Between daylight and
sunup about twelve hundred Federal cavalry surrounded Booneville, a. small
village station on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. There was one train of cars
there and about five or six hundred Confederates, including the sick and their
nurses, but there was no armed force there to defend the place. So the Federals
had quietly taken possession of the place, set fire to the depot and train of
cars, and had collected all the Confederates that were able to travel, and perhaps
a number that were not really able, and formed them in line ready to march off,
when about eighty of our battalion came upon the scene. Small as our squad was,
we made a daring charge and released the prisoners. How they (the prisoners)
did come yelling towards us! We then dropped back into the woods near by, and
after a little skirmishing, the Federals withdrew in time for us to save two
boxes of cars and also the engine. The train was loaded with arms and
ammunition. Our loss was one killed (Culwell), three wounded, and it was said
that the Federals carried off two prisoners, though the prisoners were not from
our battalion. The Federal loss was two killed, several wounded, and nine
prisoners. How those prisoners whom we released did appreciate being set at
liberty! And they did not forget it, but continued to express their gratitude
to our battalion when they happened to meet with any of us along through the
war. The release of five or six hundred prisoners, in the hands of twelve
hundred Federals, by not exceeding eighty Confederates, was no small feat.
The Confederate Army
was moving south along the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, in the direction of
Booneville. So there was no little excitement in Confederate ranks on account
of the explosion of the bombshells in the burning cars, being taken for heavy
cannonading. However, they soon learned better, for it was not long before the
head of the column passed Booneville. Our sick had to get out, or be taken out,
of the depot to avoid being burned alive, so they were lying about on the
ground, some dead and others in a dying condition; so the scene was anything
but a pleasant one to look upon. Our battalion moved back to the same place we
camped the night before.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate
Cavalry, p. 172-3
