The Tupelo journal., 1907-05-17
More History of the Town Creek
Rifles.

stay of 5 months at home, | left
home in company with Capt. R.
/ S. Thomas and Lieut.. J. S. Car
others to return to the company's
headquarters. We launched a
3 paddle log boat, armed with a
double-barrelled shot gun and 3
pistols, at old Van Buren on the
Tombigbee river, and set sail for
Demopolis, Ala. | could tell
many amusing incidents of this
trip, but as Capt. Thomas and
Lieut.. Carothers did not belong
to that company and as Lieut.. c.
has passed oyer the river and is
now resting and waiting under
the shade of the trees and beck
oning us to follow on, desist.
But when got back some Of
the boys told me that there had
been no battles of any impoY-
tance but great deal of the
hardest picket duty we had ever
done, as the winter had been the
most severe on record Much of
the time the thermometer had
been away below zero and snow
been over two feet deep for
month at a time, and when it
started to melt it was to make
room for more, and many of the
boys became badly frost bitten,
and not being allowed to have
fire on the picket line, many of
them succumbed to pneumonia.
Lees ranks had been depleted SO
much that companies had to be
consolidated, and while there
were many desertions by reason
of disbursement, | will say
that there were no desertions
from the T. C. RS. While all
these things were depicting Lees
ranks, the Federal ranks were
being filled by recruits from all
nations with bounty grabbers,
and many new regiments OF all
nationalities and many regiments
of runaway negroes had been ad-
ded in answer to Gen. Grants S
call for men enough to march on
to Richmond and he would crush
the rebellion, and as the Spring
opened up, the hardest campaign
of the war began.
Gen. Grant launched his pom
toons acroos the rpidan river in
4 places and crossed over on a
flank movement to our right, but
Lee with a left wheel, threw his
army across his path and met
him square in front of four col
umns and forced him to battle on
a position chosen by Lee, in a
densely timbered country cov-
cred with underbrush, called the
Wilderness, which | will say was
very disastrous to both armies
and resulted in victory to Lee, in
which the T. G.. RS. were very
important factor. When Lees
whole army had ceased to move
forward, and although the boys
were fighting desperately, the
whole line simultaneously came
to a sudden halt and. wavering,
seemed to be hesitating whether
to retreat and give up the field
and victory or rush madly on and
stem the storm of shot and shell
that seemed to be falling upon
them like hail stones from the
cloud of smoke; when the color
bearer of the End Miss. was shot
dead, but the flagstaff was seiz.
ed before it fell to the grounC
by one John Davis of Co. F.,
who, leaping forward, exclaimed,
Boys, follow mel" and the gal.
liant J. M. Stone, seeing the sit
uation, that if the End Miss.
went forward by itself, it meant
! destruction, gave the command
in clear. loud and ringing tones,
Forward, men; steady, charge
forward" and other field officers
catching up and extending the
command in both directions, the
boys moved on with the rebe
veil and in few moments the
field was clear Of yankees. De-
feat was turned to victory and
Grant had started fresh troops
on the march to turn our flank
and cross the river at Spottsyl-
vania and thereby gain one more
step toward Richmond. But
Lee, being on the alert, left a
| few men to attend the wounded
and bury the dead, marched us
all night, got to Spottsylvania,
and choosing the position for
} both armies again, met grant
again square in front. Grant
massed his army and came at one
point, seven columns deep and
we, having gotten there about 2
hours ahead, had cut a few trees
where we got one in the right
place and took our bayonets and
tin plates and dug some trenches
| for protection, and although it
was not safe to stay there, the
! boys knew that it was safer there
than it would be to leave there
and have seven columns of men
shooting them in the back. and