to write to you my sense of the loss my Regiment has met in the death of your brave boy, Serg. Arthur P. Lyon, and also to express my profound sympathy and that of every officer and man in my Regiment with you and with all his friends and rela- tives in this affliction.
"Your son first distinguished himself at the battle of Stone River, at which time I was not with the Regiment, but I have heard an account of his gallant behavior on that occasion from officers who were present. I first became acquainted with his personal merits in March, 1863, soon after taking command of the
SERGT. ARTHUR P. LYON Killed at Red Hill, Alabama, January 15, 1865
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Arthur Peace Lyon.
Regiment. In a skirmish toward the last of that month with a regiment of rebel cavalry, under Colonel Smith, Private Lyon was in the advance guard, and exhibited so much courage and dash that he was immediately promoted to the position of Corporal of his company by a complimentary order read to the Regiment at dress parade.
"In our active and hazardous campaign of seventy days in East Tennessee, in the winter of 1863 and 1864, against the forces of Longstreet, Corporal Lyon showed such hearty bravery and zeal that I selected him as 'the habitual leader of the advance guard' of our Regiment, and by this honorable title he was known to the day of his death. I never knew him to hesitate when an enemy appeared, but with a noble enthusiasm that inspired all that were about him, he invariably dashed upon the rebels with his little party at the first sight, and thus, in the skirmishes that occurred almost daily in that campaign, he had generally half won the victory by demoralizing the enemy before the main body of our Regiment could reach them and form for the attack. In these dashes he took a great many prisoners, and I think he personally captured more prisoners than any man in this army.
"In the battles of Mossy Creek and Dandridge he behaved with his usual gallantry. He received, as you know, his first scratch at the cavalry battle of Indian Creek, along the French Broad River, in East Tennessee, when in the course of a few hours he first had his horse killed under him; next the stock of his carbine shot off by one of the enemy's skirmishers, and lastly, to our sorrow, he was severely wounded in the arm and had to be carried, faint and bleeding, from the field. He had previously during the same day, while we were hunting up the enemy, dashed with his 'advance' of twenty-five men upon the pickets of General Arm- strong's brigade, consisting of a Colonel and eighty men, whom he pursued for four miles, capturing prisoners and finally running into the camp of the brigade itself. The dexterity with which he extricated his little party from their perilous situation, rejoining his Regiment (which had halted in a suitable position and formed, on learning of the proximity of such a large force), with the loss of but one man, showed that Corporal Lyon was not brave with- out judgment, and reflected great credit upon his military skill. For his gallant conduct in this campaign Corporal Lyon was pro- moted to Sergeant, and complimented before the brigade in general orders.
"In a second campaign in East Tennessee, last summer and fall, "our leader of the advance guard' displayed still more promi- nently those daring and chivalrous qualities which had already won the tribute of admiration and regard from every officer and man of our Regiment. In a reconnoissance ordered by General Gillem, near Jonesboro, where my Regiment drove a larger force
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of General Vaughan's cavalry for several miles, from Jonesboro to the Watauga River, capturing a number of prisoners and hold- ing the crossing at Devaults Ford, Sergeant Lyon led the advance, and by his impetuous charges over a difficult and easily defended country made it impossible for the enemy to form, and enabled our command to accomplish this important reconnoissance with- out the loss of a single man.
"The same month (September) he accompanied me on a dan- gerous expedition with seventy-five picked men from Bristol through southwestern Virginia into Kentucky, and finally to the Ohio River, made almost entirely within the enemy's lines, for the purpose of conveying an important dispatch from General Sherman to General Burbridge, who was then retreating from the Virginia salt works. On this expedition, though continually sur- rounded by the enemy, we succeeded in crossing the Cumberland Mountains into Kentucky, taking with us a number of prisoners and a large number of captured horses, and in delivering the dispatch at General Burbridge's camp without ourselves losing a man ; and this result was to a great extent due to the spirit and elan with which the little handful of men that we placed in the front, under Sergeant Lyon, charged the different parties of the enemy that appeared in our route or crossed our path.
"It was my repeated desire to promote Sergeant Lyon to the position of a commissioned officer, which he had most richly earned, and I now regret that, although there was no vacancy in his company to the day of his death, I did not endeavor to par- tially reward so much soldierly worth and chivalry by recom- mending his appointment to a Lieutenant in another Regiment.
"After the recent campaign against Hood, which closed early in January by the pursuit on the south side of the Tennessee River, even into Mississippi, of the rear of his shattered force, and the capture by our body of 600 cavalry, of his entire pontoon bridge, and nearly 300 wagons with the mules and a large number of prisoners, I recommended Sergeant Lyon for honorable men- tion in general orders of the army in my report to General Thomas. This was both for good conduct throughout the pur- suit and particularly for having with fifteen men of the Anderson Cavalry captured, by an impetuous dash on the night of December 28th, in front of Decatur, Ala., two pieces of artillery, with horses and harnesses, from the rear guard of General Roddy's command. I had also determined to nominate him to the Governor of Penn- sylvania for appointment to the first vacancy occurring in the commissioned officers of the Regiment.
"Unfortunately, immediately after our return from the Mis- sissippi expedition, we were ordered out from Huntsville, after the rebel General Lyon, and on this expedition our brave Sergeant Lyon, by his magnanimity to the captured General, lost his life in
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