REMINISCENCES OF THE TERRY RANGERS
I

J. K. P. BLACKBURN

When the Civil War commenced. I was in school in Lavaca
County, Texas, both as teacher and pupil, where I had been most of
the time for four and a half years before. I was born in Tennes-
see in 1837 and in the fail of 1856, when I was about 19 years of
age, my father emigrated to Texas with his family of wife and
eight children. I taught a little primary school in Fayette County
first for three months. Then I sold a horse my father gave me,
got my money for teaching school, put these two funds together,
and went to Alma Institute in Lavaca County for two years. I
taught one year in Gonzales County, and after thus adding to my
bank account, returned to my alma mater as pupil and assistant
teacher and was there until hostilities commenced between the
North and the South.

My first experience in anything that looked like warfare was had
in a trip to San Antonio to help capture the Federal forces and
war equipage at that place. The United States had been ac-
customed for years to make San Antonio an army post with a good
force and plenty of army supplies under able commanders so as
to be available to protect the western border from invasion. Soon
after the State of Texas passed the ordinance of secession, Ben
McCulloch, a frontiersman and Indian fighter, called upon the
people living in the western and southern counties of Texas to meet
him at the earliest possible moment at a rendezvous near San
Antonio with any firearms to be had. Without delay nearly all
the men able to bear arms and to do military duty, started with a
rush, riding continuously without rest or sleep until we reached the
place of gathering, which if my memory serves me, was on Sea
Willow Creek a few miles from the city to the north. We who
were from Lavaca County reached the place: late in the night,
probably two or three o'clock A. M. McCulloch had already sent
men to surround the Alamo, then used as a fort and an arsenal for
army and military supplies.

The movement was made with much caution and secrecy. Men

with, rifles in hands were placed on top of the surrounding build-
ings so as to command the place the artillery men must occupy
when they would attempt to fire the cannon. The headquarters
of General Twiggs, one mile out in the country, were picketed
by a file of armed men so as to prevent communication with his
forces in town. When daylight came a flag of truce was sent in
to the commander at the fort, a demand for surrender made, his
attention called to men on the housetops and the forces now
coming in to surround the fort and his army; and without firing
a gun he surrendered everything he commanded. ¹

In the meantime General Twiggs ordered his carriage and
started for camp without seemingly knowing what had happened
while he slept. Two of our men met him as he started out, pre-
sented their shot guns and told him he was their prisoner of war
and so they marched him into the Grand Plaza where McCulloch
and his men to the number of several hundred had assembled. I
happened to be standing within a few steps of McCulloch when
General Twiggs was brought in and I heard their conversation.
After salutations General Twiggs said, "Ben McCulloch, you have
treated me most shamefully, ruining my reputation as a military.
man and I am now too old to re-establish it." McCulloch answers,
"I am serving my State, the State of Texas, Sir." General Twiggs
replied, that if an old woman with a broomstick in hand had come
to him and having authority from the State of Texas demanded his
surrender he would have yielded without a word of protest. "But
you, Sir, without papers, without any notice have assembled a mob
and forced me to terms." So ends this episode. General Twiggs
in his humiliation wept like a child and he had my sympathy and
the sympathy I think of all who witnessed this meeting. The
soldiers and arms and munitions of war captured --I cannot now
recall numbers or amounts. ²

I returned to school, but school work seemed tame and common-

place and overshadowed by the tragic events on every side. War
was declared by Lincoln on the seceded States, calling for troops
from the other Southern States to help put down the rebellion.
The Confederate Government had been formed at Montgomery,
Alabama. A blaze of enthusiasm and resentment sweeping over
the southland prompted patriots on every hand to get ready to
defend their homes and firesides against the ravages and destruc-
tion of an insolent foe who was then moving to invade the South.
The seceded States established drill and instruction camps in dif-
ferent, parts of their borders, training men on every hand for
effectual fighting. The camps were provided with competent drill
masters, mobilization went on day after day through the spring
and the early summer and on through the year, and regiments
were formed and sent forward towards the seat of war until thou-
sands upon thousands were mustered into service from every section
that year, the year of 1861. I spent several weeks at Camp Clark
on the San Marcos River, drilling and learning military tactics
at that camp of instruction. All conversation on every side per-
tained to war and incidents and hopes and fears connected there-
with. The question of, "Are you going to the war?" was rarely
asked, but "Where will you go?"

I had a room-mate the last session in school named Foley, large
hearted, intellectual and a poet, a Baptist preacher of ability, and
a native of New York City. He and I discussed the question often
and while we both preferred cavalry service, being good horse-
men, he preferred to go west and northwest with the first regiment
formed, I to go towards the east in order to be upon the main
fields of battle even if I had to go with the infantry. We separated.
He enlisted in Colonel Ford's Second Texas Cavalry and went to
meet the enemy that was threatening Texas from the northwest.
The next news I had from that Command, Foley had been killed
in a charge on a battery at Valverda or Glorietta, New Mexico, (I
have forgotten which)--killed by the last shot fired from that bat-
tery before its capture. Thus passed from earth one of the
noblest spirits I ever knew.

I considered a proposition from Captain Fly who was raising a
company in our neighborhood for the 2nd Texas infantry and
at one time told him I thought I might join his company when they
got ready to start, but told him of my preference for the cavalry.
Weeks passed. At last the opportunity came. A regiment of cav-
alry was to be raised in western and southern Texas for service in
Virginia. Two Texans of wealth and leisure, B. F. Terry, a sugar
planter, and Thos. S. Lubbock, a lawyer, who were traveling in the
East--whether for business, pleasure, or curiosity, I know not--hap-
pened at or purposely were at the battle of first Manassas in Vir-
ginia, and rendered all the aid they could to the Southern cause.
Terry acted as volunteer aid to the commanding general, and Lubbock
also exposed his life in bearing messages during the contest. About
the middle of August commissions came to Terry and Lubbock from
the war department at Eichmond, Virginia, authorizing them to
raise a regiment on certain conditions, viz.: each man to furnish
his own arms (double-barrelled shotgun and two six shooters),
his bridle, blanket, saddle, spurs, lariat, etc., the Government to
mount the men on good horses. The men should always select
their own officers from colonel down to fourth corporal and serve
in the Virginia army as an independent command. This was the
opportunity that many had wished for and in less than twenty
days this call was answered by 1170 men assembling at Houston
to be enrolled in the regiment, afterwards called Terry's Texas
Rangers. Colonel Terry immediately after securing the commis-
sion selected ten men in different sections and counties of the
southern and western part of the State and asked them to raise a
company of about a hundred men and bring them to Houston for
enrollment in the army as soon as practical.

The company which I joined was made up from Fayette, Lavaca
and Colorado counties, the majority being from Fayette. L. M.
Strobel, having the authority, enrolled the names and set a day
for meeting at Lagrange in Fayette County for organizing the
company by electing officers from captain to corporal. At the
called meeting Strobel was elected captain, W. R. Jarman first
lieutenant, Phocian and William Tate (brothers) were elected
second and third lieutenants, C. D. Barnett orderly sergeant, and
J. T. J. Culpepper second sergeant. I cannot recall with any
certainty the names of the other noncommissioned officers at this
date. Our next meeting was called for Houston, Texas, where we
were to be sworn in as soldiers of the Confederate States. Early
in September the city of Houston was filled with volunteers anxious
to enlist in the Terry Rangers, One thousand men were expected

to constitute the regiment, but more and more were enlisted until
the number reached 1170, an average of 117 to each company, and
others, I don't recall how many, were denied the privilege of
enlistment.

A Lieutenant Sparks, who had belonged to the United States
army if I mistake not, came authorized to administer the oath of
allegiance to the Confederate States and enroll us as her soldiers.
A little incident happened at the time which showed the feelings
and determination of the men. They were lined up on three sides
of a hollow square (as I now remember). The enrolling officer in
the center asked this question, "Do you men wish to be sworn into
service for twelve months or for three years or for during the war?"
With a unanimity never surpassed, a shout unheard of before, that
whole body of men shouted, "For the war," "For the war!" not
one expecting or caring to return until the war was over, long or
shorty and the invaders had been driven from our borders.

And now the regiment is ready for service, as fine a body as ever
mustered for warfare. The majority of them were college boys,
and cowboys, professional men, men with finished education, men
just out of college, others still under-graduates, men raised in the
saddles, as it were, experts with lariat and with six shooters, and
not a few from the farm, from the counting houses and from shops.
Just why the regiment did not elect field officers and become a
fully organized body of soldiers at Houston I never knew. In the
absence of this organization, the companies not being numbered or
lettered, each company was called by its captain's name. Ours
was Captain Strobel's company, and was sent forward as the van-
guard of the regiment toward the seat of war by Colonel Terry
who assumed command although he refused to be called Colonel
until he should be elected to the position by his men. The election
took place in Kentucky in December following.

The company was put in box freight cars and started eastward over
what was afterwards to be called the Sunset Route, which at that
time ran east from Eagle Lake, Colorado County, Texas, through
the city of Houston, to New Iberia, Louisiana. ³ Our baggage and
guns were put in the cars with us, each man retaining and wearing
his pistols as regularly as his clothes. At New Iberia was a gap ⁴
where the road had not been built reaching to Brashear City,
Louisiana, about 100 miles. Over this gap we were supposed to
walk and most of the company without a murmur commenced this
march. The captain had hired wagons to transport the baggage
and guns. A few men found horses they could hire for the trip
and so we started with eight or ten men riding horseback and the
balance on foot. The country was level, for the most part, the
road was good, but innumerable lagoons or sloughs lay across this
roadway from six inches to two feet deep and there was no way
to cross them except to wade them. With this kind of experience,
a half day found most of the men with blistered sore feet, and
the further we went the more aggravated was their condition. So
the captain, who was mounted, decided by the middle of the after-
noon he would mount his men by impressing horses for the balance
of the journey. That section was full of horses running in great
herds on its prairies, so he and his mounted men found a herd of
more than 100 head of all ages, sorts, and sizes, and penned them
on or near the road while his baggage wagons were halted at little
streams nearby. When the footmen reached the place they were
told to look up their baggage, take their lariats, go to the pen and
mount themselves, and the evening might be spent in breaking
their horses and getting ready for the march next day.

The ages of the horses were from three to eight years, many
of them had never been haltered before, some few were broken and
gentle, and some of the older ones had been handled some but
spoiled in attempting to break them and turned out on the range
to go free. Of this last class I got one, an eight year old, Clay-
bank gelding; but whatever their condition or habits, they were all

well broken by dark that night. Next morning one of my mess-
mates, Patton by name, a school and classmate for several years,
found his horse was loose and gone and could not be found any-
where near. The company was preparing to move. I went to the
captain, explained the situation and asked permission to return
to that pen and get another horse for Patton. He consented.
Another one of my mess-mates told me he had been lucky enough
to get a horse fairly well broken and gentle and that he would ex-
change with me until I went on that errand and returned. The
company moved off and Patton was left at camp alone to await
my coming with his horse. I rode back about six hundred yards
to the pen where we had corraled the horses that evening. It was
empty and I inquired at the house nearby of ladies--no men being
at home—for the horses. They told me they had been turned out
into a very large grass pasture nearby lying out south of the house.
I went into that pasture and rode south from the residence; but
concerning what happened for the balance of that day I am in-
debted to those good ladies for the information, for my mind sud-
denly became blank as to that matter and never since that time
to this good day have I been able to recall anything that happened
after I started out south from the house that day. About sunset
I revived enough to realize that some one was sitting by me, pour-
ing cold water on my head and I asked in surprise, "What do you
mean by this treatment?" and "Where am I?" Patton answered,
"You have been dead all day and I am trying this treatment to
revive you." He then told me he had waited for me at the camp
until he became uneasy at my failure to return and came up to this
house hunting for me and found me there in an unconscious con-
dition. Then the kind hearted ladies told me that I had early
in the morning gone out into their pasture and had driven up a
bunch of horses near the house, made a dash at them and had
lassoed one of them and being unable to manage the animal I was
riding, the lassoed animal made a quick circuit around me, jerked
me off on the ground upon my head and that they had gone out there,
dragged me to the house in an unconscious condition. They fur-
ther stated the two horses thus lashed together by the lariat around
the horn of my saddle on one and around the neck of the other
ran off at a furious pace to overtake those gone on before, ran one
on each side of the same tree, bringing on a collision resulting in

the death of the one and the fatal wounding of the other. The
ladies had also brought my saddle, blanket and lariat to the house.

Now night had come on. Our company was a day's journey
ahead of us and we two soldiers were left to shift for our trans-
portation the best we could. We consulted about what was best to
be done. Patton had learned the family possessed two carriage
horses in their barn and we paid the ladies $5.00 for their use to
ride until we should overtake our company, pledging our honor as
soon as we reached the camp to return them by their driver who was
to accompany us. We saddled up and started at once, riding all
night before we overtook the company. We sent back the horses
with many thanks and journeyed from there to Brashear City,
Patton and lin baggage wagons. At Brashear City we were all
put on railroad trains again and soon after reached New Orleans,
where we were quartered in a cotton compress building. Next
day, aboard the cars on the Mississippi Central road we resumed our
journey, without any incident of note until we reached Grand
Junction, Tennessee, where we received a telegram from Colonel
Terry ordering us to remain there awaiting further orders from
him.

About two days later another message came announcing the
fact that General Albert Sidney Johnston had interceded with the
Secretary of War for our service--I mean the services of this Terry
Ranger Regiment--and that we should take up our journey for
Nashville, Tennessee, where General Johnston had arranged for our
horses and munitions of war. This change of destination brought
deep disappointment and displeasure to every one, as their hearts
had been set on going to Virginia. General A. S. Johnston was
a West Pointer, had served in the U. S. army both in the Mexican
War and later on western frontier. He had a home and farm in
Texas, and had resigned his position in the army when Texas se-
ceded from the Union and accepted service in the Confederate
army, and was at that time commanding the nucleus of what was
afterwards the army of Tennessee, at Bowling Green, Kentucky.
To Nashville we journeyed, and when we reached the city, en-
camped on the old fair grounds in West Nashville. Other com-
panies of the regiment soon followed us and in a short time the
whole regiment was encamped at Nashville.

The news of our coming and stories of the marvelous acts of
horsemanship of the cowboys had preceded us; and we proved to
be a great attraction for the people of Nashville and surrounding
country—so much so that crowds gathered in the mornings and
greater crowds in the evenings every day while we were getting in
our horses in that city. Every wild, unbroken, vicious horse in
that section was brought in to be ridden. When one came in
there was generally a rush made by the soldiers to get first chance
at him. When he had been bridled and saddled one would mount
him, pull off the bridle, turn him loose, put spurs to him, and
bid him do his worst. Before he was half through with the per-
formance another soldier would spring upon him as a hind-rider
and after a time, depending upon the strength of the animal, he
would come to a stand-still, completely exhausted and his riders
were ready for the next act.

One attraction for the spectators was the ease with which the
horsemen could ride in full gallop or fast run and pick up from
the ground anything they wished to. To start this performance it
would be announced from the stand or some prominent place that
a number of silver dollars would be strewn along on the race track
for anyone that would run at full speed and pick them up. This
proposition would create much rivalry and interest among those
who had gotten their mounts and a half dozen, sometimes more,
would enter the contest, for by this time many had exhausted their
pocket change. The money was placed by the spectators along
the track at intervals of twenty paces or more apart in full view
of the horsemen, and at a signal all started and generally every
dollar was picked up the first dash made. Well, the spectators
seemed to tire of the dollar proposition in a few days and reduced
the offer to half dollars which was as readily accepted and gathered
as the dollars. Later on another reduction to 25c was made and
still later the ladies would bring in many bouquets to be given
away in the same manner, but the rivalry and interest among the
performers never ceased and thus was an entertainment given from
day to day that brought many thousands of spectators during the
regiment's sojourn at the Fair grounds.

During the month of November, I think, there broke out in camp
a great epidemic of measles of a very violent form, which was
no respecter of persons seemingly, for most of the members had
it some in milder form than others, but it seemed to touch every

one. To show how general it was in its attacks I quote from
Henry Middlebrooks of our company. He said his mother had
told him he had measles when a babe and he had measles when
he was fifteen years old and he had them now so badly as to be
rendered unfit for duty and was discharged from the service,
Captain Strobel's company was first to lose a man from this epi-
demic, M. G. Harborough being the victim. The hospitals at
Nashville and many private houses were filled with the sick and
dying. I was sent to one of the hospitals where for weeks I was
kept alive by the best of nursing and attention of the good ladies
of Nashville who, in regular reliefs, nursed the sick night and day.
God bless the good ladies of Nashville. They will always have
a warm place in my heart, for my own mother could not have nursed
me more carefully and constantly. The epidemic continued its
fight upon the regiment until the middle of December, maybe a
little longer. About that time I reported to the regiment for duty
at a little village about fifteen miles north of Bowling Green, Ken-
tucky, Oakland by name, where I joined about 150 men able for
duty. Over 1000 men had been eliminated by measles; many of
them died and others were discharged on account of disability and
others still to return later on as they recovered. I can't recall
numbers now, but I might safely say as many or perhaps more
in our regiment died of this epidemic than were killed in battle
in the four years the war continued.

An incident connected with the removal of the regiment from
Nashville to Kentucky I feel should be mentioned at this time.
Colonel Terry as a precaution against possible trouble had arranged
for guards to be placed around the camp every night to prevent
the men from going up town. The men, undisciplined as they were,
looked upon this as an unnecessary restriction upon their general
liberty, and so some of the most determined ones would manage
to get out and go up every night and sometimes they would get
unruly or noisy from drink and fall into the hands of the police
and be locked up; but generally they were released after short
detention and a promise of good behavior in the future. In this
way there was some bad blood between the "cops" and the Texans,
which soon brought on a crisis and bloodshed and death to some of
she police force. One night three or four soldiers slipped by the
guards, went up town, imbibed too freely of booze, went to the
theater and took their seats in the gallery. Captain John Smith's
expected execution and Pocahontas' rescue as related in early
history of the Colonies was the drama staged for the night. When
that part of the play was reached where Captain John Smith, con-
demned to die by his Indian captors, was bound hand and foot and
his head placed upon a rock, the executioner drew back his bludgeon
to strike the fatal blow, Pocahontas thrust her own body between
Smith's head and the descending bludgeon, one of the boozy soldiers
in the gallery whipped out a six-shooter and fired upon the sup-
posed executioner with the remark that "his mother had taught
him to always protect a lady when in danger." This shot missed
its mark, but created consternation and stopped the play. The
police rushed in to arrest the offender, the other soldiers helped
him to resist arrest, and shooting began, resulting in the death of
two policemen and the wounding of another one and the freedom
of the soldiers to return unmolested to camp. This tragedy was
reported to the Governor of Tennessee and immediately telegraphed
by the Governor to General Johnston, who ordered Colonel Terry
to come immediately on the first train to Bowling Green and report
to him. By daylight next morning the regiment was in the train
on their way to their destination, nearer to the scenes that should
soon be enacted between contending lines of battle. The baggage
and the horses collected for the use of the regiment up to this time
were sent on through the country by a detail of men with an officer
in charge.

When Colonel Terry reported to General Johnston's headquarters,
at Bowling Green, he was ordered to assemble his regiment at Oak-
land, fifteen miles north of Bowling Green. About the first busi-
ness attended to in the new quarters was to hold an election for
regimental officers and to cast lots for assignment of companies
to their places in the regiment. This resulted in the election of
B. F. Terry for Colonel, Thos. S. Lubbock for Lieutenant-Colonel,
and Thos. Harrison for Major. Martin Royston was selected as
Adjutant and W. B. Sayers as Sergeant Major. Captain Strobel's
company, to which I belonged, drew the letter F for its number of
place in the regiment. The other companies drew other letters of the
alphabet, from A to K inclusive, except J, and thereafter the com-
panies were called and known by letters instead of by captains'
names. The organization now being complete, a roster was made
out and sent to the Secretary of War at Richmond, Virginia, and an
application made for numbering the regiment, and for commissions
for all commissioned officers of the same. The number assigned us
was 8th Texas Cavalry, when we would have been 2nd Texas Cav-
alry but for the two or three months interval between our enroll-
ment and our final organization. The first duty assigned us was
to patrol and picket all that section from Bowling Green north as
far up as Woodsonville on Green River, Kentucky.

The winter came on with much snow and hard freezing weather.
The men were coming in slowly from their sick beds. Those al-
ready in camps had to do double duty, owing to their small numbers
and the great amount of the work to be done. It was not uncom-
mon for men to be compelled to stand picket in the snow several
inches deep for four hours at a time and then be relieved for two
hours and be put in again for four hours. This duty was very trying
on the constitutions of those just recovering from an attack of
measles. This unusual experience brought bronchial troubles or
affections upon me, and although it did not send me to the hospital
again, yet I have never up to this day gotten entirely rid of it.

On the 17th day of December the regiment made a reconnais-
sance up near Woodsonville, Kentucky. The turnpike ran parallel
with the railroad for some distance before we reached the village.
Colonel Terry sent two companies up the railroad and the balance
of the regiment kept the pike. On near approach to the village
on Green River, the two companies came suddenly upon about an
equal number of the enemy who were concealed behind some hay-
stacks and a fence near the railroad, who saluted the Texans with
a volley of musketry which told heavily upon them, but the Texans
charged them on horseback and drove them back toward the village.
In the meantime the balance of the regiment had come up on a
rise or deviation in the pike in view of the conflict, several hundred
yards from us to our right. We were halted there for a little
while and sitting on our horses in column of twos when suddenly
without the least suspicion of what was about to happen, a heavy
volley of musketry was turned upon us from a black jack thicket
on the hillside east of us and very close to us. Colonel Terry im-
mediately ordered a charge, emphasizing the order with an oath
not easily forgotten, so we made a rush for those bushes concealing
a considerable force with bayonets fixed ready to receive us. With
our shotguns loaded with buckshot we killed, wounded, and scat-
tered that command in short order. Our casualties were compara-
tively few in numbers, but fearful in results, as we lost our Colonel,
shot through the jaw, the bullet ranging up through the brain.
He and his horse and three of the enemy fell in a heap. He had
shot two and a ranger near him, I think, shot the third one.

This was the 32nd Indiana Regiment of Infantry we fought,
commanded by Colonel Willich so we were informed by the pris-
oners we captured. This was our first battle and the first engage-
ment of the army of Tennessee. We had ridden into an ambuscade
and if the enemy had lowered their fire sufficiently in that first
volley, there is no good reason why we would not all have been
killed or wounded. One lesson we learned from that experience
that served us well in future operations. That was to have flankers
out on each side of a moving column as well as a vanguard when-
ever we might suspect an enemy, so as to avoid ambuscades.

In the engagement at Woodsonville Captain Walker of Company
K was wounded by a bayonet passing through his lower arm and
slightly wounding him in the chest. What the losses were on each
side, I cannot now recall. ⁵

When Colonel Terry was killed, Lieutenant Colonel Lubboek
was dangerously sick and died in a short time afterwards, so under
our "bill of rights" as we believed, we held another election for
Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel and to fill some vacancies in line
officers where they had resigned and gone home. At this election
we chose Captain Wharton of Company B for Colonel, Captain
Walker of Company K for Lieutenant Colonel and in Company F,
B. E. Joiner Third Lieutenant instead of Wm. Tate, resigned. We
continued our scouting, picketing, and patrolling in that section of
Kentucky through that severe winter 1861 until February, 1862.
In the meantime we received boxes of heavy clothing from our home
folks in Texas which was badly needed and duly apppreciated, for
ours was thread-bare and too light for the cold weather.

Some time in January, I think, Confederate General Zolicoffer
was killed at Fishing Creek and his army defeated, and in February
Fort Donelson on Cumberland River, after two days fighting sur-

rendered to General Grant. These heavy losses caused General
Johnston to give up Kentucky and move into Tennessee and select
later the Memphis and Charleston railroad as a base of operations.

When the army reached Nashville, our regiment was sent down
the river to, or near to, Fort Donelson to gather up some teams
and army supplies that had been rushed out there before the sur-
render of the Port, while the main body of the Confederates as-
sembled at Murfreesboro, where we rejoined them after bringing
those things we had been sent for. After a few days General John-
ston moved his infantry and artillery southward to reach his new
selected base at Corinth, Mississippi, leaving the cavalry at Mur-
freesboro to watch the enemies' movements and to impede as much
as we might their progress south if an attempt was made to follow
in pursuit. In a few days only our regiment and a few squads
of other cavalry were to be seen about the city. Among the odds
and ends of cavalry men was Captain John H. Morgan, afterwards
General Morgan, with a few recruits trying to raise a cavalry com-
mand for the Confederate service, and at the same time paying
most assiduous attentions to Miss Ready, daughter of Colonel Ready
of Murfreesboro.

One night Captain Morgan asked Colonel Wharton for a detail of
two men to go with him next day on a raid within the enemy's
lines up toward Nashville, telling Colonel Wharton he already had
seven men armed and well mounted, and he wished him to furnish
him two more good men well mounted with blue overcoats, shot-
guns and pistols, which would make ten by counting himself.
Colonel Wharton sent the order to Company F to make the detail
wanted. Jake Flewellen and I were ordered to report to Captain
Morgan next morning at sun-up, mounted and ready for the trip.
Sunrise came; Captain Morgan and nine private soldiers moved out
on the Nashville pike, mounted and equipped for the trip according
to instructions, except I had on a black overcoat. I had no blue
one and didn't want one and never did wear one. Morgan assigned
me to the rear, thinking and judging correctly too that the squad
would be judged by those in front and not by one man in the rear.
The enemy had moved their army out on Murfreesboro pike, ten
or fifteen miles, and gone into winter quarters, and were making
preparations for a movement south when spring should come.
We kept the turnpike road for several miles and as we approached
the neighborhood of their encampments we turned to the right
and moved through fields and woodland, sometimes, in full view
of their encampments and I thought uncomfortably near them.
But the blue coats of the squad kept down any suspicion as to our
identity and we kept our course until we were something like five
miles from the city when we approached the pike again, where a
thicket of undergrowth was near to the pike. We stood parallel to
the highway in a line of battle for a short time, when a wagon
train from Nashville loaded with provisions and supplies for the
army drove up, guarded by a troop of cavalry, about sixteen I
think. Armed with sabres, with guns and pistols pointed at them
and a fence between us, they surrendered readily and the guard
and teams and drivers all fell into our hands without firing a gun.
As soon as the wagons could be fired and the teams and guards
could be collected for the march, Captain Morgan ordered me and
three or four others, including my fellow soldier Flewellen to take
charge of them and get out of the enemy's lines as quickly as pos-
sible and not to halt for anything until we crossed Stone River,
near Murfreesboro, where we should encamp and wait his return.
Our trip being without incident we reached our camping place
about sundown. On the eastern bank of the stream was a large
commodious dwelling with a small family in it and servants in
the kitchen or cabins and plenty of provender in the barn. We
put our prisoners in one of the large rooms and a guard over them
and a vidette on or near the river bank; had the servants to feed
all the horses at the barn and by alternating in guard and picket
duty passed a quiet night.

Next morning before sunrise the vidette reported ten or twelve
men advancing towards us from the other side of the river. We
supposed them to be Yankees, as the enemy was generally termed by
us, but as they drew nearer there were no guns in sight and we
decided with much relief that it was Captain Morgan and his men
with ten prisoners of war they had captured and kept in the woods
all night awaiting daylight so they could see their way to travel
better. Captain Morgan, when he reached us related the events
of the previous day after we had left him. He said they captured
about sixty prisoners and had ordered four men to take them and
follow us to Stone River and camp as he had ordered us, and that
the enemy's cavalry which had gotten wind of his presence in their
lines were looking for him, coming upon this second lot of pris-
oners, recaptured them and slew three of his men after they had
surrendered, one of them making his escape. He further told us
that he and his companion had visited a picket post and he, pre-
tending to be officer of the day whose duty required him to look af-
ter the guards and pickets of the army, had called to the commander
of the post to come out of a house in which he was quartered and
as he approached him Morgan placed a pistol to his breast and told
him he was his prisoner and for him to make no sign or outcry
to his fellows in the house on penalty of death, but to call them
out by name, one by one, until all were captured without realizing
what had happened. Then his companion was sent out to the
picket post a short distance away and brought in the two videttes
who were on vidette post, and being late in the evening, the enemy
scouting on all sides looking for them, they hid themselves, sat
up all night guarding their prisoners and very early in the morning
had traveled on until they reached us and now without further
delay everything was made ready for the further march into Mur-
freesboro, that about one mile distant.

We marched up the street in front of Colonel Ready's house,
lined up prisoners, horses and spoils and guards across the street
while Captain Morgan went in the house and invited his sweetheart
and the balance of the family at home to come out on the veranda
and see the fruit of his exploit. Flewellen and I were then re-
lieved with thanks and we returned to our company, leaving the
prisoners and spoils in the hands of Morgan and his three men
he still had with him. Next day one of Morgan's men hunted me
up and told me Captain Morgan wanted to see me at his office, so
I went with him to the office. The captain greeted me most cor-
dially and said he wanted to thank me over again for the valuable
service I had rendered during the scout the day or two before. I
told him I did the best I could with the matter I had in hand and
did not deserve any special thanks more than others with me.
But he seemed to look at the matter differently and said he wished
to give me something to be kept as a souvenir of that hazardous
venture. He then told me to select a sabre, the best of the cap-
tured lot he had and take it with me as a keepsake of the occasion.
I did so and took the newest and brightest in the lot and went

back to my company with it, and while we served in the same
army I don't think now I ever saw him again.

Morgan was captain then, but soon his efficiency as a cavalry
officer and raider was conceded on all sides and his promotion was
rapid. He made many raids into the enemy's lines, even going
one time into Ohio. Men flocked to his standard from Tennessee,
Kentucky, Missouri, and other sections. He became Brigadier and
later Major-General, I think. He married Miss Ready; was finally
killed in Greenville, East Tennessee, in one of his raids in that
section. While I prized my sabre as a souvenir, I soon found it
was an inconvenience to carry with my other equipments. I had
a double barrelled shotgun, two six shooters, my blanket, oil cloth,
clothing, haversack, etc., to carry and I could at once see that while
it might prove a nice keepsake I had no other use for it. Later
on I had a chance to leave it with a relative in middle Tennessee
to be kept for me until the war was over or until I should call for
it, and in this way it passed the war period; after the close of
hostilities I went to see my kinsman (who had died in the mean-
time) and recovered my sabre from his family who had taken good
care of it. It now hangs in the hall of my daughter's home in
Grand Rapids, Michigan, 563 Union Ave., S. E. It is her keep-
sake now, to be disposed of by her as she may desire.

Some time in March, 1862, we, the cavalry forces at Murfrees-
boro, broke camp and started to follow the army of Tennessee
to Corinth, Mississippi, where it was being prepared to act on the
defensive against the oncoming armies of General Grant and
General Buell. Grant's army was at Pittsburg Landing and en-
camped out some distance from the landing on the Tennessee River
in the direction of Corinth, near Shiloh church, while General
Buell was moving his army from Nashville to the same point by
forced marches to unite with Grant in his attack on General John-
ston, now at Corinth, about fifteen miles south of Pittsburg Land-
ing. Johnston's army consisted of about 40,000 or 45,000 men—
my recollection Grant's nearly the same—and Buell's probably
50,000. Johnston decided to attack Grant's army before Buell
could reach him and taking one at a time, defeat them both, and
I have no doubt his plan would have succeeded had General John-
ston lived a few days more. After hastily collecting his forces
he moved out of Corinth, on the evening of the fifth ⁶ of April and
next morning before light attacked the enemy in the encampments.
The attack was unexpected and furious from the beginning. The
enemy was driven slowly back towards the river all day long,
making a most stubborn resistance, but gradually they gave up
their encampments and artillery and equipments until four o'clock
that afternoon when the Confederates were unwisely halted by an
order from General Beauregard who succeeded to chief command
after General Johnston's fatal wound about three o'clock that after-
noon. This closed the first day's engagement with the whole
battlefield, including many arms, wagons, sutlers stores, etc., etc.,
in the hands of the Confederates.

We slept on the battleground that night as best we could with
torrents of rain pouring down on us all night and with the gun-
boats on the river firing over us all night to disturb our slumbers.
Many of the boys visited the sutlers stores that night and helped
themselves to the edibles and as much clothing as they could use
or carry off. Next morning early the Federals having been rein-
forced by Buell's army, made an attack on us by moving forward.
against our left, with what was said to be eleven lines of battle,
and beat our left wing back some distance and then a movement
along all of our front beat back all of our line slowly but surely
all day long until night closed the fight with Federals in charge of
all their encampments given up the previous day. Thus ended
two days of the most terrible fighting I ever witnessed before or
since. Never did lat any other time hear minie balls seem to fill
the air so completely as on this second day's fight. But the battle
was not ended yet, for on the third day, the eighth of April, in the
evening was an engagement between the Confederate cavalry and
Federal infantry that ought always to be mentioned as the last act
of this tragic event where losses on both sides amounted to more
than 20,000 men. ⁷

I will now recur to the regiment and company to which I be-
longed, in order to record their part in this bloody contest and
to give some of the incidents of more or less interest that occurred

at that time. ⁸ When the battle commenced on the 6th of April
our bugler sounded the assembly which brought us quickly into line.
The several companies were numbered to ascertain our effective
force at the beginning. Company F numbered 65 men in line, in-
cluding non-commissioned officers, a captain and second lieutenant.
This lieutenant had been elected by the company principally be-
cause he had slain two different men in personal combat, and was
therefore regarded as a hero of heroes. While the company was
being numbered, the musketry one-half mile away was heavy and
almost continuous and this officer riding up and down in front of
the company remarked time and time again, "Ah, boys, that is music
to my ears," making us believe he would perform many deeds of
valor when he reached the firing line. At last an order came for
us to march to the front and when near there we were ordered to
form columns of fours, move to rear of the enemy and make an at-
tack from that quarter; but failing to get far enough back to take
them in the rear we marched the head of the column right into the
flank of the enemy's line, who, concealed from our view, were lying
down behind some timber recently felled by a storm. Being at
right angles with our line of march, they could concentrate the fire
of their whole line to enfilade our column from end to end; and as
the head of the column neared them they rose suddenly, poured a
volley into us which reached every company in the line of march,
killing and wounding men and horses clear back to the rear of
column. Of course nothing could be done but fall back and reform
for further action in a different move; but I must stop to tell you
about this officer to whose ears the battle at a distance was so
musical. Though not touched by bullets he became suddenly sick
at the sight of bloodshed and had to be sent to the rear to avoid a
nervous collapse. It was his first and his last experience in battle
for he resigned and returned to Texas and we never saw him again.
This lesson is that "the true test of valor comes, not in use of
words, but only in action in the crucible of battle."

The regiment was dismounted and made an attack on the enemy
on the left flank of our army and then moved to the rear of our
army for a support to other troops in firing line, and so fighting
and maneuvering was kept up until four o'clock in the afternoon

when all the reserves were ordered to the firing line for a final rush
to be made as we all thought to drive the panic-stricken army of
General Grant into Tennessee River. We formed the line, and
awaited the order to move forward. In the meantime the enemy
immediately on our front left their line in some haste and disap-
peared from view over the crest of the hill near the river. While
we waited with much impatience for orders to move there came
an order from General Beauregard telling that the battle was ended
for the day and we had captured General Prentiss with four thou-
sand of his men and a great victory was ours. When the order
was read instead of creating enthusiasm amongst the men it created
indignation and disgust because it was apparent to all in the firing
line that the hard earned victory that had cost so much blood and
so many lives was to be thrown away for the want of one more
charge which as we thought then and think now would have re-
sulted in a complete overthrow or capture of General Grant's army
and the downfall of General Grant himself as a military leader.
But why was the Southern army halted at this critical period?
General Beauregard's excuse was it was late in the day, the men
were tired and needed rest; but the truth as I saw it is the sun
was still between three and four hours high and the men were
anxious for this last charge to the river, which was not more than
one-half mile away, I think. The men talked among themselves
of the importance of the movement, and their willingness to make it
at the time and after events prove but too well the men were right
and the commander wrong in issuing the order to halt.

I want to make a little digression from the main story to pay
my respects to some erroneous history in regard to this crisis in
that battle. Nelson's Encyclopedia and the History of the Mis -
sissippi Valley by Prof. Johnson, ⁹ Ph. D. and LL, D. of the
Agricultural College of Minnesota, I think, both agree substan-
tially in the statement that a hastily constructed battery on the
hill near the river and the firing of the gunboats from the river
stopped the Confederate's advance. While I am still upon the earth
I want to testify as eye-witness at close range, that the aforesaid
battery and the gunboat's shelling had no more to do with stopping
the forward movement that day than the flowing of the ocean tides
or the changes of the moon had to do with it, for nearly an hour
had passed since we halted before the battery was placed and before
the gunboats fired the first shot and the men had scattered from
their commands looking for something to eat. So I enter my pro-
test here and now against the careless and unauthorized way these
two authors record history.

But to return to my story. There was a man, Charles Howard
by name, strong physically and mentally, brave as Julias Caesar
and well educated, but with the way and manners of a frontiers-
man, with many peculiarities. He had belonged to Company F
but got a transfer to Company C for some reason I don't recall.
He had gotten a nice laundered white shirt, from the sutler's store
the night of the 6th of April. Next morning, the 7th, as the regi-
ment was formed to move, some one reproved Howard for tucking
his shirt back at the neck, exposing his breast which was one of
his habits, telling him it was a shame to treat a nice shirt in that
way. His reply was, "If I get shot in the breast today I don't
want the bullet to injure my biled shirt." Pretty soon we were
ordered to move out towards the enemy and ascertain their posi-
tion, their probable number, etc., and report back to the command-
ing general. Our movement, which was only intended for a recon-
naisance, drew the fire of the enemy's pickets, for advance in their
forward movement had already begun, and one ball struck Howard
in the breast a little below the collar bone, going through him and
lodging in the muscles or shoulder blade in the back part of his
shoulder, not touching his laundered shirt. A little later while
we stood in column still headed towards the enemy Howard came
riding along the column singing "Blue-eyed Mary," a favorite song
of his. As he neared me I said, "Which way, Charles, with your
'Blue-eyed Mary' this morning?" He replied, "To Texas, don't
you see my furlough?" pointing to the wound in his breast. He
rode horseback to Corinth that day, about fifteen miles, applied
for and obtained a furlough soon after, went to Texas and about
five months later reported back to his company for duty again,
sound as a dollar.

Our next move was to the rear a short distance to dismount and
join in with a Louisiana brigade of infantry to make a charge on
the enemy. Our movement was down a gentle slope to the bottom
of a hill. The enemy came down the slope on the other side to-
wards us. The whole face of the earth at that place and time
appeared to be blue and their many lines of battle firing over each
others head made a storm of lead that no single line of battle could
resist and so after a short time the line was so weakened
by losses as to compel the retirement of the remainder. But I
want to relate an incident of the battle that impressed me as being
out of the ordinary. John P. Humphries, a member of Company
F, a brave good soldier carried the largest shotgun I ever saw and
always loaded it with about 20 buckshot to each barrel. He had
a most peculiar laugh, unlike any laugh I ever heard. As we made
that charge that morning there was a small oak tree near the bot-
tom of the hill where the line made a stand. It was right in my front
so I got behind the tree thinking it might save my hide somewhat.
I had scarcely reached it before Humphries came up behind me.
He saw the tree was too small for two to stand behind in safety,
so he moved a few steps to the left and got behind another tree
about the same size. A little while after I heard Humphries laugh
and looked towards him to see what had happened. A minie ball
had pierced his hat close to his scalp and knocked it from his head.
He grabbed it up, pulled it down hard on his head with both hands
and laughed his peculiar laugh again. It occurred to me, and I
mentally said, "If you can laugh at that, you will laugh at death
when he comes." This repulse was the first experienced in the
battle of Shiloh. After this the battle raged pretty well all day
over lines resisting with great stubbornness; but by night the enemy
occupied their foremost encampments, and our army retreated that
night carrying all the army supplies with them as far as was pos-
sible to do.

Next day, April 8th, the cavalry were employed in patrolling the
space now behind the army and as rear guard we protected as best
we could the retreat of our army to Corinth from any possible
attack that might be made by the enemy's cavalry or any other arm
of service that might pursue it. About four o'clock in the after-
noon the enemy's infantry in force kept moving up towards us
until we realized we would have to check them by some means
to keep them from overtaking the rear of our army. A short
distance ahead of us Major Harrison, now commanding the regi-
ment, sent me to General Breckenridge's headquarters who was
commanding the rear of the retreating army to tell him of the
near approach of a large body of the enemy and to ask him for aid
or orders. General Breckenridge's reply was, "Give Major Har-
rison my compliments and tell him to hold the enemy back awhile
for I can't move from here yet." I rode back, delivered the mes-
sage, and found the enemy had approached to within 250 or 300
yards of our position; had formed two lines of battle and had
thrown out skirmishers who were making it lively for our boys
who were then standing in line on horseback. At this juncture
Colonel Forrest came up to us with about an equal number of
horsemen to our own, placed them on the right of our line, and;
being senior officer took charge of the whole line, about two hun-
dred or more in all. He immediately decided to charge so Major
Harrison rode up in front of our line, telling us to prepare for
the charge, and added, "Boys, go in twenty steps of the Yankees
before you turn your shotguns loose on them."

Forrest ordered forward. Without waiting to be formal in the
matter, the Texans went like a cyclone, not waiting for Forrest to
give his other orders to trot, gallop, charge, as he had drilled his
men. By the time the Yankee skirmishers could run to their places
in ranks and both lines got their bayonets ready to lift us fellows
off our horses, we were halted in twenty steps of their two lines of
savage bayonets, their front line kneeling with butts of guns on the
ground, the bayonets standing out at right angle or straighter and
the rear lines with their bayonets extended between the heads of
the men of the first line. In a twinkling of an eye almost, both
barrels of every shotgun in our line loaded with fifteen to twenty
buckshot in each barrel was turned into that blue line and lo! what
destruction and confusion followed. It reminded me then of a
large covey of quail bunched on the ground, shot into with a load of
bird shot: their squirming and fluttering around on the ground
would fairly represent that scene in that blue line of soldiers on
that occasion. Every man nearly who was not hurt or killed broke
to the rear, most of them leaving their guns where the line went
down, and made a fine record in getting back to their reserved
force several hundred yards in their rear. After the shotguns were
fired, the guns were slung on the horns of our saddles and with
our six shooters in hand we pursued those fleeing, either capturing

or killing until they reached their reserved force. Just before they
reached this force, we quietly withdrew; every man seemed to act
upon his own judgment for I heard no orders. But we were all
generals and colonels enough to know that when the fleeing enemy
should uncover us so their line could fire on us, we would have
been swept from the face of the earth.

Some observations might be appropriately made at this time
concerning the engagement. ¹⁰ It was the last fight of the battle
of Shiloh. The enemy turned back from there and we had that
section to ourselves. Forrest and his command never fired a gun
in that battle for the reason that his military maneuvers as then
practiced did not allow his men to get there until the fight was
over. Notwithstanding this fact a Memphis paper a day or two
afterwards gave out the statement that Colonel Forrest with a few
Texans on April the 8th had charged the enemy in force and com-
pletely vanquished them. After Forrest gave the order to forward
we never saw him any more until we were brigaded over at Chat-
tanooga and put under him for service. We were told that when
we made that cyclone movement towards the enemy Colonel For-
rest turned to his men to urge them forward faster and was struck
in the back by one of the enemy's bullets fired at us as we went at
them, and had to be taken off the field. ¹¹

I have been asked by some persons inexperienced as to warfare
why the Yankees did not shoot us all off our horses when halted
so close in their front. Of course they had no loads in guns to
shoot us with and we knew it for as we approached them both lines
of battle had fired at us and they had had no time to reload.

There was only one Texan wounded in that fight, Lieutenant
Story of Company C, and there is a good reason for that; for the
enemy fired when we were crossing a low place in the ground about
fifteen yards away and most of their balls went over our heads.
One of them struck and mortally wounded Lieutenant Story and
one ball took a fur cap off my head leaving, as my comrades after-
wards told me, a small powder marked line across my left temple.
One or two more incidents of this battle and I will pass on.

In our pursuit of the flying enemy, as I rushed by a stump of a
tree, ten feet high and two feet in diameter, looking at a Yankee
running in my front a little distance I became suddenly aware of
a bayonet near my body in the hands of a red faced Dutchman,,
and I could not tell whether he made a thrust at me and missed me
or whether he intended to use it on me if I bothered him. I
turned upon him, fully intending to kill him, but when I leveled
my pistol at him, he dropped his bayonetted gun upon the ground
and with the greatest terror depicted in his face, said, "I sur-
render." In an instant I forgave him and let him live. I think
surrender was the only English word he could speak, neither could
he understand a word I said. I said, "Take that gun up and break
it against the stump" and when I found he didn't know what to
do and stood trembling I pointed to the gun and made signs to
take hold of it and motions to strike. I got him to understand
me, he broke the breech off and I motioned him to our rear and he
went off at a lively gait.

I had a messmate by the name of Ed Kaylor, a good soldier,
never showing any fear about him. In this battle he came upon a
captain who had vainly tried to rally his men as they ran to the
rear. When he found he could not get them to stop and help him
he concluded he would sell out as best he could so he fired on
Kaylor as he rode towards him. They exchanged three shots each;
Kaylor slowly advancing upon him. When Kaylor closed in upon
him he threw up his hands and offered to surrender, but Kaylor,
in language not suitable for parlor topics of conversation said,
"Oh H—ll you are too late" and fired another shot, killing him
instantly. An eye-witness to this pistol duel said Kaylor had a
broad smile on his face during this gun play. When I heard of
the incident I said to Kaylor, "Ed, what did you see in that game
that caused you to smile so sweetly at that Yankee?" He said he
was not conscious of having smiled, but he surely did enjoy that
scrap immensely. Poor Kaylor afterwards was killed in East Ten-
nessee while serving under Longstreet, during the siege of Knox-
ville, as related by a Texan companion with him at the time, as
follows: Kaylor and a companion having lost their horses (in
battle or otherwise) were ordered to mount themselves again by
taking horses wherever they could find them back in the mountains,
for the most part of that section was disloyal to the Confederacy
anyway. As they searched the mountain section for horses they
heard that there was to be a dance given to the Yankee officers
near where was one of their encampments, so they concluded to
attend that dance, and mount themselves while the Yankees
danced. But after reaching the place they concluded to go in the
house, get the riders and take them and their horses both back
with them, so they entered the room during the dancing with pis-
tols in hands and demanded surrender of all the men who were in
the room, all armed with pistols belted around them. For a time
all seemed to go as they wished until some one cried out, "There
are only, two of these rebels." Then ensued a scuffle for their pis-
tols already in Kaylor's hands and Kaylor began to shoot and sev-
eral fell from his unerring aim, until some one regained his pistol,
shot him and he fell dead among several he had already slain.
His companion escaped and lived to tell of his taking off as here
related.

But to return to the main story, the Battle of Shiloh was finished.
The losses were enormous as already related. Of the sixty-five men
and two officers that answered roll call on the morning of the 6th
of April of Company F, only fourteen men and the captain an-
swered roll call on the morning of the 8th of April and I was act-
ing orderly sergeant. Now this should not be construed to mean
that the other fifty men had been killed or wounded, but it does
mean that those not killed or wounded were absent from roll call,
most of them off on some kind of duty, such as picketing, scouting,
helping the retreating army in whatever way duty assigned them.

The Confederate army collected at Corinth, and the Federal
army at Pittsburg Landing, each army where it had encamped
before the battle, and each one to plan its future operations was
left unmolested for a time. Our regiment was ordered back to
Tennessee going through lower middle Tennessee on to Chatta-
nooga. We camped one or two nights at Rienzi, Mississippi, on
our way. Awaiting final instructions as to our future movements,
news came to us that General Price had reached Corinth with his
army of Missourians and Texans. As I had a brother with this
command in Whitfield's Legion of Texans I decided to make him
a visit before we left Mississippi. It was about twenty miles I
think back to Corinth, so getting some papers fixed up by my com-
rades as a pass to keep me from being arrested as a deserter, I

went back to Corinth as my command went eastward on their
journey towards Tennessee. My papers were not genuine.

I found my brother sick from exposure during the winter cam-
paign under Price in Missouri. I stayed with him all night and
next morning moved out early to overtake my command which was
by this time twenty miles and two days journey ahead of me. I
rode all day and a part of the night to overtake them. They had
captured a small scouting party of Yankees the night or day be-
fore I reached them.

Next morning a detail was called for from Company F to take
the prisoners back to Corinth, and I was called on to be one of
the guards; so back to Corinth I journeyed again, and after de-
livering the prisoners to General Beauregard's headquarters the
following night, and resting a few hours, set out to overtake the
command which was moving eastward. After about two days
more I was again with the command. But now my faithful steed
which I had ridden constantly since the middle of December the
year before gave out entirely, worn out by constant usage and had
to be left on the wayside, and I had to join the wagon train and
to be snubbed as a "wagon dog" by my comrades, a common ap-
pellation given to every one who went with the wagons, regardless
of the conditions making it necessary for him to be there.

The command went through middle Tennessee and had a fight
or heavy skirmish with the Yankees at Sulphur Trestle in Giles
County. I do not recall any results of that fight as reported to us
except Captain Harris of Company I lost his life there. Arriving
at Chattanooga a brigade was organized by putting Forrest's regi-
ment, our regiment, and two Georgia regiments, three and four, I
think, together, and Colonel Forrest took charge of it for service
in middle Tennessee and wherever we might be needed.

At that time elections were held in different companies to select
commissioned officers where there were vacancies caused by resigna-
tions or otherwise. Company F elected two lieutenants, 1st and
2nd, J. K. P. Blackburn 1st, and A. J. Murray 2nd. While we
were entitled to commissions issued by the Secretary of War, we
never applied for them and never received them. In fact, I don't
remember of ever having seen a commission from the government
for any officer in the command. The men of the different companies
knew whom they had selected and, whether they held commissions

or whether they wore insignia of office or not, they always felt
that they must obey the men they had elected over them. Hardly
a star or bar was to be seen in the command, except in dress parade
when the Colonel might show his rank on a dress coat that he kept
for the purpose.

Our next encounter with the enemy was in Warren County, Ten-
nessee, near Morrison's depot where the enemy had constructed a
stockade and left about three companies of infantry to protect a
railroad bridge across the river from destruction by the Confeder-
ates. The stockade was built of logs twelve or fifteen inches in
diameter and twelve feet long, set on end in trenches two feet deep,
close touching each other with portholes cut between the logs about
as high as a man's head, to shoot through. These logs were thor-
oughly tamped in place and a small door left in one side for passing
in and out with a screen of like make just on the inside so one
going in would pass in the door and turn to left or right to got
inside of the stockade. I have been thus particular in describing
this fort or stockade so the reader may more easily understand
why we were so easily and completely defeated by this small con-
tingent of defenders when we attacked that fort. When within
one-quarter or one-half mile of the place Colonel Forrest formed
the brigade into single line, ordered us to dismount and then rode
in front of each regiment giving instructions about the charge
he intended to make. When in front of our regiment he said, "I
don't want but one-half of this command for this engagement"--
that his scouts reported that only three or four companies were up
there and that they had their dinner already cooked, and he
wanted us to kill them and then eat their dinner. Company F
had thirty men in line, so the first fifteen were ordered to step
two paces to the front, and the captain told me to take charge of
them, so we maneuvered for some time to get a suitable place to
charge from, but could not get nearer than two hundred or two
hundred and fifty yards without being exposed to full view of the
enemy from the start to the finish, so we were ordered to charge at
least two hundred yards through an open field upon that fort.
Of course the enemy were inside and had nothing to do but shoot
us down from the start. After approaching near enough for some
of our men to make telling shots at those portholes we were driven
back in much disorder to the timber, back of the field from whence

we started. Our loss was estimated at 180 killed and wounded.
Company F's loss was one killed and five wounded. The enemy's
Loss was 20 killed whom we shot in the head through those port-
holes. James Petty of my company was killed within ten feet of
the door of that stockade. These details of the enemy's dead and
the place where Petty fell we have learned from our surgeon who
was left to care for the wounded at that place.

Our next move was to capture about 2000 soldiers commanded
by General Crittenden at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. We started
from the neighborhood of McMinnville, Tennessee, one evening in
the summer--I don't remember the date ¹²--rode until about eight
o'clock, stopped, watered and fed our horses, mounted again and
rode until nearly daylight to reach our destination. Before we
reached the town we captured the videttes on the pike upon which
we were moving; also captured General Crittenden in his bed at his
headquarters, a nice dwelling in the town, and learned from the
citizens that the enemy had an encampment of eight hundred or
one thousand infantry soldiers in the suburbs of the town, about
the same number and artillery out on Stone River a mile away,
and a strong guard over about 150 political or citizen prisoners at
the court house.

Colonel Forrest divided his command into three divisions, send-
ing one to attack the court house, one to attack the enemy
on Stone Eiver, each division led by a few rangers, and the bal-
ance of the rangers to attack the encampment in the edge of Ten-
nessee. The first two bodies mentioned did little except to draw
the fire of the enemy and to warn them to be ready for us in later
attacks. The rangers went into the encampment with a yell and
attacked the enemy as they came out of the tents in their night
clothes and after a lively skirmish in which many of them fell, our
Colonel Wharton was wounded and ordered the regiment to with-
draw.

Afterwards Colonel Forrest collected all of our regiment behind
a block of buildings near the encampanment, sent in a flag of truce
demanding unconditional surrender of the encampment within
thirty minutes and added, "If you refuse I will charge you with
the Texas Rangers under the black flag." After a little delay

they agreed to surrender and immediately Colonel Forrest sent
flags of truce to other places where the troops were with the same
demand and same threat and added, "I have your General and all
the balance of his command as prisoners in my hands," In a
little while the whole of General Crittenden's army were our pris-
oners with all their artillery, wagons, teams and army and soldiers'
supplies and about 2000 soldiers. Forrest had played a bold game
of bluff and it had succeeded where we could scarcely hope to con-
quer by force of arms; for our number was about half, and half of
that number were fresh troops who had never been under fire of
battle before.

An incident occurred as we made the charge along the streets
in the twilight of that morning which was both inspiring and im-
pressive. The ladies in their night robes came out on the pave-
ment and cheered with their shouts and their "God bless you,"
even when the enemy's bullets were flying about them.

All army stores and artillery, small arms and ammunition were
put under guard to take them back to McMinnville, about forty
or fifty miles (I cannot remember exactly). The troops were col-
lected and a guard of two companies and a commissioned officer
were called for to take charge of them and march them back to
McMinnville. Companies F and D of our regiment were detailed
for this purpose and I was ordered to take charge of them and see
to it that they were delivered to the place of rendezvous. I formed
a column of prisoners, eight abreast and closed them up so as to
allow only walking room between them, and put some guards in
front on horseback, some in the rear, and the balance on each side;
thus inclosing prisoners in hollow square and gave command to
move forward. I gave instructions to the guards so the prisoners
could hear, "If any man makes a break from that column, shoot
him down without halting him." This was near sundown and we
moved without difficulty but slowly on account of the long distance
the prisoners had to walk; rushing them would have resulted in
breaking them down.

My guards had had no sleep now for about forty hours nor rest
either, so I soon found they were asleep on their horses, and fear-
ing the enemy might discover it and make their escape I had to use
heroic methods to meet the emergency. So I rode around that
moving column all night punching or pinching the guards to keep

them awake. They would generally respond by "All right" or some
sign as I waked them, but as soon as I passed they would fall
asleep again so my march around that column continued on and on.

Just before daylight, I received order from Colonel Forrest
to park my charge in a grass lot, put out videttes and let them
rest an hour or so. So I readily obeyed instructions. By the time
that I had placed the guards, the prisoners had all fallen on the
ground and were asleep. My guards also fell asleep and I after
strenuous efforts to keep up and look after the business in my
hands, fell asleep also, my horse remaining by me. When day-
light came I was the first to stir. I awaked the guards and then
the prisoners, adopted the same formation I had before. We were
soon on the march again with still about fifteen miles to travel.

We reached Forrest's headquarters about nine o'clock, turned
over the prisoners to him, and asked him for the camp of the regi-
ment. I dismissed the guard, went to camp, and found our cap-
tain and a few men with him. I dismounted, leaving my horse
with the saddle and personal baggage on him for some one else to
look after and fell down on the bare ground and slept until after
sundown that evening without having had water or anything to
eat for about twenty-four hours. The last I had was from the
sutler's store the evening before. When I got up I found my horse
dead only a few steps from where I left him. He had died from
exhaustion. The two days and two nights constant going on the
light feed he got were too much for him and he perished in the
service of his country, so to speak.

I can think of nothing of much interest occurring to any portion
of our regiment until General Bragg with the army of Tennessee
made a raid into Kentucky in September, 1862, I think. The
cavalry of course was to be the vanguard on this trip in order to
clear up the way, and keep the commanding general posted as to
what was before him on his line of march.

Our first engagement was with McCook's corps near the Ken-
tucky-Tennessee line when our regiment was ordered to feel of
the enemy in that section to ascertain its strength and size of force.
This resulted in several casualties to our men and in finding it
was McCook's corps marching north to be ready for General Bragg
when he should get there. S. G. Clark of our company was one
of the killed here. I kept a diary of the trip through Kentucky

on this raid and while I lost it soon after the raid was over I re-
member some of the entries made. One was that from the day
we entered Kentucky until the day we passed out of the state, thir-
ty-eight days, our regiment in part or as a whole had been under
the fire of the enemy's guns forty-two times, including Perryville
Battle as one of the times. Fighting and skirmishing occurred
every day and some days more than once. ¹³ Except at Perryville
our losses were generally light, but coming so frequently they
amounted to many in the aggregate.

Before I leave Perryville in my narrative I shall relate incidents
on that field not to be easily forgotten. My bedfellow during the
trip was D. A. McGenagil. At Perryville, a piece of shell bursting
in our line of battle struck him in the side, breaking two of his
ribs. He was sent off to the hospital for repairs so I was without
a bedfellow that night, and as the nights were frosty I looked out
for some other person to get the benefit of his blanket for a cov-
ering while mine should be spread on the ground for the pallet.
"We only had one blanket each, hence the necessity of having a
partner. The battle had continued to rage until eight o'clock at
night or thereabouts, the Confederates driving back their antago-
nists steadily until the firing ceased. Our regiment was required
to go on picket along the space where the last fighting was done.
It was in a corn field near a little branch. The Federals had
withdrawn but a short distance without noise, and without fires
had retired after putting out their pickets on the side next to us.
We were instructed to go to the place to be picketed with great
caution and keep silent. We found the place we stopped on and
had to stay that night on ground covered with flint rocks from the
size of a man's fist to the size of his head and many dead of both
armies lying around. The wounded had been removed, or most of
them. I looked around or searched around among my company; we
only had a poor star light, as it was mostly cloudy. I found Sam
Woodward of my company with a good blanket and no bedfellow for
the night, and we soon arranged to bunk together. I said, "Sam,
you look for a place as smooth as you can find, as clear of the flint!
rock as possible, and let me know and we will fix for bed." In

fifteen or twenty minutes he came to me and said, "I have found
a fairly good place, but there are two dead men on it." I said,
"They are as dead as they will ever be, are they not?" He said
"Yes," and I said, "Then we will remove them a little space and
occupy their place." He said, "All right," and we went to the
spot selected and turned one man over one way and the other
the other way (they were lying parallel with each other), made our
bed between them and slept sweetly until daylight next morning;
and behold one of the dead was a Confederate and other one a
Federal soldier. Both had fallen on the same spot and died near
each other.

Some of our boys, nearly barefooted, were searching around
among the dead for footwear, all in the darkness. They had to
judge of what they were getting by the way it felt. Mullins of
Company D found a good pair of boots on Wheeler, I think, an-
other ranger who was asleep among the dead. He immediately
decided the boots would suit, grabbed one of them, and jerked it
off Wheeler's foot. This aroused Wheeler to consciousness and
he called out, "What in the h-ll are you doing there?" "Nothing,
d---n you I thought you were dead and I needed those boots."
John P. Humphries, of whom I have spoken before, needed foot-
wear and went out after daylight to see what were the chances.
He found a Yankee, dead, sitting against a tree, with a good pair
of shoes. John got down on his knees to take off the fellow's shoes
and, just as he got one unlaced and ready to pull off, took another
glance at the Yankee's face and the Yankee winked at him. He
left the shoes on his dead man and came to camp and told it, and
laughing that peculiar laugh, said he didn't want any shoes anyway.

Next morning our army moved to Harrodsburg, Kentucky, and
the other army stayed near where they had camped before, not
seeming to want to follow us, except at a considerable distance
from us.

One other incident of the Perryville Battle I will mention.
There were two young men, about eighteen and twenty years old,
brothers, named George and Simeon Bruce who came to Texas to
live, from Vermont, about eight months before the commencement
of hostilities. They had no relatives or interests in Texas, but
when the war came up they volunteered in our regiment, saying
the South was right in its contentions, and they freely offered their
lives in its defense. At Perryville Simeon Bruce was shot through
the calf of his leg with a grapeshot and George was left with him
to care for him. They communicated with homefolks in Vermont
and told of their whereabouts and conditions. An answer soon
came back with money for every need and urging their return home.
They were informed, also, that one of their brothers was a colonel
in the Federal army and another one a surgeon in the same army.
The family where they were staying also urged them to go home
when they learned the facts concerning them. The boys didn't
entirely consent to return, but said they would give it favorable
consideration, not fully committing themselves to any certain
course, but rather left the impression when Sim recovered they
might go home. Sim after a long time got so he could ride horse-
back without much discomfort and then the boys bought horses
with the money sent them and hastened South to their command
and remained with it, making splendid soldiers until the war end-
ed and returned to Texas and are there or in Oklahoma yet, or
were when I last heard from them. When they returned to us I
said, "I love my country and have offered my life in her defense,
but I believe you Bruce boys are truer patriots than I am." As
to the losses in this battle, I cannot recall. It was quite sanguinary
and losses were heavy on both sides.

After the battle of Perryville the Confederate army moved to-
wards Cumberland Gap in eastern Kentucky. The Federal army
followed at a safe distance; our cavalry was rearguard to the Con-
federates, Skirmishes light and heavy with the enemy's advancing
column was our daily pastime, sometimes twice or three times a
day. Rations became scarcer day by day as we traversed the poor
mountainous regions of eastern Kentucky. The people in there
were generally poor with small patches in cultivation and few live
stock, and all they had to live on had been consumed by the in-
fantry which preceded us; so it must be clear to the reader that
the cavalry suffered for want of food supplies. They were kept
too busy to make excursions off the line of march to get food so
they fasted and fought for days without anything worth mention-
ing. I saw men trimming beef bones left by the infantry, where
they had killed the beeves and issued the meat to the men, thus
getting a little of the stringy leaders off of them. Then they
would break them and get the marrow inside. I saw a number of

men, of whom I was one, pick out the scattered grains of corn
tramped in the ground by some infantry officer's horse where he
had been fed a day or two ahead of us, and eat them with a relish,
thus proving the adage that hunger is a good appetizer.

One day we were fighting a large force of the enemy's infantry
and our Colonel thinking we would not be able to check them sent
to our infantry for help. A brigade of our men came back to our
assistance, and General B. F. Cheatham came with them, but they
reached us after we had driven the enemy back and didn't need
their help. General Cheatham had eight or ten ears of corn tied
on his saddle behind him to feed his horse. A hungry Texan
spied him and said, "Old man (addressing Cheatham), I will
give you a dollar apiece for those ears of corn." The general with
a haughty, dignified look said, "Do you know whom you are talk-
ing to?" The soldier said "No, and I don't care a damn, but I will
do what I said I would about that corn." The general smiled, un-
tied his corn, and threw it to the hungry men who scuffled over it
as very hungry hogs would have done.

In a few more days we passed out of Kentucky through Cum-
berland Gap, moved on to Knoxville, Tennessee, and camped a
few days to rest. The first night we were at Knoxville it snowed
all night and next morning the ground and the army was covered
with a three inch snow. We had no tents or covering of any
kind, but our sleep was sound and restful. The leaves were still
green on the trees and the contrast in colors between the leaves
and the snow was quite impressive, and very unusual. This was
in October, 1862, if my memory serves me correctly.

From Knoxville the army moved to middle Tennessee. Our
regiment was camped at Nolensville, about fifteen or twenty miles
south of Nashville. Our duty was to watch the movements of the
Yankee army now assembling at Nashville and to keep our gen-
eral posted about them. We remained at this point until Christ-
mas Day. Some of the boys were preparing to have an egg-nog
for Christmas when suddenly our pickets were driven in and re-
ported a large force of infantry and artillery moving upon us.
The regiment was mounted at once to meet this advance. As
soon as we come in full view of the enemy they opened fire with
artillery, four guns throwing what seemed to be about six pound
shells, I was in command of Company F that day, the captain

being on the sick list but still in camp. As we moved in col-
nmns of twos in front of the enemy their shells, got our range
pretty quickly. One shell burst in rear of my company doing
slight damage, another one entered the body of a horse near my
horse's head, bursting inside the horse and knocked my horse to
his knees and covering him and me with blood and flesh from the
other horse. Strange to say the trooper riding this torn up horse
escaped without the slightest injury. His name was Glasscow of
Company C; he was riding in the rear of his company in front
of me. A few steps further another shell passed between my
horse's, head and the rear of another horse ridden by Lieutenant
Black, cutting down a cedar tree as large as a man's leg, just on
the left of us. We moved further to the left out of range of this
artillery, dismounted, formed a line and moved out towards, or
to the left of this battery somewhat; but before we made the at-
tack a flanking command was discovered moving to our rear on
the right and we returned to our horses and rode over to the right
of the first alignment to meet this flank movement and while en-
gaging these with a furious fire another force equally strong was
approaching from the front and we had to retire for a new align-
ment.

Colonel Harrison, passing by me as we had begun to retire be-
fore the enemy, said, "Form your company on this rise and hold
the position while I form the regiment behind you in supporting
distance." I called on my men to fall into line, but they had
turned towards the rear and the heavy firing of the enemy from
two points made it almost impossible for men or horses to get
their consent to face the other way and stand still; so I urged
and I ordered with all the vehemence I possessed, sometimes get-
ting as many as two or three to face about and make a temporary
halt and then move on. Finally Gabe Beaumont of Company A,
who had fallen behind his company in the different movements,
seeing my trouble said to me "Lieutenant, I will stand; form your
company on me." He took his stand, I rushed my men in line
with him, and having got my men in line was riding up. and
down the line encouraging all I could to stay there. The enemy's
bullets were flying uncomfortably thick. I heard a ball strike
when near Beaumont and saw his gun fall, but he stood perfectly
still until I approached him. I asked Gabe, "Are you badly

hurt?" He said, "I think I am." I said, "I will excuse you
now. You can retire and my men will stay here without you."
So I sent him off with a man to help him if he needed help.
This ball shivered his left arm just below the shoulder joint and
had to be taken off at the shoulder to save his life. He was shot
out of service, but he demonstrated to his comrades in arms what
true bravery could accomplish. I met this brave hero many years
after in Coleman, Texas. He had studied medicine after the war
and made a success in that profession. A while after Beaumont
was sent to the rear, the Colonel sent me word to withdraw my
company and fall back to my position. This ended the fighting
for the day, and that night, after viewing the enemy's encamp-
ments with Company F, trying as best I could to make an esti-
mate of their numbers and reporting the same to the Colonel, we
rested.

The regiment moved to Murfreesboro where two armies were
rapidly gathering for one of the great battles of the Civil War.
Just whether we moved that night, or fell back gradually as the
enemy advanced to Murfreesboro I cannot now recall, but on the
first day of January, 1863, brigade skirmish line was formed from
our brigade and I was ordered to take charge of this line. The
men were placed in line ten feet apart on foot in one side of an
old field grown up in long weeds about as high as a man's head.
The enemy were in the other side of the same field. Our skirm-
ishers were armed with rifles or muskets for the occasion. I was
told to keep the men to their places so there would be no weak
spot and no bunching of our men on the line, to keep them
firing continually, etc., etc. As I rode along that long line of
men--I was the only man on horseback in that line--I saw that
Bill Simpson of Company F was about two feet, or three feet at
the most, from a high poplar stump in line with the men, so I
said, "Bill, take the stump. There it is but a little ways from
your place and it may save your life or your limbs." He
looked up at me and said, "I thank you, I am doing very well
here," and refused to use it. These two lines of skirmishers were
in what was afterward known as the left flank of our army dur-
ing the battle and as far as I am able to tell now this was the
beginning of that great battle.

We were relieved after a while by some infantry and we re-

mounted our horses to meet some Yankee cavalry, that came in
on our left. We charged them, drove them, and scattered them.
As we returned from pursuing them my horse slipped and fell,
throwing me on the horn of my saddle and producing a case of
nearly strangulated hernia from a slight rupture I had had be-
fore. This fall laid me up for several days and took me off the
battlefield until the battle ended and longer. Whatever else I
relate of this battle or as to what happened in or to the regiment
must be from hearsay and not from personal observation. The
regiment was engaged all the time, sometimes in the flank, some-
times in the rear of the enemy; sometimes fighting infantry,
sometimes cavalry; capturing many of the enemy and destroying
much of his supplies.

One or two incidents I wish to relate happened during that
conflict. A Yankee General fell into the hands of the Rangers.
They asked him his name and rank. He said, "General Willich."
"The same who commanded the 32nd Indiana Infantry as Col-
onel?" he was asked. "Yes the same, and who are you," de-
maded the General. "Terry Texas Rangers" was the reply. "Mein
Gott," said General Willich, "I had rather be a private in that
regiment than to be a Brigadier General in the Federal army."
Willich had met the boys at Woodsonville, Ky., as Colonel of
the 32nd Indiana regiment and had met them at Murfreesboro as
Brigadier General and had lost out both times and was qualified
to judge of their military prowess. General Willich was Dutch
or German, with a foreign accent.

Colonel Harrison by this time had so long escaped personal in-
jury from shot and shell, his men dubbed him "Old Iron Sides,"
because as they said he was sheathed with iron and no bullet
could penetrate his body. On the second day of this battle, Billy
Sayers, his Adjutant, sat on his horse beside him under a heavy
fire. Colonel Harrison leaned over to Sayers and whispered, "I
am wounded, but don't say anything about it on account of the
men." Billy wanted him off the field, but he refused to go. It
proved to be a flesh wound in the hip, not very serious, and he
stayed with and commanded the regiment throughout the battle.
On another occasion the Colonel, while standing in front of his
line ready to make or receive a charge as it might happen, was
looking through his field glass at a body of cavalry some distance

off. Suddenly he exclaimed, "Now boys, we will have some fun.
There is a regiment out there preparing to charge us, armed with
sabres. Let them come up nearly close enough to strike and then
feed them on buckshot." So they came up with great noise and
pretense, hoping to demoralize and scatter their opponents and
then have a race in which they could use their sabres effectively.
But as the Texans stood their ground the Yankees ran up to within
a few steps and halted suddenly, giving our boys the chance
they were wishing for. One volley from the shotguns into their
ranks scattered these sabre men into useless fragments of a force.
Many of them surrendered and our boys quizzed them with merci-
less "'questions. "Why did you stop?" "Are your sabres long
ranged weapons?" "How far can you kill a man with those
things?" After a conflict lasting two days with varying success
and defeat for both armies, the Southern army withdrew to the
south, leaving the other army with fresh reinforcements encamped
not far from the last lines of battle the evening before.

The weather had turned fearfully cold and the earth would
freeze very hard at night. About the first night after we left
Murfreesboro Jim Stevenson, coming off of duty late, came to
the log heap fire of my mess, and asked permission to sleep near
our fire. Jim was a shiftless boy whose dress was weather worn
and untidy, his body generally dirty and infected with what the
boys called "graybacks." So no one would sleep with him and
he didn't expect any one to divide bedding with him. We granted
his request and he made his pallet down a little space from the
rest of us and went to sleep. Next morning he slept on after
daylight. I went to see how he was faring and to awake him if
still living. I caught his top blanket at his head and raised it
up and as it was set and frozen it stood up on the other end
like a dried raw hide would do with like handling. I said, "Get
up my boy, don't try to sleep all day. How did you sleep?" He
replied, "Bully," that he had two blankets last night. He had
an old thread bare blanket under him and a heavy army blanket
he had captured from the enemy during the battle just fought.
He had slept all night without moving, as evidenced by an un-
frozen streak, just the shape of his body on that blanket where
he had lain on his side; the rest of that blanket being frozen stiff

as a board. Jim could suffer hardships without a murmur, and
although he was shiftless and loved to play poker he could always
be depended upon when there was any fighting to be done. He
was a brave man and a good soldier.

(Continued in October.)

---

FOOTNOTES:

¹February 16, 1861.
²ln the whole department of Texas 2445 officers and men were surren-
dered toy Twiggs. See report of Colonel C. A. Waite, U. S. Army, to
Lorenzo Thomas, February 26, 1861, Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. I, p. 524.
The value of the grounds, buildings and stores of all kinds surrendered
in San Antonio was estimated at $781,808.39; at the other posts in Texas,
$700,000. See report of the Texas Commissioners, Devine, Luckett, and
Maverick, Official Records, Series I, Vol. LIII, p. 632.—C. W. R.
³Mr. Blackburn's memory is slightly at fault here. The railroads ran
from Alleyton on the Colorado, a few miles northwest of Eagle Lake, to
Harrisburg, and from Houston to Beaumont, though the track of this
latter road was laid to Orange. See Atlas of Offical Records, Plate CLVII;
also A. M. Gentry to Secretay of War, Richmond, May 1, 1861, Official
Records, Series IV, Vol. I, p. 1109.--C. W. R.
⁴This gap in the railroad ran from Orange through New Iberia to
Brashear City. L. B. Giles, Terry's Texas Rangers, pp. 15-16, says:
"From Houston to Beaumont, over a newly constructed railroad, it took
nearly all day to make eighty miles. From Beumont, by steamboat down
the Neches and up the Sabine to Niblett's Bluff; thence a hundred miles
on foot, through water much of the way; thence forty miles in carts.
. . . At New Iberia, on Bayou Teche, we were transferred to boats,
and went down between the beautiful banks of that stream to Brashear,
now Morgan City."--C. W. E.
⁵Colonel Willich reported the loss of 11 officers and men killed, 22
wounded, 5 missing; Brigadier General Hindman, commanding the Con-
federates, reported 4 killed and 10 wounded. See Official Records, Series
I, Vol. VII, pp. 16-20.—C. W. R.
⁶Johnston's army left Corinth on the morning of April 3 and arrived in
the vicinity of Shiloh late in the afternoon of the 5th.--C. W. R.
⁷The losses as officially reported were: Confederates, 10,699; Union-
ists, 13,047.—C. W. R.
⁸Colonel Wharton's report of the battle is to 'be found in Official Records,
Series I, Vol, X, Part I, p. 626.—C. W. R.
⁹Possibly Mr. Blackburn has in mind Rossiter Johnson's History of the
War of Secession, on his Fight for the Republic, in each of which a state-
ment of the kind alluded to is made. The name he gives is evidently in-
correct.--C. W. R.
¹⁰The official report by Major Harrison is in Official Records, Series I,
Vol. X, Part I, p. 923.
¹¹For a somewhat different version, see Wyeth, J. A., Life of N. B. For -
rest, 78-81. or Jordan, Thos., Campaigns of Forrest and Forrest's Cavalry,
146-148.—C. W. R.
¹²July 12, 1862. The fight was on Sunday, July 13.—C. W. R.
¹³The report of Gen. Jos. Wheeler of the cavalry operations in Ken-
tucky is found in Official Records, Series I, Vol. XVI, part 1, pp. 893-900.
Wharton's report is not found.--C. W. R.


How to cite:
J. K. P. Blackburn, "Reminscences of the Terry Rangers", Volume 22, Number 1, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v022/n1/contrib_DIVL680.html
[Accessed Wed Feb 10 0:53:53 CST 2010]