1865 April 8: A Warning Against Aiding Rebels, Inducements for Rebel Desertion, Plus, Mobile Will Soon Fall with Wisconsin Men Doing Their Share

The following smaller articles come from the April 8, 1865, issue of The Prescott Journal.

A Warning against Aiding Rebels.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, }
WASHINGTON, March 14. }

The President directs that all persons who are now, or hereafter shall be, found within the United States, who have been engaged in holding intercourse or trade with the insurgents by sea, if they are citizens of the United States or domiciled aliens, be arrested and held as prisoners of war, until the war shall close, subject nevertheless, to prosecution, trial and conviction, for every offence [sic] committed by them as spies, or otherwise against the laws of war.

The President further directs, that all non-residents, foreigners who now are, or hereafter shall be, found in the United States who have been engaged in violating the blockade of the insurgent ports, shall leave the United States within twelve days from the publication of this order, for from their subsequent trial in the United States, if on the Atlantic side, and forty days if on the Pacific side of the country ;  and such persons shall not return to the United States during the continuance of the war.

Provost Marshals and Marshals of the United States will arrest and commit to military custody all such offenders as shall disregard this order, whether they have passports or not ;  and they will  be detained in such custody until the end of the war, or until discharged by subsequent order of the President.

WM. H. SEWARD,
.Secretary of State.

GEN. WASHBURNE [sic] AT MEMPHIS.—Dispatches state that a grand banquet was given Gen. WASHBURNE [sic] at Memphis, on the night of the 8th, at which he made a speech deprecating military law ;  hoping for the speedy restoration of civil government in Tennessee ;  expressing much charity for the Southern people and promising to receive them kindly when they come in a proper spirit.  He told the Memphis merchants that the interests of the government, but he would be liberal in regard to legitimate, honest trade, but in anything else they would find him their inexorable foe.  Gen. WASHBURNE [sic] has issued an order permitting steamboats to navigate the Hatchie river to bring out the products of the country, but will not allow them to take up supplies.  [Cadwallader C. Washburn]

THE TENNESSEE ELECTION.—The Nashville Times of the 11th learns that “the vote for ratification received up to that time reaches over 35,000.  But a small portion of East Tennessee has been heard from.  The vote on the Gubernatorial and Legislative tickets is smaller than the vote for ratification, though but very few counties have been heard from in regard to the election of the 4th inst. As there was no opposition to the ticket, the people felt but little interest in the election, knowing that it could terminate only the one way.  The Legislature will convene on the first Monday of April next, which falls on the 3d of the month.”

INDUCEMENTS FOR REBEL DESERTION.—By the direction of Lieut. Gen. GRANT, new provisions have recently been added to the order relating to rebel deserters, which set forth that deserters who bring arms, horses, mules or other property into our lines with them, will, on delivering the same to the Quartermaster’s department, receive in money the highest price that such arms, horses, mules and other property are worth.  Railroad employees, telegraph operators, mechanics, and other civilians employed by the Confederate authorities, who desert from their present employment and come into the Federal lines, will be entitled to all benefits and immunities granted to rebel deserters.  [Ulysses S. Grant]

SHERIDAN’S PRISONERS.— A Washington dispatch says, 60 officers and 1,400 privates captured by Sheridan in the valley passed over the Baltimore and Ohio railroad Saturday, and will be forwarded to fort Delaware.  The officer in charge of them reports that there are about 700 more prisoners on their way down.  The guard with the prisoners were several times attacked by guerrillas in passing through the valley of Va.  The guerrilla parties consisted f from 100 to 150 men, and were in all cases driven back without doing any damage.  [Philip H. Sheridan]

FROM MOBILE.—An “Old Soldier” in the 20th Wisconsin Regiment writes us, under date of Navy Cove, Alabama, the 19th ult., that there were about 12,000 men in Mobile Bay, about as many more at Barancas, and more coming from New Orleans.  The troops had been ordered to put themselves in “light marching order,” that is, with a blanket and what ammunition and rations they could carry, and it was expected Mobile would soon fall, and Wisconsin men would do their share towards effecting it.

THE OPPOSITION TO SHERMAN.—The N. Y. Times Charleston correspondence says :—”The army which BEAUREGARD took from Columbia upon SHERMAN’s entrance into that place, numbered 8,000 men, which is the nucleus of the force JOE JOHNSTON has in SHERMAN’s front.  Besides this, part of HARDEE’s army from Charleston may have gotten up with JOHNSTON.”  The Times thinks that JOHNSTON’s force cannot be large enough to make any serious opposition to SHERMAN.  [William T. Sherman, P.G.T. Beauregard, Joseph E. Johnston, William J. Hardee]

REBEL BARBARITIES.—A Wilmington correspondent says :

They had over 5,000 of our prisoners here, and when retreating from the place they drove them before them like a flock of sheep.  Those who fell out from weakness and exhaustion, were kicked upon the side of the road and left.  One such who was found by our had nothing on but a pair of drawers, and was in the most wretched condition the human mind can conceive.

I have been informed upon the most credible testimony, coming through a rebel prisoner who witnessed what he relates, or was afterwards made acquainted with the facts, that a number of our sick who were lying in a house, and unable to move with the retreating army, were burned to death in the house by the roadside.  The house was set on fire, probably with the intention of driving them out, but being unable to save themselves, they fell victims to the flames.  Their charred remains have been seen lying where they perished.  The fact was given to me by the chaplain of a Connecticut regiment, and attested by an escaped prisoner.

 

1864 June 4: The 32nd Wisconsin in Alabama and Tennessee

The following report from the 32nd Wisconsin Infantry comes from the June 4, 1864, issue of The Prescott Journal.

Things in Alabama—Letter from Col. Howe,¹ of the 32d Wisconsin.

The Green Bay Advocate takes the liberty of copying the following from a private letter recently received from Col. J. H. HOWE,¹ of the 32d Wisconsin, then at Decatur, Ala.  It is interesting as the testimony of a truthful and observing witness to the condition of the South.

“The ‘situation’ is unchanged this morning.  The pickets of the 32d had a sharp little skirmish with some rebel cavalry this morning, but nobody was hurt.  Twenty-five deserters came in in [sic] a body, chased by a squad of rebel cavalry.  The fugitives were protected by the picket and are safe.  Since we have been here, desertions from the enemy, at this post, have averaged about 59 a day.  Many of them enlist at once in our army.  The 2d Alabama Cavalry has now nearly 1,200 men, all natives.  Some of these deserters are filled with the fiercest hatred against the rebels.  The testimony of these men, coming from different armies, or at different times, is substantially the [same?].²  They say the people at home, are tired of the war and will gladly have peace on any terms.  The majority of the rank and file of the army will desert as fast as possible, but that the great majority of the officers of the army are determined to fight it out, to the last man.  All concede the hopelessness of the cause from the preponderance of men and resources, unless something intervenes.  They are ardent waiters on Providence and will fight, while they wait.

Evidences of the terrible despotism under which the South groans is apparent everywhere, when you penetrate the run of the Confederacy.  There are no able bodied men white or black in the Confederacy.  They are either all in the army or in the woods, hiding from conscript officers.  The conscription is mercilessly enforced.  There is no civil government anywhere.  Bands of armed soldiers patrol the entire country, and their will is the only law.  In that part of Mississippi lying north of Vicksburg and west of the Mississippi Central railroad, a brigade of Texas cavalry is stationed, doing patrol duty.  There is a complete reign of terror.  The soldiers live upon the inhabitants and seem to enjoy life.  The few citizens we found to talk with expressed a greater dread of their “friends” than of us.  Those Texans declared that they never intended to stop fighting.

Union men and conscripts are hunted with blood-hounds.  On a march, the other day we found a blood-hound dead and hung up to a tree, in a little town in West Tennessee.—Our guide, an old man of over 60 and a resident of the neighborhood, explained its history.  We were in that part of west Tennessee where the 7th³ Tenn. (Union) cav., Col. Hurst’s⁴ regiment, was raised.  Col. Hurst has been ordered to Memphis.  The rebels, when he was gone, sent away and got this hound to hunt this old man and one of his sons who was unfit for service.  He had two other sons in Hurst’s regiment.  The old man laid out, watched his opportunity, and shot the hound.  The rebels had a public funeral and buried the beast with the honors of war.  A few Union men rallied, dug him up and hung him in front of a rebel’s house in the village.

This operation had been twice been repeated by each party.  Unionism was in the ascendant the day we marched by, and there hung the hound, a stench in the nostrils of all.  The rebels wreaked a terrible revenge, however, a few days before.  Two of them suddenly rode up to the old man’s house, found the son there, with his wife, three little children and his mother.  They shot the young man dead on his own door-step, and one miscreant snapped his musket three times at the very breast of the mother.  I stood in the door-yard and heard the story from the widow, and three pretty children near her.  She showed me the blood-stains of her dead husband.  The story ran through the command.  I am quite sure some good fighting would have been done most any time that day, and but few prisoners taken, had the opportunity offered.

On this same march, we went to Purdy, Tenn., where Col. Hurst resides.  He was an old citizen, very wealthy, a lawyer, a planter, a large slaveholder, and a Douglas democrat.  He stood out for the Union, made many and strong speeches for it.  When west Tenn., was occupied by rebel troops from Miss., and then forces out, Hurst remained quietly on his plantation.  At the instance of some of his own neighbors, rebels, he was arrested and thrown into jail, on charge of “being a suspected person.”—Among other indignities heaped upon him, he was led by a halter around his neck, by his own neighbors, round the public square of the town.  After long confinement he made his escape to the Tenn. river, when our gunboats went up after Donaldson and Henry⁵ were taken.  He subsequently went back, raised a strong regiment of his own neighbors, the 7th Tenn. Cav., burned every building around the square, part which he was marched excepting one owned by a Union man, and gave the inhabitants notice that for any property of his injured or taken by them, he would exact fearful retribution.  His family live unmolested in the town, and he is in command of his regiment on active duty in the field.  His regiment takes very few prisoners.”

1.  James Henry Howe (1827-1893) was a lawyer and the attorney general of Wisconsin (1860-1862) before the Civil War. He served as colonel of the 32nd Wisconsin Infantry from 1862 to 1864. The regiment participated in the Red River Campaign and the Battle of Nashville. After the War Howe  operated private law firms in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, North Dakota, and Chicago, Illinois from 1875 to 1892. He was also vice president and a counsel member of the Chicago Northwestern Railroad Company. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin and he served for just over a year (December 1873-January 1875).
2.  There is a black blob on the microfilm and covers several words in this section. It appears in the same spot on every page for several issues, so probably was something stuck on the camera lens.
3.  Hurst raised the 6th Tennessee Cavalry, also called the 1st West Tennessee Cavalry. The unit was notorious for violence.
4.  Fielding Hurst (1810-1882) was a staunch southern Unionist from Purdy, Tennessee. His pro-secessionist and later Confederate neighbors directed considerable intimidation and violence toward him. Hurst was arrested and imprisoned, with other vocal Union sympathizers, until he was freed when the Union occupied Nashville and he returned home. He then formed the 6th Tennessee Cavalry, many of the recruits being Hurst relatives. Hurst’s men were able to gather invaluable intelligence about the surrounding countryside for the Union Army as the 6th Cavalry patrolled for bands of guerrillas, bushwhackers, and thieves. In 1863, Hurst’s regiment accompanied Union forces to Jackson, Tennessee, to deal with returning Confederate troops. After a brief battle, portions of the city were in ruins and the Union officials shifted the blame to Hurst’s men. Confederates responded by personally targeting Hurst and his family. Union officials again used Hurst and his regiment as the scapegoat, for their failures to end guerrilla problems and restore order in the region, following Nathan B. Forrest’s Second West Tennessee Raid. After the War, Hurst and his men of the 6th Cavalry remained targets for their Confederate neighbors.
For many more details, see the Fielding Hurst entry, written by Derek W. Frisby, in the online Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.
5.  Fort Donelson (February 11-16, 1862) and Fort Henry (February 6, 1862) were captured by Union forces.

1864 January 30: News Items from the Southern Press

Lacking much Union war news, The Prescott Journal published on January 30, 1864, a column of news items taken from Southern newspapers.

Items from Rebel Journals

The following items are from the latest files of Richmond papers received at Washington, which come down to the 15th inst.

— The Army correspondent of the Atlanta Intelligener, says:

“On Dec. 28^th, two corps of the enemy left Chattanooga en route to Virginia, to reinforce Meade.”  [George G. Meade]

“A division of infantry has gone towards Nashville, so be distributed to guard the railroad.

“The Federal brigade at Stephenson is in winter quarters, and there is a large force at Bridgeport, where the enemy is accumulating large supplies.

“There is a Federal regiment at Trenton, Tenn., and 150 cavalry near the State line of Georgia and Tennessee, twelve miles from Trenton, who are scouting day and night on Sand Mountain, from opposite Bellefonte to Bridgeport.”

— Seven thousand copper pennies were sold in Chesterfiele, Va., on the 13th inst., at $47 per hundred.

— A dispatch from Abingdon, Southwest Virgina, reports the capture of “400 of the Yankees infesting that country.”

— The Ashville (N. C.) News reports an engagement with 300 “tories” in Cook county, Tenn.

— The fruits of Lee’s and Ross’¹ recent raid towards the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad are claimed to be 500 cattle, 300 horses, 30 wagons, 320 mules, and about 100 Yankees.

— The Raleigh Journal says that “Lincoln gold is being freely used in North Carolina to betray the Southern people into the hands of the Yankees,” and suspects that prominent persons and newspapers are engaged.

— The Atlanta Appeal of the 8th says: “In the late cavalry fight near Charlestown, Tennessee, our troops were stampeded.  A large portion of our loss was occasioned by the stampede, our men and horses running over, killing and wounding each other in their fright.  Our loss is variously estimated as from 65 to 200 men, and the same number of horses.

— A bill passed the Rebel Congress on the 20th, making appropriations “for the support of the government of the Confederate States of America, ” for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1864, as follows :  For compensation and mileage of the members of the Senate and House, $297,00 ;  President, 12,500 ;  Treasury Department, $476, 000 ;  interest on the public debt, $20,000,000 ;  engraving Treasury notes and bonds, $80,000 ;  rent of President’s house, $15,000 ;  for expenses of keeping and transporting coin belong to New Orleans $509 ;  War Department, $240,000 ;  Commissioner of Indian Affairs, $2,125 ;  Quartermaster’s Department, for pay of army, &c., $313,745 ;  support of prisoners of war, $1,000,000 ;  Commissary Department, $5, 798,800 ;  Ordinance Department, $1,000,000 ;  Medical, $16,820,000 ;  Navy, $112,495 for construction for cruisers, of the class of the Alabama and Florida, in the Confederate States, $2, 000,000.  Appropriations in keeping with the shore are also made for the Departments of State, Justice, Postoffice [sic] and Indian Affairs.

— The Petersburg (Va.) Express of the 14th, says: “The Yankees are concentrating a large force at Portsmouth.  There are now there about 1,000 negroes, infantry, besides a battalion of mounted men.  It is supposed that a raid is contemplated towards the Blackwater.  No Yankees have recently visited Suffolk, but pickets are still at Jericho Run, two miles below the town, and a camp of cavalry is kept at Bernard’s Mills.”

— In reference to the exchange of prisoners, the Richmond Enquirer of the 15th says: “Butler [Benjamin F. Butler] is an outcast, and never can be recognized as entitled to the privileges accorded to a foe taken in lawful warfare; yet it may become a question whether our government should not consult the feelings of the Confederate soldiers now lingering in Northern dungeons, and take the earliest practicable opportunity of releasing them.  Treating with Butler should not release the pitiful wretch from the ban of outlawry pronounced against him ;  but catching is before hanging.  He could, however, be executed, and doubtless will be by the Confederate officer in whose hands he may chance to fall.”

— The Enquirer, speaking of the announcement of the re-enlistments of so many Federal troops for the war, says: “The action of the enemy in this matter is important to us.  The preservation of their organization shows that they intend to move forward at the earliest practicable moment in the spring.  If they will not sacrifice an organization which has stood the ordeal of two years campaigning, can we afford to hazard the experiment of opening the spring campaign under officers recently organized, with companies unaccustomed to association, and men strangers to each other?  We shall need every energy of national defense for the spring campaign.  Richmond will, in all probability, be approached from the Rappahannock, as well as from the Blackwater.  In Northern Georgia the fate of Atlanta, and in South Carolina that of Charleston and Savannah, and in North Carolina that of Wilmington, all must be decided in the spring.”

— The Atlanta Confederacy of the 5th, says:  “Gen. Armstrong’s² and Martin’s³ divisions of Gen. Wheeler’s [Joseph Wheeler] corps are at Bean’s Station, East Tennessee, where they are continually having heavy skirmishes with the enemy.  Four or five days ago, a squad of our men captured a lot of Yankee clothing, and were in the act of draping themselves in the captured property, when they were recaptured by the Yankees, who, finding them in Yankee clothing, contrary to their published orders, led them out for the purpose of shooting them.  Just at this time the 4th and 7th Alabama regiments of cavalry arrived upon the spot, and charged them, but not in time to save our men, who were shot down in cold blood.  The ruthless villains escaped.  A few days afterward the regiments above alluded to caught fifteen or twenty Yankees, and shot them in retaliation.”

1.  Lawrence Sullivan Ross (1838-1898) was a Texas Ranger before the Civil War and in 1860 led troops in the Battle of Pease River. When Texas seceded, he joined the Confederate State Army and became one of the youngest Confederate generals. He participated in 135 battles and skirmishes. After the War, he participated in the 1875 Texas Constitutional Convention, was a state senator, and in 1887 became the 19th Texas governor (1887-1891). After leaving office he became president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (Texas A&M).
2.  Frank Crawford Armstrong (1835-1909) was a captain in the regular army by the time the Civil War began and he led a company of Union cavalry at the First Battle of Bull Run. He then resigned his commission and joined the Confederate Army. In 1863 Armstrong was elected colonel of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry Regiment; was given command of General Sterling Price’s cavalry; and was promoted to brigadier general. He commanded a cavalry division under General Nathan B. Forrest at the Battle of Chickamauga. In February 1864, Armstrong transferred to the command of General Stephen D. Lee and he was assigned command of a brigade of Mississippi cavalry.  Armstrong and his men served in the Atlanta Campaign, before participating in General John B. Hood’s disastrous campaign. He saw action during the campaign against Murfreesboro, and led much of Forrest’s rear guard after the Hood’s defeat at the Battle of Nashville. In March, Armstrong was assigned to the defenses of Selma, Alabama, one of the Confederacy’s last remaining industrial centers, and on April 2, 1865, his troops participated in efforts to defend the town against a much larger Union force under General James H. Wilson. Armstrong was captured later that day. After the Civil War, because of his frontier and military experience, he served as United States Indian Inspector (1885-1889), and was the Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs (1893 to 1895).
3.  William Thompson Martin (1823-1910) was a lawyer in Mississippi before the Civil War. He opposed secession, but still raised a cavalry troops for the Confederacy. He quickly rose to colonel and then brigadier general, serving in the Western Theater. He was cavalry commander under James Longstreet at Knoxville and after Longstreet’s return to the east, Martin was promoted to major general. He led a division under Joseph Wheeler at Atlanta and rose to command of the military district of Northwest Mississippi by the time the war ended. After the War he returned to his law practice, served in the Mississippi state senate, and was the president of the Natchez, Jackson, and Columbus railroad.

1863 November 7: Battle of Wauhatchie and Other News

The Polk County Press’ summary of the week’s news, from its November 7, 1863, issue.

The News.

Up to our latest dispatches by way of Mail, we have nothing of importance from the seat of war. there has been no fighting reported during the past week.  Returns from the Eastern elections indicate that Massachusetts has gone Union by a largely increased majority.  New York has undoubtedly gone Union.  The vote in New York city and Brooklyn shows a Union gain of 17,000.  From returns given in the St. Paul Press of the 4th we find that Minnesota has gone Union by a rousing majority.— Wisconsin has elected Lewis [James T. Lewis] by the home vote beyond a doubt.

The Union gain in Milwaukee is 2,200.  Three Union Assemblymen HUBBELL, CASWELL, and ZIMMERMAN are elected—all gain.  Other cities and counties show large Union gains.  Hannibal, Mo., has gone Radical Abolitionist two to one.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2.—The following was received to-day at the headquarters of the army :

CHATTANOOGA, Oct. 29, 11-30 P. M.  To Maj. Gen. H. W. Halleck [Henry W. Halleck] :

Since the fight of the night of the 2d the enemy has not disturbed us.¹

Gen. Joe Hooker took many prisoners, among whom are 4 officers, and 103 men ;  he also captured nearly 1,000 Enfield rifles.  His loss is 350 officers and men, killed and wounded.  [Joseph Hooker]

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8.—the appointment of General Butler to the Department of which Fortress Monroe is at present the Headquarters is considered an earnest of a purpose to conduct the war in that quarter on what are briefly known as Butler principles.  [Benjamin F. Butler]

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3.—All the able bodied troops under Gen. Martindale,² the Military Governor, are to be relieved from duty here and sent to the field. Their place will be supplied by the Invalid corps. The 157th Pennsylvania has already been relieved, and will leave to-day.

And on another page of the same paper:

The News.

NEW YORK, Oct. 29th.—A Chattanooga letter to the Herald says that deserters continue to come into our lines, notwithstanding the extraordinary measures taken by Bragg to prevent them.  [Braxton Bragg]

Nine men and a commissioned officer, Tennesseans, came in yesterday.  The officer, who is intelligent and apparently honest, tels [sic] a tale which is cheering and inspiring to all good Union men, and which corroborates previous information.

He says a full brigade of Tennessee troops, with their General at their head, attempted to come through our lines in a body one day last week.

A fight of a most sanguinary character ensued, in which artillery, musketry and bayonets were used for 3 or 4 hours, resulting in the overpowering the discontented Tennesseeans [sic] after some 800 men had been slaughtered on both sides.  The sound of the cannon had been heard in our lines at the time, but nobody could explain the meaning of the brisk fire, so close to the enemy’s rear.  The officer says the matter was hushed.

The health of the army at Chattanooga, notwithstanding the extraordinary hardships it has experienced, is very good.

A large field hospital is established near town, and the sick receive the best of care and food.  Grant is doing a great and good work here.  [Ulysses S. Grant]

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1.—The following was received this morning at the headquarters of the army :

To Maj. Gen. H. W. Halleck—

CHATTANOOGA, Oct. 29.—In the fight of last night¹ the enemy attacked Gen. Geary’s Division, posted on the Waupatchie [sic], on three sides, and broke his camp at one point, but was driven back in the most gallant style by part of his force, the remainder being held in reserve.  [John W. Geary]

Howard, whilst marching to Geary’s aid, was attacked on both, flanks, the enemy occupying in force two commanding hills on the left and right of our army.  [Oliver O. Howard]

He threw forward two of his regiments and took both at the point of the bayonet, driving the enemy from his breastworks, and across Lookout Creek.

In this brilliant success over their old adversary, the conduct of officers and men of the 11th and 12th corps is entitled to the highest praise.

(Signed) GEO. S. THOMAS, [George H. Thomas]
Major General.

KNOXVILLE, October 30.—Our forces which occupied Loundon have retired to the north side of the river, and now occupy the heights commanding London.  Other dispositions unchanged.

Hawkins’ Band of Guerrillas Attacked and Defeated.

NASHVILLE, October 30.—Lieut. Col. Snively of the 1st Middle Tennessee Infantry³ attacked Hawkins, a guerilla chief near Penny Factory, and routed and pursued him to Centreville, where Hawkins made another stand and attacked the Federals while crossing the river.

Hawkins was again routed and pursued until his force was disposed with the loss of 20 killed and 66 prisoners, including Griffith, formerly editor of the “Nashville Union and American.”  Our loss was trifling.

NEW YORK, Nov. 1.—To Col. Robert Nugent. A. A. P. M. General, New York :

The representations made by Dean Richmond and Peter Cagger, in a printed circular, dated Oct. 27th, 1883, in respect to the action for the Provost Marshal General [P.M.G.] are untrue.  It is not true that the State of New York is charged with a deficiency for every citizen who paid the $300 commutation money and received no credit therefor.  On the contrary the State receives the same credit for a man who has paid commutation as if the drafted citizen had gone in person or furnished a substitute.

In like manner, towns which have raised the money to pay their quotas, receive the same credit as if actual substitutes had been furnished.

The President has ordered that every citizen, that has paid $300 commution [sic] shall receive the same receipt therefor as [i]f he had furnished a substitute, and is exonerated from military service for which he was drafted, to wit :  for three years.

As the misrepresentations of Dean Richmond and Peter Cagger have been published and circulated for electioneering purposes, it is proper that you give them immediate correction.

(Signed)
JAS. [James] B. FRY, P. M. G.

1.  This describes the Battle of Wauhatchie, which took place October 28-29, 1863, along the border of Tennessee and Georgia. The “2d” is a typographical error.
General Ulysses S. Grant had recently relieved General William S. Rosecrans of his command and replaced him with General George H. Thomas. Grant and Thomas initiated the “Cracker Line Operation” on October 26, 1863. It was designed to open the road to Chattanooga from Brown’s Ferry on the Tennessee River so supplies could get through to the Union army in Chattanooga. Simultaneously the Union troops would advance up Lookout Valley, securing the Kelley’s Ferry Road. Meanwhile, General Joseph Hooker marched with three divisions from Bridgeport and on October 28 Hooker’s column entered Lookout Valley, to the astonishment of Confederate Generals Braxton Bragg and James Longstreet. Hooker, while his force passed through Lookout Valley on October 28, detached General John W. Geary’s division at Wauhatchie Station to protect the line of communications to the southwest as well as the road west to Kelley’s Ferry. In one of the few night battles of the Civil War, the Confederate forces attempted to dislodge the Union force defending the ferry and close their supply line, but were defeated.
2.  John Henry Martindale (1815-1881) graduated from West Point but resigned from the Army a year later to study law, which he then practiced in New York state. In August 1861, Martindale was commissioned a brigadier general of volunteers in the Union Army, and participated in all the battles of the Peninsula Campaign. After the retreat from Malvern Hill, he was brevetted a major general of volunteers, and appointed Military Governor of Washington, D. C., a post he held from November 1862 to May 1864.
3.  The 10th Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was originally recruited and designated as the 1st Middle Tennessee Infantry, largely from Irish-Americans.

1863 May 23: “Just returned from an expedition into that part of Tennessee still unfortunately in possession of the rebels”

This letter was published in the May 23, 1863, issue of The Polk County Press.  We have no idea who “Semi Occasional” was.

Army Correspondence.

CAMP NEAR MURFREESBORO, }
TENN., MAY 3d 1863. }

MR. EDITOR:—Having just returned from an expedition into that part of Tennessee still unfortunately in possession of the rebels, I send you a slight sketch of our operations, which may serve a good turn some day when the “devil” is after you, (for copy I mean.)  We were out eleven days, taking nothing with us but our blankets and haversacks with two wagons to each regiment carrying rations and our little “dog tents,” as the boys call them, little 7 x 9 concerns just large enough to hold two men.  It was the first time we used them, and I must say, they are excellent for the hot weather.  It will give some idea of the great advantage of using them, when I state that the tents for our whole company did not occupy as much room in the wagon as one of the Sibley’s [sic] used to.  In case of necessity the men can carry their own tents, it being so arranged that it can be divided, each man carrying half a tent.  [paragraph break added]

A small two-man tent or dog tent as the soldiers called them. First introduced in 1862, every Union soldier was issued one for use during active campaign.

The Sibley was designed to accommodate 12 men. The men slept in a pattern like spokes on a wheel, with their feet towards the center of the tent.

We proceeded from here towards the extreme left of the army, which we found stretched out farther than we had any idea of, as it took us nearly the whole of the first day to arrive at it.  Here we camped for the night, while a force of cavalry under MINTY¹ and of mounted infantry under WILDER² went on in advance still further; how much, this deponent knoweth not as he does not swallow all he hears and then retail³ it for facts, as is to [sic] much the custom in the army.  We started early next morning, before it was fairly light, and followed up the cavalry all day.  It became apparent that we were merely a supporting force, and that the cavalry would have all the honor and glory while we would have the drudgery of keeping up within supporting distance of them.  After proceeding till about noon we came to where the rebels had their pickets stationed, and were informed by the inhabitants that they had left in great haste that morning, their videttes⁴ having informed them of the approach of our cavalry.  I tell you what, it is not often you catch the rebels napping, I only wish our men would be as wide awake.  We here left the turnpike we had been following and struck off on a by-road to the left and marched till night, when we camped by the side of a small stream.  A detail for picket duty having been called for I was informed it was my turn to go, which was anything but agreeable tidings after marching all day.  We had to cross the creek and not being able to find a good place to do so in the dark got pretty well wet, and then to mend the matter there came up a thunder storm and it rained heavily.  But our dear good uncle—God bless him—having furnished us with oiled blankets we did not care a snap, and when not on post lay down and in a few minutes were fast asleep.  When on post the darkness was such you could not see your hand before you, and every blinding flash I expected to reveal a rebel bayonet within a few feet of me, as from the noise of the thunder and rain when they could easily approach without being heard.  But none made their appearance and in the morning, after waiting in vain for orders, the officer in command of our party “took the responsibility” a la Jackson, and marched us into camp, when we found our regiment gone.  I will here state, what I ought to have stated before, that the infantry force was composed of our brigade and HALLS,’ the one that made such noble fight when surrounded by MORGAN [John Hunt Morgan] at Milton and finally beat him off.⁵

We had hard work to overtake our regiment but done so about two miles out they having halted for some reason, I suppose to await the report of the scouts ahead.  We marched all day through timber and when we camped at night received the joyful news that our cavalry had dashed into McMinville, and captured the notorious DICK McCANN⁶ and several of his MORGANS men.  MORGAN himself had a narrow escape.  From conversation I had with some of the cavalry, I suspect McCann has gone up; one man saying they tied a rope round his neck and the plaguy fool jerked back and strangled himself.  Another said the last he saw of him he was hanging by the neck to a tree trying to reach the ground with his toes, but unfortunately the rope was to [sic] short.  Next morning after marching about six miles we struck the Liberty pike, some miles south of Snow Hill where the rebels were defeated sometime [sic] ago.  Here the road descends through a gorge or ravine among the foot hills of the Cumberland mountains.  How any determined men could be driven from such a Thermopyla[e] is a wonder to me.  I would venture to say “Old Starkie” as the boys call our general, would hold it with his brigade against all creation.  At Liberty we burnt the steam mill, that had been grinding for the rebels, and a house said to contain army stores.  After waiting a few days near Liberty, in the vain hope that the rebels would attack us, we returned to camp here with 300 prisoners, and 40 or 50 families of union people.                  I remain yours,

—Semi Occasional.

1.  Robert Horatio George Minty (1831-1906) was an Irish-born soldier of fortune, who was commissioned major of the 3rd Michigan Cavalry in 1861 and colonel of the 4th Michigan Cavalry in 1862. In 1863 he received a brevet to brigadier general of volunteers.
2.  John Thomas Wilder (1830-1917) invented many hydraulic machines that he patented, including a unique water wheel in 1859. When the Civil War started, he enlisted in the 1st Indiana Battery and was elected a captain. Three months later he was appointed colonel of the 17th Indiana Infantry. In 1862, Confederate General Simon B. Buckner convinced him to surrender the Union garrison at Mumfordville and he spent two months as a prisoner of war before being exchanged. Wilder received wide attention for his performance in the Tullahoma Campaign (or Middle Tennessee Campaign, which was fought between June 24 and July 3, 1863), where he mounted his brigade on horses and mules and his men moved into battle with such rapidity that his men soon became known as the “Lightning Brigade.” His men also carried Spencer repeating rifles, which were capable of a rate of firepower far greater than their Confederate adversaries. Bypassing Army red tape, Wilder had asked his men to vote on purchasing the rifles and they agreed unanimously. He obtained a loan from his hometown bank and each man of the brigade co-signed a personal loan for his rifle. Embarrassed, the Government paid for the weapons.
3.  Not a usage of this word that most of us are used to, but in this context it means to tell or repeat gossip or stories.
4.  A mounted sentry in advance of the outposts of an army.
5.  The Battle of Vaught’s Hill, also known as the Battle of Milton, took place on March 20, 1863. A Union reconnaissance force, under Albert S. Hall, colonel of the 105th Ohio Infantry, encountered Confederate General John Hunt Morgan’s cavalry command, which caused him to fall back to a position east of Milton in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Pursuing Hall, Morgan’s men caught up with him on the morning of March 20, at Vaught’s Hill. Outnumbered by more than two to one, Hall and his men withstood the Confederate attacks until it became know that Union reinforcements were in route. There was a brief mention of Hall and this battle in the April 4, 1863, post. Hall died July 10, 1863, at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, from disease.
6.  J. Richard McCann, major of the 9th (also called the 13th and 15th) Tennessee Cavalry.

1863 April 30: “The rebels they have called into the field a new General and have made him supreme in command — Gen. Starvation”

The original letter is in the Edwin D. Levings Papers (River Falls Mss BO), in the University Archives and Area Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Memphis   April 30th 1863

Dear Parents,

We rec’d your last of the 14th and 19th several days ago, in which was inclosed some poetry.  The weather is beautiful, though for a few days, it has been of all sorts.  The grass and trees are in their full green, and flowers and all vegetation are smiling their prettiest.  The birds sing as sweetly as though no fierce passions of war swept over the land, and one almost wonders, when viewing the scene, that Man, created to live in peace and happiness like Nature, should indulge in tumultuous passions.  But we must remember Nature is not without her storms, that thereby the earth and air are purified of those conditions, whose continued presence would bring to Man and all animals disease & death.  So when men become corrupt and hasten to ruin, and listen not to the gentler admonitions of Wisdom, she employs the instrumentality of war to purify and change their hearts, so that, thus, war, which we so much deplore, because of the attendent [sic] evils, is the bearer of peace and purity and happiness.

The rebellion is fast waning; and its misfortunes are increasing, and point to the day that is near when the rebels must give up the struggle.  They acknowledge they are whipped, and that the most they can do is to bother us at their fortified points and prolong the conflict.  The impression with them seems to be they can not stay the progress of our arms, they can check it for a time, but like the damed [sic]-up water of a stream, it will rise and sweep them away.  Now a new difficulty arises before them which they are straining all their energies to meet.  I mean the scarcity of food.  Unfortunately for the rebels they have called into the field a new General and have made him supreme in command, — Gen. Starvation.  I am afraid that now they will lose their bacon and corn.  He is a poorer Gen. for them, than McClellan [George B. McClellan], or Buell [Don Carlos Buell] were for us.  But he is a better Gen. for us than they were for them, so that if the rebels tell us McClellan or Buell were our best Generals, we can tell them Gen Starvation is their best Gen.  McClellan, nor Buell could never be prevailed upon to follow up their advantage, but I think Starvation will make a clean thing of it.  Many do not credit the rebel reports of approaching famine in the States yet occupied by them, but it seems to me any man with sense in his head and eyes open can not but see it, for there are the most palpable indications, aside from rebel confessions, that tell of suffering, for want of food, in the South, present and prospective, and when I hear a soldier deny, or say he don’t believe, a word of these things, I set him down as an ignoramus.  When down in Miss. last week I do not think more than a quarter of the tillable land I saw was put into crops.  The wheat was in the [head?], but very short & could not yield more than 7 or 8 bushels per acre.  The corn was just coming up.  Now when those crops come to maturity both armies will be there to take it, and how are the people going to live?  The whole country bordering on our lines will meet the same fate.  Tenn., Ky., Mo., Ark., portions of Va., N.C. & S. Carolina are of but little account to them for supplies and now Texas is effectually cut off, & we hold armed control of the entire length of the Miss.  I think the rebels will do some desperate fighting yet and, it seems likely, in Tenn.  One or two of the rebel officers we took prisoners live near here & have given $100,000 bonds for.  The rebel Gen. Chalmer’s¹ home is in Hernando.  Balcom² got his blankets.

The rebels claim a victory at Coldwater.  We were neither repulsed nor driven back; nor was our force 4000 as they have it, but 2000.  It was nothing less nor more than a drawn battle, in which the rebels got the worst of it.  When reinforced we numbered 3,000.  The accounts in the papers were incorrect as regards numbers engaged, dates, and facts.  I shall know now how to estimate other battles I read of.  [paragraph break added]

We have sad news from Ill.  Uncle Alpheus² is dead — died of typhoid pneumonia — we heard it from John Rice,³ of the 32nd Ill. 4 days ago, whose parents live near there.  What will those girls do?  They must feel very badly.  Have not heard from them yet.  [paragraph break added]

To-day is the day appointed by the President for a thanksgiving to God for the Nation.⁴  It is being observed in our own Regt, the Chaplain preaching.  It is also Muster day & we are to get 4 month’s pay to-morrow, so I will not mail this till to-morrow.  3 of the boys received furloughs by lot yesterday for 30 days, Beebee, Hope and Miley.⁵  The latter lives in Prescott near Mr. Miles House — is an Irishman and a good hearted fellow.  Perhaps you may see him.   I  Had either of us got a furlough, I do not think we should come home for it would cost 6 months wages to go & return, & then not stay more than 10 days.  Should we ever be sick or hurt and you wanted to come to us, you would have to get a pass or permit from the Provost Marshall at the different Military Posts.  The Capt’s wife came a day or two ago — 10 days on the way.

May 2nd.  Paid off to-day & sending you by Express to the Prescott Bank $80 (eighty dollars in green backs).  Both well as usual.  You must use the money in some way, if it is not in too large bills.  Have $12.78 left & Homer has $15.00.

Yours affectionately,

1.  We met General James R. Chalmers in Ed Levings’ April 25, 1863, letter.
2.  James Balcom, from Kinnickinnick, was also in Company A of the 12th Wisconsin Infantry.
3.  Alpheus Hall Levings died April 17, 1863, in Hamilton, Hancock County, Illinois. He was born in Fairfax, Vermont, on  January 19, 1806. His “girls” were wife Rhoda (Powell) and daughters Lucy, Emma, Charlotte, and Harriet. Alpheus’ brother, Daniel Hall Levings, was Edwin and Homer’s father.
4.  John F. Rice was in Company A of the 32nd Illinois Infantry. He was from Palmyra, in Macoupin County, Illinois.
4.  What Ed is calling the President’s day of “thanksgiving” was President Lincoln’s National Day of Prayer, Fasting, and Humiliation on April 30, 1863.
5.  Charles A. Beebe was from New Richmond in Saint Croix County, George W. Hope from Diamond Bluff in Pierce County, and James Miley from Prescott in Pierce County. Both Beebe and Miley will die later in 1863, and perhaps that it could be their last chance to visit home played into their decision.

Edwin Levings letter of April 30, 1863, from the Edwin D. Levings Papers (River Falls Mss BO) in the University Archives & Area Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls

1863 April 25: The 12th Wisconsin Infantry’s First Big Fight

Edwin Levings and his brother Homer were in Company A of the 12th Wisconsin Infantry.  E. B. Quiner, in his Military History of Wisconsin,¹ has this to say of the expedition Ed Levings describes in this letter:  “On the 18th of April, Colonel Bryant [George E. Bryant] was placed in command of a force of infantry, cavalry, and a battery, to coöperate with a force under General Smith,² from La Grange, against the rebel General Chalmers,³ on the Coldwater River, to divert his attention from the celebrated raid of Colonel Grierson,⁴ which that officer undertook in the Spring of 1863, penetrating through the centre of Mississippi, and arriving at Baton Rouge, La.  Colonel Bryant encountered the rebels in strong force at the river, and drove them from their position, and waited some time for the appearance of General Smith’s force to attack in the rear.  General Smith failed to appear, and Colonel Bryant returned towards Memphis, where he was met by an additional force, and returned to Hernando, and there waited for signals of attack by General Smith.  Not hearing from that officer, he returned to Memphis with his command.  The Twelfth formed part of the expedition but suffered no loss.”

The original letter is in the Edwin D. Levings Papers (River Falls Mss BO), in the University Archives and Area Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Memphis, April 25^th 1863

Dear Parents,

I suppose if you are in receipt of our last letter, you are particularly anxious about us.  For we told you we were going out after a large force of rebels who were camped on the other side of the Coldwater River, 35 miles south.  The expedition returned yesterday noon, after an absence of 6 1/2 days, and I hasten to tell you we are both safe and sound and have had a glorious time.  I regret to say the main object of the expedition was not accomplished on account of the failure of Gen. Smith to coöperate with us, his part being to come in behind the rebels and attack them, while we engaged them in front so the rebels were not all “gobbled up” as they were expected to be, but

[page 2 —]  I will say we had several hard fights and lost some men.  But the rebels lost more & we returned with 80 prisoners, 200 horses and mules, 150 negroes, and destroyed a large amount of rebel supplies while gone.  So much I have told you, now for the sake of clearness and connection as well as interest I will speak of the events of the expedition in the order of their occurrence.  The Expedition consisted of 1 Battallion [sic] of the 5th Ohio Cavalry, the 13th Ohio Battery (4 guns), 41^st Ill. Int’y., 33^rd & 12^th Wis. & was commanded by Col. Bryant.  We left the city at day break on the 18th and reached Hernando at 5 P.M. 25 miles south.  The country was rough & hilly & rebels cavalry were all around us.  The 12th being the advance, & Companies A & B had a good deal of skirmishing to do.  6 or 8 rebels were caught by the cavalry reaching Hernando.

[page 3 —]  The Cav. had a hard fight 1 mile south of that place just after we came up & we had a chance to see it in part.  25 or 30 rebels were laid out on the field & 75 captured with their arms & 1 wagon of [hams?], our loss, one prisoner.  The prisoners were lodged in the Court House.  During the fight a force of rebels Cav. were seen coming into town to cut off our Cav. retreat & attack them in the rear not knowing we had guns & artillery along, when they saw us they skedaddled as fast as they could.  The captured rebels were sent out to draw our men into an ambush where lay a large force of rebels, but they were beaten at their own game.  The people seemed glad we had come for they thought we would be over powered.  We got a lot of cotton for beds & piled into the houses there being a hard rain all night.

[page 4 —]  2^nd Day — Clear but muddy.  Went on to the Coldwater 10 miles I saw one wounded rebel sitting up against a stump where he had been all night.  Our ambulances were sent out to pick up the rebel wounded & were fired into by the rebels.  Co’s I & G with a squad of Cav. were sent back to Memphis with the prisoners & captured arms, but after going a little ways a superior force of rebels came in sight & they had to double quick & break the arms & [__] escaped.  Our Regt. was behind that day.  There was Cav. skirmishing all the way to the river.  When we came up to the river there was a hard battle in progress down in the bottom.  The Cav. drove the rebels across the ferry & held there till we came up.  Major Hays⁵ of the Cav. was mortally wounded in the action.  The 41st & 33rd & the artillery & 3 companies of our own Regt. fought the rebels 6 hours, Co’s I & G guarded the prisoners & the other companies were held in reserve.  There was no attempt made to cross

[page] 5 [—]  the river as the programme was for Col. Bryant to hold the rebels there till Gen. Smith came in behind the rebels.  We could have crossed but there would have been great loss on our side if we had.  For the rebels were posted behind fallen trees & logs piled up in the thick brush where it was almost impossible to see a rebel, & they were reinforced several times & finally with artillery.  Gen. Chalmer [sic]³ commanded the rebels.  Our artillery fired 120 rounds of shell & grape & once or twice when rebel reinforcements came up, let whole volleys into the head of their columns which must have cut some of the down surely.  Federals & rebels lay within 30 yds of each other for 6 hours & every time a head showed itself the bullets blew.  Crack crack

[page] 6 [—]  crack all the time.  At last the rebs retired, evidently to entice us across, but they could not fool Col Bryant in that way.  They were superior in numbers & finally their artillery opened on us but none of their shell burst.  One shot struck within 10 ft of the ambulances & 3 others a few rods to the right of us.  This was to find out where our battery was, doubtless, when they would have opened on it furiously, no response was made, but the troops fell back a short distance & fearing us we finally fell back to Hernando by another road, for a better position.  We had not gone 2 miles ere rebel cav. hove in sight, but they were driven off by our cav.  Our loss was 4 killed & 12 wounded, I think.  The killed

[page] 7 [—]  were Major Hays of the Cav., a Capt. & Lieut. of the 33rd, 1 private 41st, 1 private 15th Ohio Battery.  One man of Co E. of our Regt was severely wounded in the right arm & right lungs.  Major Hays has since died.  We camped that night on a plantation & destroyed all the cotton.

3^rd Day — Gen. Smith had not been heard from & we lay still all day till noon in town & were reinforced by 100 2nd Wis. Cav.  Cav. drove the rebels back to the river.  Some of our men were engaged in catching horses & mules near town & the rebels fired at them but did no hurt & were driven off.  To retaliate for firing into our ambulances, the boys burned houses that cost $50,000.  The Court House alone, which was burned, cost $30,000.  The officers could not stop it.  At noon we left for Memphis

[page] 8 [—]  by a circuitous route east of that we came down by & camped on the plantation of Capt. Blythe,⁶ one of our prisoners — took his negroes, burned his fences & destroyed his cotton what there was.  We had but 4 days rations when we left Memphis & we took hams & everything else eatable along the road.  We had to skirmish again & I must tell you a story.  Col. Poole⁷ thought he saw rebels on the other side of us & Lieut. Reynolds⁸ sent us off towards a house but there were no rebels but negroes & they wanted to get away & were all ready.  I told them to go in front of me & give me one of their bundles & I would see them into our lines.  There were 8 of them but I got them all along but fell behind in doing so but the Cav. waited for me.  There were 4 women, 3 children & 1 boy 14 years old.  The boys call me John Brown.

4th Day.  Marched to within 12 miles of Memphis when reinforcements & provisions came & we had to go back again.  The troops that joined us were 5 Ohio Battery (6 pieces), 1 Battallion [sic] Cav., 46 & 14 Ills. Int’y.  Went back

[page] 9 [—]  5 miles and camped. — 5th Day — Marched to within 5 miles of the Coldwater stream & camped, resting awhile at noon at Hernando for rest & dinner.

6th Day — The rebels had disappeared & Col. Bryant with the Cav. crossed the river, when a dispatch from Gen. Smith came saying he was after the rebs & had force enough without out [sic] us & having but 2 days provisions on hand we started back for Memphis.  At noon 30 of the 2nd Wis. Cav. came upon a rebel supply train & destroyed what they could not carry off.  Among the things were 4 wagon loads of ham, a lot of lard, horses & mules & 75 negroes.  A Quartermaster & several other rebels were caught camped 15 miles from Memphis.

6th Day — Rained hard, marched to Memphis in the mud.

[page 10] [—]  We marched about 120 miles on this trip.  I carried only my oil cloth, 1 days ration, 45 rounds ammunition, rations being issued at night each day.  We both felt well & never took more pleasure in marching than on this trip.  The negro men we brought on are all enlisting & the women will sew & make soldier clothes for the darkies.  I wish we could start on another expedition to-morrow.  This may not be correct in every respect, but, doubtless, you will see the whole report by and bye & bye & get at the truth.  We had plenty of fun & terrified the rebels greatly, never had so much fun since I have been a soldier.  [paragraph break added]

I got 2 good Latin Books.  Homer will tell his own story to you in a day or two.  I must close & mail this.  Excuse my haste & little pains, for I suppose you want to hear from [us] immediately.  So good bye

Yours in love
Edwin Levings

We have just signed the pay rolls & will get 2 months pay in a day or two.

We rec’d. your letter of the 12th containing medicine, on this march.

I think this account is more correct than any you will see in the papers for I understand the accounts in the papers are very much distorted.  Co. B lost one man prisoner.

1.  E. B. Quiner’s Military History of Wisconsin (UWRF Archives E 537 .Q56 1866), chapter 20, this quotation is on pages 576-77. A digital copy is available on the Wisconsin Historical Society’s website.
2.  John Eugene Smith (1816-1897) emigrated from Switzerland and became a jeweler in Galena, Illinois. It was here that Smith joined the Union Army and become one of nine generals from Galena to fight in the Civil War. He participated in the battles Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, and Sherman’s March to the Sea. After the War, Smith stayed in the regular army until 1881 when he retired to Chicago, Illinois.
3.  James Ronald Chalmers (1831-1898) grew up in Tennessee and Holly Springs, Mississippi, and gradated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in law. Despite no military experience, when the Civil War started he was elected colonel of the 9th Mississippi Infantry Regiment. He participated in the battles of Shiloh, Murfreesboro, and Stones River, among others. In 1863 he saw action in northern Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Following the War Chalmers resumed his law career and served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1877 to 1882.
4.  Benjamin Henry Grierson (1826-1911) was a music teacher and band leader in Illinois before the war. In 1861 he joined the 6th Illinois Cavalry and was promoted to colonel in 1862. In November of that year he became a brigade commander in the Cavalry Division of the Army of the Tennessee, and in December he participated in the pursuit of Confederate General Earl Van Dorn after his Holly Springs raid. Grierson is best known for Grierson’s Raid, an 1863 diversionary expedition through Confederate-held territory that severed enemy communication lines. Grierson left La Grange, Tennessee, on April 17, 1863. After the War, Grierson organized the 10th U.S. Cavalry, one of two mounted regiments composed of Black soldiers and white officers, called the Buffalo Soldiers.
5.  Charles S. Hays/Hayes was the major of the 5th Ohio Cavalry.
6.  Possibly John W. Blythe (1825-1897), captain of Company B, 5th Tennessee Cavalry.
7.  DeWitt C. Poole, the lieutenant colonel of the 12th Wisconsin Infantry.
8.  Charles Reynolds, from Madison, was the 1st lieutenant of Company A, 12th Wisconsin Infantry, at this time. He will eventually become the captain of Company A.

Edwin Levings letter of April 25, 1863, from the Edwin D. Levings Papers (River Falls Mss BO) in the University Archives & Area Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls

1863 February 1: “We have been preparing to defend ourselves against rebels”

A two-for-one letter from Edwin and his brother Homer, with the 12th Wisconsin Infantry in Tennessee.  The original letter is in the Edwin D. Levings Papers (River Falls Mss BO), in the University Archives and Area Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Collierville, Tenn. Feb 1^st 1863.

Dear Parents:

                          We have just come in from on picket and will now answer two letters from you of the 13th & 19th ult. the latter rec’d two days ago.  Were glad to hear from you again.  There is no news of much interest.  We are still at this place — no prospect of going to Vicksburgh [sic] or anywhere else, which, I have no doubt, will suit you. [paragraph break added]

Since my last writing we have been preparing to defend ourselves against rebels, who are within striking distance of our Camps.  Have made a breastwork of cotton bales surrounding the depot building & have made a strong fort of earth near by to accommodate 12 or 1500 men, so we have no fears at present.  The rebel cavalry have lately pitched on to our pickets, wounding & capturing some of them, — one of Co D was wounded in the leg a few nights since by one of these scamps, when on picket.¹  They have also attacked our  our foraging trains & Cav scouts but without doing much injury.  Report says there are 10 or 1200 rebs this side of the Tallahatehie, — they are repairing the R. R. and the general impression is that they meditate the reoccuption of West Tenn. for you probably know they have been reinforced. — The pickets orders are very strict, no fires are allowed on the vidette² posts (outposts) in the night—none except on the reserve, — no firing, leaving posts, nor taking off of equiptments; no soldiers are allowed to straggle through the lines, — if negroes, citizens, or soldiers wish to pass through their passes must have Col Johnson’s signature.  Col Johnson is a fine officer and & good & efficient officer — is known as a good fighting man— very pleasant & humorous in his manner & is thouroughly [sic] popular.  You ask if I sleep when on picket.  Never!—until relieved by another.  I was never caught napping, when on that kind of duty.

Were paid off on Friday last, for two months—$26.  I expressed you yesterday to the Prescott Bank $50.  There will be due us the 1^st March next 6 months pay. — Will get the rest soon, it is thought.

Let us know how you are getting along.  It is warm & pleasant to-day but what it will be to-morrow is not easy to tell.  We are still well as usual — I must stop now, so good by till next time.

Yours affectionately
Edwin Levings.

Colliersville, Ten . Feb. 1^st 1863.

Dear Parents,

                          Ed has finished his letter and wishes me to say a few words, but it is almost dark, so you will excuse me this time for not writing a longer letter.  We were on picket yesterday, we got a small hog while there, which was quite a help.  It was against orders to fire our guns so we had to corner the hog, and charge bayonetts on him.  [paragraph break added]

Ed had a letter [from] Elsworth [sic]³ the other day.  I have just heard two letters read from Dickinson.  The most of his letters to this company seems to be written meerly [sic] to slander, Mr. Wilcox, but I do not think there is much truth in what he says.⁴ You can use our money as you see fit, we shall probably have six months pay to send home next time.

Yours Truly, Homer.

1.  Edward Vunk, from the Town of Polk in Washington County. He was wounded on January 28, 1863, and will be discharged on May 18, 1863, because of his wound.
2.  Vidette is an alternate spelling of vedette, which is usually a mounted sentinel stationed in advance of an outpost, but it sounds like Ed is using it for the outpost itself.
3.  No doubt this is Ellsworth Burnett, from River Falls, who is in Company A of the 30th Wisconsin Infantry. Ed had just asked his parents about Ellsworth Burnett in his letter of January 12, 1863.
4.  This may refer to Mumford J. Dickinson, who lived in Hudson; he will not enlist in Company D of the 2nd Cavalry until December 24, 1863.  Edward M. Wilcox, who lived in River Falls, will join Company K of the 30th Infantry on October 3, 1863.

Edwin and Homer Levings letter of February 1, 1863, from the Edwin D. Levings Papers (River Falls Mss BO) in the University Archives & Area Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls

1863 January 22: “It is enough to discourage any man, the way this war has been carried on”

Homer Levings’ letters are always interesting, and not just for their spelling! In this letter we learn what Homer’s brother Edwin hinted at regarding Homer, at the close of his letter of January 21, 1863.

The original letter is in the Edwin D. Levings Papers (River Falls Mss BO), in the University Archives and Area Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Colliers Ville   Tenn,  Jan
22^nd / 63

Dear Parents,

                            As Ed. has finished writing I thought I would write you a few lines, to not that I have any news to write, for Ed. has told you every-thing that is of importance, but I thought would let you know that I am well, and in the land of the living, and also how I am situated.  I came off from guard this morning.  I have stood guard two nights in succession since we came here, a-guarding the Colonel’s horses it was intended for punishment, but I did not have to stand in the day-time, so it was not verry [sic] hard but of course you will want to know what it is for, so I will tell you at once.  When we left Layfaette [sic], to come to this place, you will remember it rained verry [sic] hard as Ed. told you in his letter.  We were ordered that morning to strike tents about two or three hours before we started so four of the boys in our tent, besides my-self, started on a head [sic] of the Regt. and took the R. R. track, it being much better traveling, so we got ahead of the Regt. got and arrived in town as soon as the advance of the brigade and as we were tiered [sic], hungry, cold, a[nd] wet, we immeaditly [sic] commenced a search for some emty [sic] building in which to stow our selves away for the night, but we did not find such a place, but we chanced to run across a house in the outskirts of the town, where there was a family living in it, by the name of Jones, who were verry [sic] nice pepol [sic], for they had not the heart to turn us out of doors into the storm, so they give us the use of their parlor so we stayed all night with them.  The soldiers had taken about all that they had to eat, so we joined our rations with theirs, we furnished coffee and hard bread, and they furnished the rest.  So now you know what we were put on guard for, which was for staying out of camp over night.  But as Father used to say, “those that dance must pay the fiddler.”  So with those that get ahead of their command to get good dinners, they have to stand guard for it.  But I do not think I lost any-thing by it, for if I had went round by the road and stayed with the Regt. I might have come out as Ed. did caught a severe cold in the bargain, so I do not think that I was the looser [sic] by the opperation [sic].  [paragraph break added]

Our Comp. went on picket this morning, but I could not go, because I had no pants to put on, and there are three or four others in the tent that are in the same fix.  You see we have been marching so steady, and have had so much bad weather, that we have got dirty, and lousy, so we are having our pants boiled, while we lay or sit up in bed, as we prefer.  [paragraph break added]

Now Mother you must not worry about us thinking that we are suffering, for we have plenty to eat and we expect to draw more clothes in a day [or] so.  There is talk of our being paid off before long.  Some say that the 4^th Divission [sic] will have to pay for the property destroyed, much by the Generals, that they have become discouraged.  A good many of the soldiers would desert at once, if they only had their pay.  I have heard a good many of of [sic] the soldiers say as much.  I do not think it any disgrace for a soldier to desert, for it is enough to discourage any man, the way this war has been carried on.  But  I don’t know but  you will think by this letter that I am getting discouraged.  As Dwight says I have seen enough of soldiering, but I am not so hard up that I cannot wait a while longer, to see how the thing will turn up.  I would am willing to serve my time out, if they will only go ahead and do something, but I don’t beleive [sic] that the war will last so long as that, for the pepol [sic] will not submit to have the thing run a long as it has, much longer. [paragraph break added]

But I can not write much more as it is getting late, we have not heard anything from Copp, and Pierce yet, and I am afraid we won’t.¹  We should like to have you send us R. F. paper occasionaly [sic].  You must write often tell us what is going on and what you are doing. [paragraph break added]

Capt. Maxon [sic: Orrin T. Maxson] had a letter from Kelsey,² stating  that Higby [sic]³ wrote a letter to some one in Prescott, stating that in that little we skirmish our company had near cold watter [sic], that we fiered [sic] one round and run; then he took Co B, and drove them a mile and a half.  But I don’t supose [sic] you would take stock in any such report.  There was only a few of the company that got near enough to shoot at them, and company B did not get to see the rebels.  [paragraph break added]

Mother you and Grandmother must both write.  But it is getting late so I will close, with my best wishes for your welfare.  From your obedient son

Homer

1.  Joseph M. Copp and Elgreen C. Pierce, as we learned in the January 5, 1863, letter by Edmund Orlando Cleveland, had been taken prisoners.
2.  Wallace Kelsey was a sergeant in Company A and was back home recruiting.
3.  Chester G. Higbee was the 2nd lieutenant of Company B at this point. He had been the 1st sergeant in Company A before being transferred to Company B.

Homer Levings letter of January 22, 1863, from the Edwin D. Levings Papers (River Falls Mss BO) in the University Archives & Area Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls

1863 January 21: Ed Levings Falls into a River and Loses His Gun

The original letter is in the Edwin D. Levings Papers (River Falls Mss BO), in the University Archives and Area Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Colliersville Tenn. Jan 21st, 1863

Dear Father and Mother;

                                                   I have three letters before me this evening to answer, two from you, one of the 28th Dec, the other of the 5th Jan, both rec’d day before yesterday; and one from Cousin Almond which came to hand this morning.  I hasten to relieve your anxiety about us, knowing your solicitation for our welfare.  I am sorry your worst apprehensions should have been excited, though I anticipated this, and longed to be able to inform you the mails would not go through.  Now that the mail arrangements are once more in order, I hope to get letters to you frequently.  I presume you are now in receipt of all our letters written after the 3rd Dec last, if not, let us know and we will give you a full history of all our movement from that date.

I wrote you last from near Moscow.  We have since moved and are now stationed at Colliersville, 15 miles from that place and 24 from Memphis.  Arrived here yesterday.  On Monday, the 19th, marched from near Lafayette to within two miles of here.  It rained,—the roads were muddy and the creeks and gullies were so swollen that it was with great difficulty we got along.  It seems as though the 12th Regiment is fated to commence its marches always in the worst weather.  Certain it is, that in every instance when we began a march, the day before was pleasant, and favorable.  In attempting to get on to a log that crosses a deep creek I fell in and lost my Springfield rifle.  I had on every thing, (knapsack, overcoat and all) and found myself sinking and unable to handle myself and with reluctance I let go of my gun.  I succeed in getting hold of the log and was helped out by two men of Comp’y C.  I was completely soaked, and getting got the Col’s permit to go ahead, which I did in quick time and thus avoided becoming chilled.  I encountered several creeks and after a good deal of circumambulating and swinging round from one place to another I reached the place where was to be our camp and dryed [sic] up.  I was not the only one who got a ducking.¹  Several found themselves in the watery element.  Some mules also were lost, so you see what marching is down here this time of year.  The arttillery [sic] which moved at all went on the cars to Memphis.  Several Divisions have gone there, their destination supposed to be Vicksburgh [sic].  I am inclined to think we shall follow, though the opinion prevails here that we shall remain here awhile.  The 3^rd & 4^th Divisions which constitute the 16th Army Corps, are now commanded by Hurlburt [sic: Stephen A. Hurlbut].  I like his appointment well as he is a good general.

I took a pass to Col. Johnson [Richard W. Johnson] Com’d’g the Brigade for his signature to go and fish up my rifle, now that the water has gone down some, but he seemed to think it not worth while and would not sign it, so I am minus a gun, but probably they will give m another soon.  I do not have to pay for the lost gun.

This road is strongly guarded.  Col. Lee,² 7th Kan. Cav., commands a Brigade of Cav. is entrusted with guarding the roads from Lagrange [sic] to Memphis.  He is pronounced the best Cav. officer in the service.  It is said he wants to have the 12th mounted and that he proposed furnishing us 500 revolving rifles and horses on condition we were mounted, but I guess we shall remain Int’y awhile longer.  The 7th Kan. Cav. & the 12th have always been much attached to each other.  More Cav. are needed in t his country.  Tenn., I believe, has come into the Union, but there are many secesh & rebels in the State yet & they must be watched.

Now as to Capt. Maxon [sic: Orrin T. Maxson], about whom you hear unfavorable stories.  First I will say stop in a few respects he is unpopular, but that his faults are not sufficiently aggravating to furnish a basis for the statements you enumerate, in other words, not as had as represented.  He, in common with other men, has his faults.  Who is faulted ?  He sometimes exhibits too much favoritism, and for this he is censured.  Then he is occasionally quite rigid in his discipline, apparently too much so, yet on the whole I think he is none too severe, for what is a Comp’y without good discipline?  Men must be kept under proper restrictions for their own good & the good of their company, and it is but rational some should feel themselves aggrieved.  Again, his temperament is too excitable at times, but he is not to blame for what he can not help.  I am sorry I must say he occasionally uses profanity.  These are his failures and I tell you them as they are.  He is in other respects a good Capt. & gives satisfaction.  Now as to the 2nd charge,—”too intimate with rebels, inviting them into his camp, dining with them &c.”  I must laugh.  This is utterly false and, I may say, malicious.  It originated in the following circumstance.  While at Waterford, Miss. & when our army was driving the rebels before them it several rebel soldiers who had delivered themselves up of their own accord & had passes to return to their homes in Tenn. came into our camp for something to eat & the Capt. gave them their supper.  What is there wrong in that?  The Capt. is no friend of rebels & does not court their good opinion.  This I know, and can prove.  We have got our bunks fixed up finely, and have an abundance of straw, and indeed, it looks like staying.

Thursday the 22^nd.  Today is cloudy & chilly.  The weather on the whole is rainy, chilly and clouds.  Our 6 inches of snow went off with the rain.  Our health is good as usual — have books and papers and I see nothing to prevent being comfortable and contented.  Hope the mail will not again be interrupted.  Will mail you a war map that you may trace out our peregrinations — is not such an one as I wanted for you but the best I could obtain, but I must stop.  No news of much importance.  Hope you will write soon.

Jan 23^rd — I am off picket & I’ll closer this up.  Really, Homer, you have done well! but you are now skedaddling round in the country to see what you can lay your pilfering hands on, and what would your Mother say if she knew — you were robbing these old secesh planters of what they have to live on? Guess she would say “It’s all right, Homer, but be Respectful — you will be gobbled up by & by & then where will be my boy Homer? but I’ll tell her you never were caught & that you know how to manage the “machine.”  O, Yes here he comes & with a big bag of turnips.  Didn’t I tell — well I will [s]top now any how.³  Direct as before

Yours &c
Edwin Levings
Co A 12th R.W.V.

1.  “Dunking” makes more sense, but it is definitely “ducking.”
2.  Albert Lindley Lee (1834-1907) was a lawyer and district judge before the Civil War. In October 1861, Lee became a major in the 7th Kansas Cavalry. He was promoted to colonel of the regiment and took part in the capture of Corinth. In late November 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general in the Volunteer Army, but continued leading cavalry brigades in the Army of the Tennessee before being appointed chief-of-staff to General John A. McClernand.
3.  We learn a little bit about what Ed is referring to here in Homer’s letter of January 22, 1863.

Edwin Levings letter of January 21, 1863, from the Edwin D. Levings Papers (River Falls Mss BO) in the University Archives & Area Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls