The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-09-16
ON THE GUNT0WN RHID.
S2d Ohio Veterans Experience During
and After the Disaster.

|
that time was on detached service at Brigade
Headquarters, under Gen. Mcmillan, of CO.
lumbus, formerly Colonel, 95th Ohio. Being
at Headquarters knew Of the contemplated
movement of our troops al that time. In
| structlons were to make demonstrations on
| the railroads located in the interior and
| thereby prevent Confederate Gen. Forrest
! from interfering with Gen. Sherman.
Gen. Sturgis was sent to Memphis to con-
| duct the demonstrations. Under his com
mand we moved out from Memphis with
about 5000 infantry and 1000 cavalry, the
infantry commanded by Gen. Mcmillan, the
cavalry by Gen. Ben Grierson, and the whole
| by Gen. Sturgis.
We were accompanied on our raid by
scout known as Black jerry" who claimed
to be the surviving member of a company of
scouts organized by Gen. John c. Fremont
i'll Missouri in the early part of the war and
were named after his wife, Jessie, and were
known as "Jessie's Scouts" Jerry was
dressed in rebel uniform and rode sorrel
mare equipped with Mexican saddle.
His duty consisted in going ahead every
| day to ascertain the movements and force OF
the enemy. At night he would return and
report to Gen. Sturgis. He tented and
messed with me while on the raid and of
course he confided in me and | knew as
much about the situation in front as the
! Generals.
We left the train at Lagrange, Tenn, about
30 miles from Memphis, and moved out
about 100 miles and went into camp. The
scout came in that night, and | noticed that
there was something wrong. He said he
had been in Forests lines that day, and es-
timated that he had 50 900 mounted in
| fantry and was waiting for US. Jerry said
| lie had reported to Gen. Sturgis, who would
not believe him and said he would go on.
The next morning Gen. Mcmillan in
structed me to go ahead with the cavalry
and procure forage for the Headquarters
horses and mules. After proceeding about
| nine miles we came to a log house. The
cavalry threw down "a rail fence on the left
hand side of the road, preparing way to
retreat if necessary. I made up my mind
that the enemy was in that vicinity.
The cavalry advanced to a creek spanned
by common plank bridge 16 feet wide.
They crossed and advanced in hne-of-battle
over cleared field and over hill at the
terminus. Then the fight commenced.
l noticed that Gen. Sturgis was very
anxious for the infantry to arrive, and sent
Orderly after Orderly TO hurry them up.
They were four miles in the rear and were
double-guicked that distance under u hot
June sun. 5a
As soon as the infantry arrived they were
marched across the 16-ioot bridge, formed in
line-ofbattle and marched to the front.
The cavalry were Withdrawn, leaving the
infantry, ready to drop from fatigue, to stand
the battle. They fought brayely for about
two hours, when they were forced to retreat.
Our whole line was driven back until the
creek was reached With nothing but the
16-foot bridge before mentioned upon which
to cross, they were In q trap and were obliged
to throw away their arms and cross the best
they could. Soon the retreat became rout
The enemy was sending our own shells
fired from our own guns lnt 10 the struggling
mass of the retreatlng army. / used all due
diligence, together with the speed of my
horse, to get as far away from those shells as
possible. In short time | reached a clear
field of about 10 acres, over which q storm
of shells were flying. Ia the woods on the
opposite side of the field ! found Gen. Stur-
gs sitting on his horse, alone, in the road,
weeping. He appeared to me to be perfectly
be wldered.
About mile farther found my old conf
rade and bunkmate, William Shsek, lying
in the corner Of the fence. / stopped and
asked him what the matter was, and lie said
he was played out and could 90 no farther
| helped him on my horse and he sped
away.
was quite fresh and about o'clock in
the evening l caught up with our Headquar-
ters Frank DeFrates, an Orderly, asked
me where my horse was, and informed him
what | had done with it. He then said
"There is my mule. You can have him"
Just as it was breaking day arrived within
sight of Ripley, Miss, about 80 miles from
Guntown. | lay down on a couple of rails
and went to sleep.
In about two hours / was awakened by a
voice commanding me, not unmixed with
quite sprinkling OF profanity, to get up.
/ accordingly arose and found myself con-
fronted by three graybacks, who informed
me that was their prisoner.
remained at Riply four days, taking care
of the wounded. On the morning of the
fifth day the rebels came on with wagons,
loaded in the wounded, and conveyed them
to Guntown. On our arrival the wounded
were transferred to a church standing in an
open space surrounded by timber
When | went into the church | met Jack
Conway, 95th Ohio who informed me that
he had been there five days, and intended to
escape that night if possible. We laid our
plans. lU
There were seven men besides ourselves
left to care for the wounded. The Officer
of the Guard divided us into three reliefs.
Jack and / managed to- get on the first relief
There were three guards about the building,
one inside and two outside, but none at the
back Of the house. The weather was very
warm, and they were Obliged to keep all the
windows open. j)A
The young guard finally went to sleep in
his chair, and about midnight Jack and
dropped carefully out of one of the back
windows and crawled out on our hands and
knees to the woods, about 10 rods distant
We started in a nor,heasterly direction for
the Memphis & Charleston Railroad.
| In the afternoon Of the third day we came
to cleared field in which was darky en-
gagged in plowing. We told him we were
escaped prisoners, and asked him if there
were any Union people in that vicinity. He
directed us to a planter about half mile
from there. The planter we found working
in the field, and approached and made our
selves known. We then asked him to direct
us to the Memphis & Charleston Railroad.
We followed his Instructions but did not
seem to get anywhere particularly. In the
afternoon we reached house in wi ich were
two women, who proved to be Unionists.
One told us there was cow-path leading
from her house to the main Pocahontas road.
PocahOntas which was situated on the Mem
phis & Charleston Railroad, was distant
about % miles from the terminus of the
c0w-path.