Major-General Ulysses S. Grant to Major-General Henry W. Halleck, June 14, 1863

BEHIND VICKSBURG, MISS., June 11, 1863,        

VIA MEMPHIS, TENN., June 14.

Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief:

I have reliable information from the entire interior of the South. Johnston has been re-enforced by 3,000 troops from Mobile and other parts of Georgia; by [J.P.] McCown's and Breckinridge's divisions (9,000 men), and 4,000 of   Forrest's cavalry, from Bragg's army; 9,000 men from Charleston, and 2,200 from Port Hudson. Orders were sent the very day General Banks invested Port Hudson, to evacuate it. Garrison there now 8,000. Lee's army has not been reduced; Bragg's force now 46,000 infantry and artillery and 15,000 cavalry. Everything not required for daily use has been removed to Atlanta, Ga. His army can fall back to Bristol or Chattanooga at a moment's notice, which places, it is thought, he can hold, and spare 25,000 troops. Mobile and Savannah are now almost entirely without garrisons, further than men to manage large guns. No troops are left in the interior to send to any place. All further re-enforcements will have to come from one of the great armies. There are about 32,000 men west of the Mississippi, exclusive of the troops in Texas. Orders were sent them one week ago by Johnston. The purport of the order not known. Herron has arrived here, and troops from Burnside looked for to-morrow.

U.S. GRANT,        

Major-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 1 (Serial No. 36), p. 42

Brigadier-General James Edward Raines

Brigadier-General James Edward Rains, one of the many civilians who rose to high military command during the great war between the States, was born in Nashville, Tenn., in April, 1833. He was graduated at Yale in 1854, and then studied law. He became city attorney at Nashville in 1858, and attorney-general for his judicial district in 1860. In politics he was a Whig, and was for some time editor of the Daily Republican Banner. When the summons to war came, he enlisted in the Confederate army as a private, but was elected colonel of the Eleventh Tennessee infantry and commissioned May 10, 1861. The greater part of his service was in east Tennessee. During the winter of 1861-62 he commanded the garrison at Cumberland Gap. This position he held as long as it was possible to do so, repulsing several attempts of the enemy upon his lines. It was not until the 18th of June, 1862, that the Federals turned his position and rendered it untenable. Had this occurred earlier, east Tennessee would have been completely lost to the Confederates in 1862. But the forces which Kirby Smith was now gathering about Knoxville, in addition to those in the neighborhood of Cumberland Gap, made the Union occupation of that post almost a barren victory. When, in August, Smith advanced into Kentucky, he left Gen. Carter L. Stevenson with a strong division to operate against the Union general, Morgan, who was holding the gap with about 9,000 men. Colonel Rains commanded a brigade in Stevenson's division, and so efficient was his work that his name frequently appeared in both the Confederate and Union reports. Kirby Smith's success in Kentucky, and the steady pressure brought to bear upon Morgan by the Confederates, at last forced the Union commander to abandon Cumberland Gap and retreat through eastern Kentucky to the Ohio river. The efficient service rendered by Colonel Rains in all these movements was rewarded by a brigadier-general's commission, November 4, 1862. When Bragg was concentrating his army at Murfreesboro (November, 1862), after the return from the Kentucky campaign, the brigade of General Rains, composed of Stovall's and J. T. Smith's Georgia battalions, R. B. Vance's North Carolina regiment and the Eleventh Tennessee under Colonel Gordon, was ordered to that point and assigned to the division of General McCown, serving in Hardee's corps. In the brilliant charges made by this corps in the battle of December 31, 1862, by which the whole Federal right was routed and tent back upon the center, with immense loss in killed, wounded, prisoners and guns, McCown's division bore an illustrious part. But, as in all great battles is to be expected, the division lost many brave men and gallant officers. Among the killed was Brigadier-General Rains, who fell shot through the heart as he was advancing with His men against a Federal battery. He left to his family, to his native State and to the South the precious legacy of a noble name.

SOURCE: James D. Porter, Confederate Military History, Volume VIII. Tennessee, p. 329-31

Official Reports of the Action at and Surrender of Murfreesborough, Tenn., July 13, 1862

• No. 1.  Reports of Maj. Gen. D.C. Buell, U.S. Army, commanding Army of the Ohio, including General Orders, No. 32
• No. 2.  Report of Brig. Gen. T. T. Crittenden, U.S. Army, commanding at Murfreesborough
• No. 3.  Findings of a Court of Inquiry.
• No. 4. Report of Maj. James J. Seibert, Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry
• No. 5. Report of Capt. John M. Hewett, Battery B, Kentucky Light Artillery
• No. 6. Roport of Col. John C Walker, Thirty-fifth Indiana Infantry
• No. 7. Report of Col. William W. Duffield, Ninth Michigan Infantry.
• No. 8. Report of Lt. Col. John G. Parkhurst, Ninth Michigan Infantry
• No. 9. Report of Col. Henry C. Lester, Third Minnesota Infantry
• No. 10. Report of Col. John F. Miller, Twenty-ninth Indiana Infantry, commanding at Nashville
• No. 11. Report of Major-General John P. McCown, C. S. Army
• No. 12. Report of Brigadier-Geneneral Nathan Bedford Forrest, C. S. Army, commanding Cavalry Brigade

Official Reports of the Action at and Surrender of Murfreesborough, Tenn., July 13, 1862: No. 11. — Report of Major-General John P. McCown, C. S. Army.

No. 11.

Report of Maj. Gen. J. P. McCown, C. S. Army.

CHATTANOOGA, TENN., July 17, 1862.

Colonel Forrest dispatches me as follows:

Attacked Murfreesborough 5 a.m. last Sunday morning; captured two brigadier-generals, staff and field officers, and 1,200 men; burnt $200,000 worth of stores; captured sufficient stores with those burned to amount to $500,000, and brigade of 60 wagons, 300 mules, 150 or 200 horses, and field battery of four pieces; destroyed the railroad and depot at Murfreesborough. Had to retreat to McMinnville, owing to large number of prisoners to be guarded. Our loss 16 or 18 killed; 25 or 30 wounded. Enemy's loss 200 or 300.

Leaves to-day for re-enforcements coming from Kingston.

J. P. McCOWN.

General BRAXTON BRAGG.

[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF MISSISSIPPI,      

Tupelo, Miss., July 18, 1862.

Brigadier-General CHALMERS,

Commanding Cavalry, Army of Mississippi:

GENERAL: The general commanding directs that the above dispatch be read to the Troops.

Respectfully, general, your obedient servant,

 D. H. POOLE,

 Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 16, Part 1 (Serial No. 22), p. 809

From Pope’s Army

NEW MADRID, April 8.

The Union forces captured to-day 6,000 Confederate prisoners who were endeavoring to retreat from Island No. 10 and other rebel fortifications.  Their generals and other officers were taken with them.  Gen. McCowan [sic] was in command, assisted by Gens. Stewart, McCall, Groy and Gavett.  Gen. Stewart was a classmate of Gen. Pope’s.

The rebel floating battery Pelican came drifting down the river last night.  It was caught and towed into Point Pleasant, where it now lies.  Some shots were fired into it from our batteries as it passed them under the impression that some ruse was attempted by the enemy in thus giving up an engine of war which was intended to accomplish marvelous results for them.  No one was on board and no damage was done to the machine.

A gunboat also drifted down nearly to the upper fort where it sunk, and is now almost out of sight – the smokestacks and machinery only being visible.

The steamer Ohio Belle, which the rebels stole last summer and transferred to the Confederate service, was scuttled by them last night and set adrift.  She was caught, however, and brought in shore here just as she was sinking.  She has since been pumped out, and is now ready for use.

Gen. Pope returned to his headquarters to-night, having been absent since yesterday morning.  He has not yet made public his plans for future operations.  Their encampment will be broken up in a day or two.  A heavy rain is falling to-night which in addition to previous storms makes our level camping ground too moist for comfort.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, April 11, 1862, p. 2

Trophies of Island No. 10.

Our forces have made a large haul at this stronghold of rebellion – the gross estimated value being two millions of dollars.

250 [hhds] of sugar.
2,500 bbls of molasses, and vast quantities of other commissary stores.
100 cannon.
400 wagons.
125 horses.
5,000 stand of small arms.
30 pieces of artillery.
5,000 blankets, other clothing, &c.
60,000 solid shot.
10,000 bls of powder and vast quantities of other articles, besides –
13 steamboats.
4 bloating battery.

Besides 5,000 prisoners, chiefly valuable for their inability to do further mischief, among whom are one Major General – McCoun [sic], and three Brigadier Generals – Walker, Grant and Schaum.

A portion of these prisoners will soon be at Camp Randall, to spend a few months for their healths.

– Published in the Appleton Crescent, Appleton, Wisconsin, Saturday, April 19, 1862