Page images
PDF
EPUB

screaming shell, of gleaming bayonet and of the cannon's awful roar. To call up the memory of fallen comrades, who sleep in honored graves far away from loved ones. They died for their country! and yet their graves are immortal graves! Their memory will be cherished by men as long as love for exalted services or disinterested patriotism shall sway the impulses of the human heart.

"Oh! if there be on this earthly sphere,

A boon, an offering Heaven holds dear,
Sure 'tis the last libation liberty draws

From the heart that suffers and bleeds in her cause."

CHAPTER XLV.

[graphic]

COMPANY A CAVALRY.

ROM the first, the operations of the two cavalry companies recruited with and for a time forming a part of the 36th, were more or less detached from the infantry; yet so far as we could do so, we have not separated the infan

try and cavalry portions of the regiment, but

have regarded the achievements and glory of each as the common property of the whole. The time came at length when the radical difference in the nature of the duties required of the two arms of the service, and from their widely divergent fields of action, it became necessary in order to preserve the harmony of the story,

COMPANY A CAVALRY.

721 to break the connection and drop one until the career of the other had been recorded. Notwithstanding the imperative orders assigning them to another regiment, and years of hard service, separated from each other, yet the cavalry boys never forgot the 36th, or proved unfaithful to their first love. The tie that bound them to the regiment was too strong to be ever broken, and to-day every man of them would repel with scorn any proposition to disconnect their history and their achievements from the story of the 36th.

In accordance with the original design of this work, we now return to the cavalry. We will not recapitulate or refresh the memories of our readers with a review of events anterior to quitting Rienzi, for with these they are already familiar. We propose to take up the history of each company separately, treating of events in the order in which they occurred, and giving such details as we are able to gather from the meagre materials at hand. First in order is Company A, and we will begin at the point where we left them in the early autumn of 1862.

At that time the bulk of the Confederate army was with Bragg, operating in Tennessee and Kentucky. A large force, however, remained in Mississippi, under the command of Price and Van Dorn, confronting General Grant and attempting to attack in detail the detachments scattered over Western Tennessee and Northern Mississippi. Learning that detachments had been sent to Cincinnati and Louisville, and believing that a large portion of Grant's army had been drawn eastward and the country denuded of troops, the Confederate commanders regarded this as a favorable opportunity to drive out the National forces and re-possess Corinth.

Upon the development of this plan, Gen. Grant temporarily abandoned Rienzi, Jacinto, Tuscumbia and other posts, and con

[ocr errors]

centrated their garrisons in and about Corinth, but leaving a detachment at Iuka, under Col. Murphy, with instructions if threatened in force, to destroy such stores as could not be removed, and to fall back upon the main army. This order was neglected, and a body of rebel cavalry dashed upon the place, drove out the garrison and captured the medical and commissary stores remaining there. For such causeless negligence and the weak defense interposed to the Rebel occupation, Col. Murphy was placed in arrest, but one of those changes in commanders at this time so prevalent, effected his release, and subsequently placed him in a position to do the country an irreparable injury.

Price was now well to the front. His cavalry raided the country, and by frequently assailing the picket posts, kept the army in a state of unrest. It was determined to attack him on three sides, and thus insure his signal defeat. Gen. Grant marched to the north of Iuka via Burnsville, to strike the left wing of the Rebel army, while Gen. Rosecrans, with Stanley's and Hamilton's Divisions, pursued a more southerly route through Jacinto.

Company A Cavalry accompanied the latter, and though exposed to a drenching rain, the men were prompt to obey every order, and generally were found in the extreme advance. When told that the object of the expedition was to attack Price, their old enemy, the greatest enthusiasm prevailed, and they pressed eagerly forward, encountering the enemy's pickets and engaging them at three P. M. of the 18th. A severe skirmish ensued, in which the Rebel outposts were driven in with some loss.

The country was broken and badly intersected with ravines. Captain Jenks was directed to reconnoitre the road leading to the left, which order he proceeded to execute in a satisfactory manner. So dense and impenetrable were the thickets, that no discoveries were made until reaching open ground, a mile or more

BATTLE OF JACINTO.

723

to the left of town. The enemy was found strongly posted, and having accomplished the object of the reconnoisance, and not wishing to expose his men needlessly to a fire that was fast becoming uncomfortable, the Captain returned with his company and reported the result of his observations. While engaged in this somewhat hazardous exploration, the horse of private John C. Goodwin was shot from under him, and many were the narrow escapes from the random shots of the enemy.

The action soon commenced on our right, where the 5th Iowa Infantry was drawn into an ambuscade, and its ranks terribly thinned by a galling fire from an unseen foe. Other troops advanced to their support, and the engagement became general. The thunder of artillery and crash of musketry were incessant, and rolled up in one vast volume of sound that rivaled the most stupendous efforts of nature. Our cavalry boys described it as "perfectly awful !" For two hours the work of death went steadily on. At times our line wavered and bent before the heavy Confederate masses that were hurled against it. In one of these charges an Ohio battery was captured, after every horse was killed and one hundred out of one hundred and fifty men disabled. The opportune arrival of supports, and the destructive fire of musketry to which they were subjected, forced the enemy to retire and the battery was regained. During the progress of the battle this battery was taken and retaken three times, but at the termination of the engagement remained in our hands.

The battle raged with unabated fury until dark, when the enemy fell back, leaving the Federal forces in possession of the field. The men slept upon their arms, expecting a renewal of the engagement in the morning, but during the night Price retreated, leaving about three thousand dead, wounded and prisoners in our hands. The Federal losses amounted to seven hundred and four

teen, among which were the following members of Company A: Nathaniel Duff, wounded, since dead; and Martin Glenn.

Failing to effect anything by a division of their forces, the two Confederate commanders formed a junction at Ripley and prepared for a movement upon Corinth. Gen. Rosencrans proceeded to the latter place on the 27th, accompanied by Company A as escort, and having in the meantime been promoted to the rank of Major General, he assumed the main command, and called to his assistance the garrisons from neighboring posts. Yet with all his efforts he was able to muster only about twenty thousand men to hold the position against more than twice that number. But elaborate fortifications had been recently constructed in addition to those formerly erected by Beauregard, by the aid of which the General hoped to combat successfully any numbers the enemy might send against him.

On the 3rd, our outposts on the Chewalla road were driven in with considerable loss. Fighting continued all day, and being in the midst of thick timber our skirmishers maintained a stubborn resistance and retired slowly, in the evening taking position near Corinth, under cover of the forts. These were very strong, and located upon ground unusually favorable for the use of artillery. During the night the enemy succeeded in posting several batteries within a few hundred yards of the town, and before daylight, guided by the blaze of our early camp fires, they threw a number of shells with such accuracy as to fill the non-combatants (of which there were large numbers) with dismay. At daybreak a charge was made upon these guns, one or two of them captured and the rest withdrawn. Heavy skirmishing continued until ten o'clock, when Price's columns in dense masses appeared upon the Bolivar road, and moved with such incredible velocity and momentum as to threaten our army with

« PreviousContinue »