Diary of Corporal David L. Day: February 9, 1862

AFTER THE BATTLE.

 A hard looking lot this morning, and no doubt feeling as hard as we looked. Tired, hungry, ragged, covered with mud, and sore from our flesh being torn and scratched with the tangle-brush and briars through which we forced ourselves yesterday. After a good ration of whiskey and a breakfast of fried bacon, with shot coffee, we began to limber up and feel a little more natural. We can now look over the field and see the results of yesterday's work. Our regiment lost six killed and 47 wounded, some of them probably fatally. Our whole loss was 42 killed and 209 wounded. The enemy's loss is not known, but is probably less than ours. Today the gunboats are after the Confederate flotilla and no doubt will give them a taste of what happened yesterday. It will probably be reported at headquarters in Richmond that their navy in these waters has become a thing of the past. Our march up from the battle-ground, yesterday afternoon, was rather an interesting one, if men nearly dying from exhaustion can be said to get interested. The trees for a mile in front of our line are marked and scarred by our shot, showing the terrible effectiveness of our rifles. The road was strewn with guns, knapsacks, equipments, blankets and everything that impeded their retreat or which they thought they had no further use for. Passing a little brown house by the wayside I noticed quite a crowd of surgeons and officers standing around. Crowding my way up to the little open window, I saw the pale, quivering form of a young man lying on a cot, with a slight covering over him, apparently in a dying condition. I inquired if any one knew who he was, and was told it was Capt. O. Jennings Wise, son of ex-Governor Wise. He had received a mortal wound and could not possibly survive many minutes. He was editor of one of the Richmond papers and captain of the Richmond Light Infantry Blues, the crack company of that city. He was a brave young fellow, and his was the last company to leave the redoubt, and then only when he fell mortally wounded.

SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 37

Diary of Corporal David L. Day: February 10, 1862

THE PRISONERS.

The prisoners are a motley looking set, all clothed (I can hardly say uniformed) in a dirty looking homespun gray cloth. I should think every man's suit was cut from a design of his own. Some wore what was probably meant for a frock coat, others wore jackets or roundabouts; some of the coats were long skirted, others short; some tight fitting, others loose; and no two men were dressed alike. Their head covering was in unison with the rest of their rig; of all kinds, from stovepipe hats to coonskin caps; with everything for blankets, from old bedquilts, cotton bagging, strips of carpet to Buffalo robes. The Wise legion are a more soldierly looking set; they wear gray cloth caps of the same pattern, and long sheep’s gray overcoats with capes. Most of the officers are smart, good looking young men, wearing well-fitting gray, uniforms, not unlike those of our own officers.

It is not dress altogether that makes the man or the soldier. I find among these chaps some pretty good fellows. I came across one young man from Richmond; he was smart appearing and very loquacious. In some talk I had with him he said; “This has turned out not as I wished, but not different from what I expected when we saw the force you had. In fact we had no business staying here after seeing your strength. We have met the enemy and we are theirs. I accept the situation and am glad it is no worse. I am Secesh clear through, and after I am exchanged, shall be at you again. We are now enemies, but in peace friends, and when this little dispute is settled, if any of you fellows ever come to Richmond, hunt me up. If alive, you will be welcome as long as you choose to stay, and when you leave, if you don't say you have had as right smart a time as you ever had, call me a liar and I will call you gentlemen.” The fellow gave me his card and said his father owned a plantation just out of the city. I met one fellow, a long, lank, lean, long-haired, sullen, cadaverous looking chap, and asked him what he was doing here. “Well,” he said, “not much; but you 'uns was right smart to get through that swamp. We thought the devil couldn’t get through it.” “So you think what the devil can’t do, Yankees can’t, do you? You mustn't take the devil for your guage in estimating Yankees; if you do you will always get beat. We can give him points, and beat him every time.” He looked a little incredulous, but did not seem inclined to go into any argument about it.

These fellows threw away a good many pistols and knives which they carried, many of which our boys have found. The knives are large, coarse, ugly looking things, forged at some country blacksmith shop, by a bungling workman, out of old rasps, scythe-points and anything containing steel. I asked one fellow what they carried those knives for, what use they put them to? “Oh!” he said, “them's Yankee slayers.” “Yankee slayers? And have you slain many Yankees with them?” “Wal, no, but we thought they mought come handy in close action.” “And did you think you would ever get near enough to the Yankees to use them? “Wal, we didn't know but we mought.” “Well, sir, those knives are too heavy to carry, and you don't need to carry them, for long before you would ever get near enough to the Yankees to use them the places that now know you would know you no more forever.”

The boys are mixing in among the prisoners, talking over the fight, trading jack-knives, buttons and such small notions as the happen to have, and getting acquainted with each other. The weather is warm and pleasant, like May. The robins and other birds are singing as in summer. The robins seem like old friends and neighbors and I cannot help thinking that perhaps some of them had their nests last summer in the trees and bushes which grow in our own dooryards and gardens at home.

Our gunboats have wiped from the face of the earth that part of the Confederate navy which prowled around these waters. They chased them up the Pasquotunk river to Elizabeth City, where, after less than an hour's engagement, the enemy set their boats on fire and fled.

SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 37-9

Diary of Corporal David L. Day: February 12, 1862

SETTLING PROPERTY TITLES.

The Confederate officers have been paroled and sent to Elizabeth City, up the Pasquotunk river. The 25th had the distinguished honor of escorting them and carrying a part of their baggage to the wharf where they took the boat. I reckon it must have been rather pleasing to those officers to see Yankee soldiers taking their luggage for them, but this disgrace must have been a thoughtless mistake on the part of the colonel or whoever ordered it. Those officers had with then their colored servants, but after they were all captured, officers and servants were a good deal mixed as to who they belonged to. When the officers were about leaving, Gen. Burnside settled the question. He told the darkies they could decide for themselves; they could go with their masters or stop here, just as they liked. A few of them went with their masters, the rest staid back to take their chances with the Yankees.

SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 39

Diary of Corporal David L. Day: February 18, 1862

PAROLING THE PRISONERS.

 The prisoners are all paroled, and were sent off today. Paroling the prisoners was rather interesting to the lookers on. They were required to affix their autographs to the parole, and it was curious to observe that a large majority of them wrote it the same way, simply making the letter X. Capt. Messenger, the provost marshal, was master of ceremonies. He is a very eccentric man, and many of the prisoners scarcely knew whether to be pleased or frightened at the curious questions he asked and remarks he made to them.

 SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 39

Diary of Corporal David L. Day: February 23, 1862

HISTORY.

The boys are amusing themselves making pipes from briar roots and fixing long stems of came to them. Some of them are carved very handsomely and show much artistic skill. Washington's birthday was celebrated by salutes from the forts and a holiday in the camp. There is some very interesting history connected with this island, but not having books to refer to, I can give but a very indifferent account of it. Sometime in the latter part of the 16th century, Sir Walter Raleigh, an English nobleman, sent out an American exploring expedition. They visited the Pamlico and Albemarle sounds, discovering this island. After trading with the Indians, and learning what they could of the country, they returned to England. They gave such glowing accounts of the country and what they had seen that Raleigh, the next year, sent out a colony under one Lane. They occupied this island, but after about a year, during which time they suffered many hardships, returned to England. A year or two later, another expedition was sent out. They also settled here, but after a while the leader of it returned to England for supplies. After an absence of a year or two, he again returned here, but on landing, not a trace of it could be found, and it was never after heard from. A later historian, however, says the Indians who lived on the island claimed that some of their ancestors were white people and could talk out of a book.

SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 39-40

Diary of Corporal David L. Day: February 25, 1862

HUNTING FOR RELICS.

 This being a warm, sunny day, a small party of us thought we would take a stroll up to the head of the island, a mile or two, and perhaps we might find some traces or relics of Raleigh's expedition. Arriving at our destination, we discovered a large, weather-beaten two-storied house, built at some remote period, and surrounded by large live oak trees. We had not the slightest doubt but that this was the house built by Lane and his party. Seeing a man standing outside, whom we supposed was the gentlemanly proprietor of the ranche, we approached, and saluting him very respectfully, inquired if he was in receipt of any recent advices from Raleigh's expedition. He looked at us in utter astonishment and said he knew nothing about it and reckoned there had been “no sich expedition yere.” He said, “Burnside's expedition was yere,” and “reckoned that was about enough;” he couldn't see the use of any more coming. We bade the gentleman good day and left. In looking around for relics, Whipple picked up an old shoe heel. Here was a prize surely, a veritable relic of Raleigh's party. Whipple put it in his pocket, intending, as he said, to send it to the antiquarian society at Worcester, and indulging in the hope that for presenting such a priceless relic, they would at least vote him an honorary member of the society. Relics being scarce, we went up to the shore where we could look up the Albemarle. The wind was blowing gently down the sound, and the little rollers were breaking on the beach at our feet. It was pretty warm; the water looked clear and really refreshing. Some one proposed taking a dip. No sooner said than off came our clothes and in we plunged. Egad! such a scrambling and floundering to get out is seldom seen. It reminded me of a basket of lobsters turned into a tub of scalding water. The water was ice cold, and I thought I should certainly freeze before getting out. After getting on my clothes and getting warm, I certainly felt better for my bath. It was agreed by all hands that February was the wrong season of the year for out-door bathing. Whipple is despondent, his hopes are dashed. He came to me and informed me that he had carefully inspected the shoe heel, and found it put together with cut nails, which are a much more recent invention than Raleigh's expedition.

 SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 40

Captain Charles Wright Wills: October 26, 1864

At Little River again, October 26, 1864.

Got back on the 25th, and have been laying quiet. Our foragers have been skirmishing a good deal with the enemies' scouts, but few casualties however.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 316

Captain Charles Wright Wills: October 27, 1864

Cedar Bluff, Ala., October 27, 1864.

Waiting here for the 17th Army Corps to get across the Coosa. It is a beautiful little river, not as wide as the Illinois, but has a deeper channel. We are starting on the road to Talladega; don't even know whether we are starting on a campaign or not. Hood is reported across the Tennessee. We understand that Sherman has men enough to attend to him, and that Sherman intends to use us to Christianize this country. Many think we are now on the way to Montgomery or Selma. River here about 120 yards wide. About a thousand head of our cattle swam across, some of them swam over and back two or three times, and many of the thin ones drowned, for which we were grateful to the drovers as it saved us some very hard chewing.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 316

Captain Charles Wright Wills: October 29, 1864

Camp in piney woods, five miles South of Cedar Bluffs, October 29, 1864.

Such a march over pine ridges and through swamps; Egyptian darkness would take a back seat in comparison with this night. It just happened to strike the men as funny, and they kept up a roar of cheering the whole distance.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 316

Captain Charles Wright Wills: October 31, 1864

Near Cave Springs, Ga., 26 miles south of Rome,

October 31, 1864, I a. m.

We think we are going to Rome. Had an extremely disagreeable march yesterday of only 12 miles, over pine and scrub oak ridges. A swamp in every valley. Camped before dark for almost the first time of the trip. This is the 27th day since we broke camp at Eastpoint. Everybody is all right. Compliments to Colonel Wright, if he is at home, and tell him immense rumors are afloat of a Montgomery campaign. Had an immense supper of fresh pork and sweet potatoes.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 316-7

Judge Jacob McGavock Dickinson

JUDGE J. M. DICKINSON, General Solicitor and Counselor Illinois Central Railroad.

Jacob McGavock Dickinson was born in Columbus, Miss., January 30, 1851. His parents were Henry Dickinson, a descendant of Henry Dickinson who came from England to Virginia in 1654, and Anna McGavock, oldest daughter of Jacob McGavock and Louisa McGavock, daughter of Felix Grundy, residents of Nashville, Tenn. Henry Dickinson was an eminent lawyer of the Mississippi bar, a chancellor for many years, presidential elector, and one of the commissioners sent by his State to Delaware on the question of secessionn.

J. M. Dickinson was married April 20, 1876, at Nashville, Tenn., to Martha Maxwell Overton, daughter of John and Harriet Maxwell Overton. They have three children, John Overton, Henry, and J. M. Dickinson, Jr. Judge Dickinson passed his early youth in Columbus, Miss., where near the end of the great war, at the age of fourteen, he volunteered and served under Gen. Ruggles in the operations about Columbus. He is a member of the Isham Harris Bivouac, C. S. A. at Columbus. At the close of the war he moved to Nashville, and remained there until November, 1899, when he went to Chicago. He attended the public schools of Nashville, the Montgomery Bell Academy there, and graduated at the University of Nashville under the chancellorship of Gen. E. Kirby Smith, taking the A.B. degree in 1871 and the degree of A.M. in 1872. In 1871-72 he was assistant professor of Latin in the University of Nashville. During that period he took a night course of physiology and demonstration of anatomy in the medical department. In the fall of 1872 he entered the Columbia Law School, New York, under the teaching of Theodore Dwight, and took both the junior and senior courses. In the summer of 1873 he traveled in Europe, and that October he matriculated in the University of Leipzig for the purpose of studying German and taking a course in Roman law and political economy. In 1874 he took a course of lectures on literature in the Sorbonne and in the Civil Law in L'ecole du Droit at Paris. In the fall of 1874 he was admitted to the bar at Nashville. He was in the years 1890-93 specially appointed by Governors Buchanan, Taylor, and Turney to serve upon the Supreme Bench, and when Chief Justice Horace H. Lurton resigned to accept a position on the Federal Bench, Governor Turney, on March 23, 1893, tendered to Judge Dickinson an appointment to a position on the Supreme Bench. Judge Dickinson, while never a candidate for office, always took an active part in politics. He was specially prominent during the bitter contest in Tennessee growing out of the State debt, and was in 1882 chairman of the State Credit wing of the Democratic party. Twice he was chairman of the Committee of Fifty of the Reform Association of Nashville, which in two bitter and prolonged contests completely overthrew the ring politicians and political bosses. Judge Dickinson, on December 14, 1889, before the Bankers' Association of Chicago, delivered an address upon the “Financial and General Condition of the South” which attracted wide attention from the press generally and was accepted by the press and leading men of the South as an acceptable exposition of the Southern situation. In 1896 he was selected to deliver at the Centennial Exposition at Nashville the address commemorative of the Hundredth Anniversary of the Admission of Tennessee into the Union. On February 6, 1895, he was commissioned Assistant Attorney-General of the United States, and served to the end of Mr. Cleveland's term, when he resigned. He was then made District Attorney for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company for Tennessee and Northern Alabama, and also engaged in general practice. He also became a professor in the Law School of Vanderbilt University, where he taught until his removal to Chicago. November 1, 1899, he succeeded Judge James Fentress as General Solicitor of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. On November 1, 1801, he succeeded Mr. B. F. Ayer as General Counsel of that company, the duties of both offices then being combined.

In April, 1903, he was selected by the President, in connection with Mr. David T. Watson, of Pittsburg, as Counsel, and Mr. Hannis Taylor, of Mobile, Ala., and Mr. Chandler P. Anderson, of New York City, as Associate Counsel, to represent the Government of the United States before the Alaska Boundary Commission in London in September, 1903.

SOURCE: Confederate Veteran, Volume 11, No. 8, August 1903, p. 372

Brevet Brigadier-General Gates Phillips Thruston

THRUSTON, GATES PHILLIPS, lawyer and author: b. Dayton, Ohio, June 11, 1835; now resides in Nashville, Tenn. In 1855 he was graduated from the Cincinnati Law School. He entered the Federal army at the outbreak of the War of Secession and served until 1865. After the war he practiced law in Nashville, where he became prominent. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is vice-president of the Tennessee Historical Society. Besides magazine articles on military and antiquarian topics, he has published Antiquities of Tennessee and Adjacent States (1890). General Thruston is an example of the Federal soldier who after the war made himself a respected position in the South.

SOURCE: Walter Lynwood Fleming, Editor, The South in the Building of the Nation, Volume 12: Biography, p. 457

Brigadier-General Thomas Benton Smith.

General Thomas Benton Smith, who was the youngest general in the Confederate army and enjoys the further distinction of being the only one now living, has reached the venerable age of eighty-five years. His birth occurred in Rutherford county, Tennessee, on the 24th of February, 1838, his parents being James M. and Martha (Page) Smith, the former a native of Dinwiddie county, Virginia. He comes of English ancestry in the paternal line and of Welsh descent on the maternal side, and his mother's people lived in North and South Carolina before coming to Tennessee. General Smith still has in his possession a silver piece that his maternal ancestors brought from Wales and which was given to him by his mother. His maternal grandparents, John and Martha Page, lived ten miles from Franklin and five miles from Triune. James M. Smith, the father of General Smith, was a carpenter of Mechanicsville, Rutherford county, this state, who made and sold gins, while his wife made cloth to provide wearing apparel for her children and the ten negro slaves owned by the family. Their home was a log house of two rooms and a side porch. James M. Smith was a soldier of the War of 1812, participating in the battle of New Orleans under Andrew Jackson. When the Civil war was inaugurated he and his wife owned one hundred and five acres of land and other property to the value of about ten thousand dollars.

In the acquirement of an education Thomas Benton Smith walked two miles to attend common school and later became a student in a military academy at Nashville, Tennessee, from which he was graduated. Andrew Johnson gave him a lieutenant's commission and he then went to West Point, New York, attending school for sixteen years altogether. The opening of the Civil war found him busily engaged in the cultivation of a farm of one hundred and five acres which he owned in the vicinity of Triune and he left the plow handles to enlist in the Zollicoffer Guards of the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment, being sworn in at Triune on the 17th of May, 1861. Both he and his brother, John M. Smith, joined the Confederate forces, leaving their mother and the negroes at home. Thomas B. Smith was sent with his company to Camp Zollicoffer and in January, 1862, took part in the battle of Fishing Creek, while subsequently he fought at Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Baton Rouge, Franklin and Nashville. His horse was shot from under him at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and again at the battle of Atlanta. After he had surrendered he was struck on the head with a sword by a Yankee colonel named W. S. McMillen, the blow splitting the bone of his head and exposing his brain, and he was placed in the Tennessee state prison, which was being used as a hospital. Following his discharge at Fort Warren, Massachusetts, he was given transportation and came direct to Nashville. Vernon K, Stevenson, the first president of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, who was his close personal friend, offered him a position in recognition of the fact that General Smith had made his son, Vernon K. Stevenson, Jr., a member of his staff in 1864. General Smith engaged in railroad work first as a brakeman, then as freight conductor and later won promotion to the position of passenger conductor on the Nashville & Chattanooga, being identified with railroad interests altogether for ten years, during a part of which period he was in the service of the Nashville & Decatur. After leaving the railroad he became a candidate for congress in the counties of Williamson, Wilson and Rutherford and following the election of E. I. Gollady of Lebanon, Tennessee, returned home, where he remained until the death of his mother. He was then sent to the Central State Hospital of Nashville, where he has been a patient for about forty-seven years, or since 1876, when the institution was under Dr. Callender's administration. He has always been accorded the best and kindest treatment and has numerous friends whose regard he prizes. His closest kin are nephews and nieces. He enjoyed the personal friendship of many distinguished men of an earlier day, including Andrew Johnson, General Felix K. Zollicoffer, General John C. Brown, General William B. Bate, General Bragg, who handed him his commission as brigadier general, General W. J. Hardee, General Frank Cheatham, Colonel E. W. Cole, John W. Thomas and W. L. Danley. Lieutenant James L. Cooper of Nashville and Dr. D. B. Cliff, Sr., of Franklin, Tennessee, were members of his staff while he held the rank of brigadier general in 1864. He attends the annual reunion of the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment of Confederate Veterans at Centennial Park, also goes to Mount Olivet once a year to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers and occasionally takes other trips to Nashville. He declares that he is as happy as anyone could be under the circumstances and he is spending the evening of life in quiet content.

(Since this biographical sketch was written, General Smith has passed to his reward. In honor of his distinguished character and services his body was placed in state in the hall of the house of representatives in the capitol of Tennessee, where the funeral services were held under the auspices of the United Confederate Veterans.)

SOURCE: Tennessee: The Volunteer State, 1769-1923, Volume 2, p. 144-7

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

Brigadier-General James Edward Raines

JAMES EDWARD Rains, [Class of 1854,] son of John Rains, was born in Wilson Co., Tenn., April 10, 1833, and entered college Sophomore year, a resident of Nashville, Tenn.

After teaching for a short time, he studied law and entered on the practice of his profession in Nashville.

In the Confederate army he held the rank of Colonel, and subsequently of Brigadier General, and fell, shot through the heart, at Murfreesboro', Dec. 31, 1862.

He married Miss Yeatman, a step-daughter of John Bell, formerly U. S. Senator from Tennessee.

SOURCE: Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale College Deceased from July, 1859, to July 1870, p. 140-1

9th Missouri Cavalry

Organized originally as Bowen's Cavalry Battalion, which was designated 9th Cavalry October, 1862, by consolidation with other Companies. Attached to District of Rolla, Dept. of Missouri, to December, 1862. Operations in Boone County November 1-10. Expedition from Rolla to Ozark Mountains and skirmish November 30-December 6 (Co. "H"). Discontinued by consolidation with 10th Missouri Cavalry December 4, 1862. Companies "G" and "H" attached to 3rd Missouri Cavalry December 11, 1862.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1309

9th Missouri State Militia Cavalry

Organized at large in Missouri February 12, 1862, to September 20, 1863. Attached to District of Rolla, Dept. of Missouri, to February, 1863. District of North Missouri, Dept. of Missouri, to July, 1865.

SERVICE.—Regiment concentrated at Columbia, Mo., May 15, 1862. Ordered to Jefferson City, Mo. Assigned to duty in District of Rolla, Mo., till April, 1863. Action near Memphis, Mo., July 11, 1862. Brown Springs July 27. Moore's Mills, near Fulton, July 28-29. Kirksville August 6 (Detachment). Pursuit of Poindexter and skirmishes at Grand River, Lee's Ford, Chariton River, Walnut Creek, Compton's Ferry, Switzler's Mills and Yellow Creek August 8-15. Near Stockton August 8 and 11 (Detachments). Muscle Shoals August 13. Moved to Jefferson City and duty there and at Glasgow and Fayette till December. Near Cambridge September 26 (Co. "E). In Scotland and Boone Counties September 30 (Detachment). Near Columbia October 2 (Cos. "B" and "C"). Sim's Cove, Cedar Creek, October 5 (Cos. "F" and "G"). Fayette October 7 (Detachment). Near New Franklin October 7 (Detachment). Ordered to Rolla, Mo., December 12, and duty there till April, 1863. Ordered to North Missouri and duty on Hannibal & St, Jo Railroad from St. Joseph to Hannibal and on North Missouri Railroad from Macon to St, Charles protecting roads and operating against guerrillas till March, 1864. Rocheport, Mo., June 1, 1863 (Cos. "A" and "B"). Black Fork Hills July 4 (Detachment). Switzler's Mills July 12 (Detachment). Macon February 12, 1864. Chariton County April 11 (Detachment). Operations against Anderson's, Quantrell's, Todd's, Stevens' and other bands of guerrillas in North Missouri till April, 1865. Near Fayette July 1, 1864 (Detachment). Platte City July 3. Clay County July 4. Near Camden Point July 22. Union Mills July 22. Near Fayette August 3. Huntsville August 7 (Detachment). Operations against Price September-October. Fayette September 24 (Detachment). Near Centralia September 28, Princess Shoals, Osage River, Cole County, October 5-6. Booneville October 9. Glasgow October 15. Little Blue October 21. Independence October 22. Near Glasgow January 10, 1865 (Cos. "G" and "H"). Near Columbia February 12 (Co. "F"). Near Sturgeon February 27. Skirmish in the Perche Hills May 5. Duty in North Missouri till July, Mustered out July 13, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 2 Officers and 29 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 1 Officer and 76 Enlisted men by disease. Total 108.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1309

Charles A. Dana to Edwin M. Stanton, July 7, 1864—8 a.m.

CITY POINT, VA., July 7, 1864—8 a.m.          

(Received 6 p.m.)

A change in the commander of the Army of the Potomac now seems probable. Grant has great confidence in Meade, and is much attached to him personally, but the almost universal dislike of Meade which prevails among officers of every rank who come in contact with him, and the difficulty of doing business with him felt by every one except Grant himself, so greatly impair his capacities for usefulness and render success under his command so doubtful that Grant seems to be coming to the conviction that he must be relieved. The facts in the matter have come very slowly to my knowledge, and it was not until yesterday that I became certain of some of the most important. I have long known Meade to be a man of the worst possible temper, especially toward his subordinates. I do not think he has a friend in the whole army. No man, no matter what his business or his service, approaches him without being insulted in one way or another, and his own staff officers do not dare to speak to him, unless first spoken to, for fear of either sneers or curses. The latter, however, I have never heard him indulge in very violently, but he is said to apply them often without occasion and without reason. At the same time—as far as I am able to ascertain—his generals have lost their confidence in him as a commander. His order for the last series of assaults upon Petersburg, in which he lost 10,000 men without gaining any decisive advantage, was to the effect that he had found it impracticable to secure the co-operation of corps commanders, and therefore each one was to attack on his own account and do the best he could by himself. Consequently each gained some advantage of position, but each exhausted his own strength in so doing, while for the want of a general purpose and a general commander to direct and concentrate the whole, it all amounted to nothing but heavy loss to ourselves. Of course there are matters about which I cannot make inquiries, but what I have above reported is the general sense of what seems to be the opinion of fair-minded and zealous officers. For instance, I know that General Wright has said to a confidential friend that all of Meade's attacks have been made without brains and without generalship. The subject came to pretty full discussion at Grant's headquarters last night on occasion of a correspondence between Meade and Wilson. The Richmond Examiner charges Wilson with stealing not only negroes and horses, but silver plate and clothing on his raid, and Meade, taking the statement of the Examiner for truth, reads Wilson a lecture and calls on him for explanations. Wilson deities the charges of robbing women and churches, and hopes Meade will not be ready to condemn his command because its operations have excited the ire of the public enemy. This started the conversation in which Grant expressed himself quite frankly as to the general trouble with Meade and his fear that it would become necessary to relieve him. In such event he said it would be necessary to put Hancock in command.

C. A. DANA.

Hon. E. M. STANTON.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 40, Part 1 (Serial No. 80), p. 35-6

Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant to Major-General Henry W. Halleck, August 1, 1864

CITY POINT, VA., August 1, 1864.

The loss in the disaster of Saturday last foots up about 3,500, of whom 450 men were killed and 2,000 wounded. It was the saddest affair I have witnessed in the war. Such opportunity for carrying fortifications I have never seen and do not expect again to have. The enemy with a line of works five miles long had been reduced by our previous movements to the north side of James River to a force of only three divisions. This line was undermined and blown up, carrying a battery and most of a regiment with it. The enemy were taken completely by surprise and did not recover from it for more than an hour. The crater and several hundred yards of the enemy's line to the right and left of it and a short detached line in front of the crater were occupied by our troops without opposition. Immediately in front of this and not 150 yards off, with clear ground intervening, was the crest of the ridge leading into town, and which, if carried, the enemy would have made no resistance, but would have continued a flight already commenced. It was three hours from the time our troops first occupied their works before the enemy took possession of this crest. I am constrained to believe that had instructions been promptly obeyed that Petersburg would have been carried with all the artillery and a large number of prisoners without a loss of 300 men. It was in getting back to our lines that the loss was sustained. The enemy attempted to charge and retake the line captured from them and were repulsed with heavy loss by our artillery; their loss in killed must be greater than ours, whilst our loss in wounded and captured is four times that of the enemy.

U.S. GRANT,            

Lieutenant-General.

Major-General HALLECK,

Washington, D. C.

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See Addenda.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 40, Part 1 (Serial No. 80), p. 17-8

Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant to Major-General Henry W. Halleck, August 2, 1864 — 9:30 p.m.

CITY POINT, August 2, 1864—9.30 p.m.

Major-General HALLECK,

Chief of Staff:

I have the honor to request that the President may direct a court of inquiry, to assemble without delay at such place as the presiding officer may appoint, to examine into and report upon the facts and circumstances attending the unsuccessful assault on the enemy's position in front of Petersburg on the morning of July 30, 1864, and also to report whether, in their judgment, any officer or officers are censurable* for the failure of the troops to carry into successful execution the orders issued for the occasion, and I would suggest the following detail: Maj. Gen. W. S. Hancock, Brig. Gen. R. B. Ayres, Brig. Gen. N. A. Miles, Volunteer service; Col. E. Schriver, inspector-general and recorder.

U. S. GRANT,                       

Lieutenant-General.

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* As received by Halleck this word is answerable.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 40, Part 1 (Serial No. 80), p. 18