Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1905-12-21
Letter From Col. Murphy.

as Mr.. Polk has surrendered his
opinion on one vital point set up
in his first letter, viz: Prices desti-
nation on coming into Missouri, l
will now offer some additional
authorities on the matter of losses
in the battle.
Let me first recapitulate what l
offered in my previous letter as the
accepted foundation for statistics
of Confederate killed and wound
ed, all of which Mr.. Polk brushes
aside as so much chaff.
A Confederate enlisted man rid
ing along the road through the
battlefield, saw sufficient before
the dead were collected to estimate
their dead at 15O to 200 and their
wounded at 200 to 800. Col. John
P. Bull lost AZ from his Arkansas
regiment by death. Capt. T. j..
Mackey of Prices staff says they
lost 1856 men killed and wounded
in fifteen minutes during the
charge. Col. Wyatt G. Thomas
of Fagan's staff in conversation
with numerous Union officers,
placed their loss at 1900. These
are all Confederate authorities.
Of Union authorities | quoted
Capt. Marcus D. Smith, Maj. III. H..
Williams, Lieut.. Col. A. w. Maui
pin and DR.. T. w. johnson, each
of which made separate and inde-
pendent investigations and in
quiries and all placed the Con-
federate loss at 1900 or over.
But this does not satisfy Mr..
Polk. He was there and saw them
killed and counted them. There
were Just At killed and it was his
duty to see that they were col
lected for burial, for he and his
company had been detailed to do
this. Now I beg to introduce an
other count Of the dead, made on
the field early in the morning OF
September 28th, before the Con-
federates had arrived or began COL
lecting their dead. DR.. S. D. Car
penter left the Union hospital in
Pilot Knob that morning while the
field was wholly unoccupied ex-
cept by dead and wounded, and
going out to the fort, stood on it's
wall and counted 81 dead lying
near the ditch. This fact is re-
corded along with his account of
the battle on October 5, 1864, not
after memory had played its
pranks for forty-one years.
But will quote some additional
Confederate authorities. The Sc
cession Governor of Missouri,
Thos. G. Reynolds, was with Price
at the battle of Pilot Knob and in
December, 1864, wrote his account
of the raid, and speaking of the
failure to capture Fort Davidson,
he says; "He (Price) lost several
hundred of his best soldiers in the
repulsed attempt to storm the well.
ditched fort at Pilot Knob" Mind
you now, not Al men, but several
hundred. Several is a very fley-
lible adjective and may mean any
where from three hundred to seven
hundred or eight hundred, and
they were lost in the repulsed as
sault on the fort.
| Mr.. Polk objects to taking the
mortalities az men) in Col. Bulls
Arkansas regiment as basis fol
computing the Confederate losses
and states that the Arkansas troops
were the only ones that reached
the ditch. There were 16 regi'
ments and four battalions in Fa'
gan's division, all being Arkansas
troops, except one Missouri regi.
ment, and it was this division tha
charged up to the ditch. The law
of averages can be applied to as
many of these regimental anc
battalion organizations as Mr.. Poll
desires, OF he can cut them all ou
except Bulls regiment, if tina
suits his purpose better. Persons
however, who wish to arrive at {
fair conclusion will probably in.
clude the whole division in thei
estimate. I wish to deal abso.
lutely fair with Mr.. Polk. HI
claims to have Witnessed this fruit
less sacrifice Of the Arkansas
troops, but does not claim to have
taken an active part in the assault
on the fort. He probably belonged
to Marmaduke's division, which
was made up of seven Missouri
regiments, two Missouri battalion
and one Arkansas battalion, while
Slayback's Missouri battalion from
Shelby's division was temporarily
attached or cooperating during
the engagement. The official Con
federate reports of the battle al
yield the point that discretion wa
considered the better part of valo
in this division when it came tt
making the assault on Fort David
son. Mr.. Polk practically say
that none of this division reached
the ditch, and the writer, who wal
an interested eyewitness to tn,
event, is prepared to subscribe tt
the correctness Of his assertion
The Confederate reports show tina
two regiments Of this division
Burbridge's 4th Mo. Cav, ant
Jeffer's 9Th Mo. Cav, never 60
any nearer to the fort than the dry
bed Of Stout's Creek, where they
laid down in a place Of compare.
tive security until night-fall. Blu
Col. Burbridge made a report o
his losses in the battle, "sever
officers and % men killed ant
wounded" This is the loss of q
regiment which admittedly and
notoriously had less to do with the
battle than any other regiment o.
| battalion in that division, engaged
in the fight, except Jeffer's regi.