Paulding, Miss., 129
Paulding (Miss.) Clarion, 115, 121
Pearl River, 94, 95, 139, 140, 141, 143, 145, 149, 150, 151
Pemberton, Gen. John C, 34-35, 38, 48, 52, 59, 60, 63, 91-92, 103, 105-106, 107, 113, 120, 123, 125, 127, 128, 143, 144, 149, 155-56, 159, 163, 167, 168, 169, 170, 174, 182, 188, 207, 208
Pensacola, Fla., 132
Pettus, Governor John, 34, 35
Philadelphia, Miss., 95, 96, 98, 99, 116-17, 128, 140
Pierce, Sgt. Lyman B., 62, 65, 70, 71n, 89, 103, 143
Pineville, Miss., 121
Piney Woods, 119-25, and passim
Pittsburgh, Pa., 24
Plantations Augustus, 84 Bender, 116, 119 Daggett, 45 De Shroon, 179, 180 Ellis, 20 Estes, 89, 93 Falkner, 20 Gill, 179, 181, 186 Hodge, 133, 140 Kilgore, 57, 62, 66 Makadore, 124, 126, 135, 137, 138 Newman, 202, 203, 207, 240 Nichols, 123 Oakland, 52, 133 Sloan, 32, 43 Smith, 106, 107, 139 Snyder, 162, 163 Spurlark, 186, 188 Thompson, 159, 160 Weatherall, 45 Williams, 139, 148, 153
Pollard, William, 137
Ponchatoula, La., 188
Ponder, William, 110n
Pontotoc, Miss., 32, 43, 44, 45, 50, 53, 54, 55, 56n, 59, 60, 91, 103
Pontotoc Ridge, 20
Poplar Springs, Miss., 45
Porter, Adm. David D., 7, 8, 105, 106, 178, 179, 180, 181
Port Gibson, Miss., 154, 157, 158, 172, 208, 232, 234
Port Hudson, La., 78, 114, 156, 163, 173, 177, 204, 205, 206, 208, 232, 234, 235
Post, Pvt., 79n
Prentiss, Gen. Benjamin, 25
Prince, Col. Edward, 19, 21, 23, 31, 43, 44, 45, 62, 79, 80, 96-97, 121, 139, 140, 143, 145-46, 149, 150, 152, 154, 155, 200, 202, 203, 227, 234-35, 237, 242
Prisoners of war, parole of, 51, 159, 174-75
Quincy, III., 145
Quitman, Miss., 129
Railroads Memphis & Charleston, 6 Mississippi Central, 55, 58, 71 Mobile & Ohio, 22, 30, 33, 43, 48, 58, 62, 67, 71, 78, 80, 82, 85, 88, 92, 97, 98, 103, 126, 128, 129, 167 New Orleans & Jackson, 139, 148, 149, 150, 156, 157, 161, 165, 167, 169, 172, 181, 182n, 205, 207 Vicksburg, 58, 60, 62, 63, 80, 89, 92, 94, 98, 99, 102, 103, 107, 112, 114, 117, 118, 125, 129, 161
Raleigh, Miss., 124, 125, 138, 140
Rappahannock River, 224
Red Chief (steamboat), 235n
Red River, 7
Reynolds, Col. A. E., 156
Rhodes, Capt. Thomas C, 185
Richardson, Col. Robert V., 26, 169-71, 174n, 176-77, 179, 182, 187, 188, 189, 90, 207, 208, 220, 240
Richmond, Va., 48, 103, 224
Richmond (Va.) Examiner, 69
Ripley, Miss., 20, 21, 22, 23
Robinson, Isaac, 74, 80, 85, 116
Root, Lt. George, 111, 171, 174
Roy, Bugler William, 202, 239
Ruggles, Gen. Daniel, 6, 33, 34, 35, 59, 60, 62, 90, 91, 92, 103, 117, 118
St. Charles Hotel (New Orleans), 230
St. Louis, Mo., 24
Sakatouchee Creek, 57, 90
Salem, Miss., 73
Sandy Creek, 210, 211, 220
Scales, Cordelia, 52, 133
Scott, Capŧ. E. A., 193, 197
Scott, Gen. Winfield, 10-11
Second Alabama Cavalry, 59, 69, 90, 103
Second Iowa Cavalry, 6, 26, and passim
Second Massachusetts Cavalry, 234
Second Tennessee Cavalry, 33, 46, 47, 50, 59, 66, 67-71, 90, 118, 156
Selma, Miss., 9
Seventh Illinois Cavalry, 6, 26, and passim
Seventh Tennessee Cavalry, 46, 47
Shawneetown, Ill., 25, 184
Sherman, Gen. William T., 8n, 25, 51, 106, 107, 223, 237, 238
Shiloh, Miss., 33, 46, 184
Simonton, Col. John M., 188
Sixth Illinois Cavalry, 6, 26, and passim
Sloan Plantation, 32, 43
Smith, Col. J. F., 30, 31, 35, 47, 48, 90, 118
Smith, Capt. Jason B., 21, 56, 68, 69, 87, 93, 200, 203
Smith, Gen. William Sooy, 7, 9, 37, 38, 55, 56, 72, 178
Smith Plantation, 106, 107, 139
Snyder Plantation, 162, 163
Sparta, Miss., 9
Springfield, Ill., 11, 24
Spurlark Plantation, 186, 188
Starkville, Miss., 54, 64, 66, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 84, 90
Starlight (steamboat), 235n
Starr, First-Maj. Mathew H., 62, 87-88, 111, 144n, 227, 241
State troops, Mississippi, 18, 30, 39, 43, 44, 47, 66, 69, 71, 210
Steadman, George, 74, 100, 101, 124n, 152, 153, 161, 196, 197
Stevenson, Maj.-Gen. Carter L., 156, 163
Streight, Col. Abel, 37, 38, 236
Strong River, 139, 142, 143, 150
Stuart, Jeb, 9
Styles, Lt. William H., 195, 199
Summit, Miss., 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 207
Surby, Sgt. Richard, 5, 19, 44, 85-87, 97, 116, 122, 124n, 136, 138, 148, 151-55, 158, 161, 165, 172, 173, 175-76, 181, 183, 184, 186, 191, 192, 199, 239-41; named to lead scouts, 64 raiding along Starkville road, 73-75 capture of Pearl River Bridge, 94-95 advance on Newton Station, 99-102 action at Newton Station, 107-110 action at Wall’s Bridge, 194-99 wounded, 199 left at Wall’s Bridge, 202 visited by Col. Miles, 207
Swift, Capt. John L., 230
Talking Warrior Creek, 76
Tallahatchie Bridge (New Albany, Miss.), 30, 31, 33
Tallahatchie River, 23, 31, 37, 39, 43, 48, 55
Tangipahoa, La., 156
Tennessee River, 37
Thirty-Fifth Alabama Infantry, 128
Thompson Plantation, 159, 160
Thompson’s Creek, 234, 235
Tickfaw River, 191, 192, 203
Trafton, Capt. George W., 39, 43, 161, 162, 165, 171, 179, 195
Tupelo, Miss., 58, 103
Tuscumbia, Ala., 37
Twentieth Mississippi Mounted Infantry, 168, 169, 171
Twenty-Seventh Alabama Infantry, 156
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 30
Union army units Battery K, First IllinoisArtillery, 6, and passim First Louisiana Cavalry, 234 Fourth Wisconsin Mounted Infantry, 234 Second Iowa Cavalry, 6, 26, and passim Second Massachusetts Cavalry, 234 Seventh Illinois Cavalry, 6, 26, and passim Sixth Illinois Cavalry, 6, 26, and passim
Union Church, Miss., 161, 162, 164, 165, 166, 171, 172, 176, 207
Van Dorn, Gen. Earl, 34, 86
Verona, Miss., 33
Vicksburg, Miss., 7-8, 20, 22, 34, 37, 38, 48, 49, 52, 78, 80, 91, 104, 105, 109, 120, 122, 127, 132, 156, 161, 163, 168, 222, and passim
Vicksburg Railroad, see under Railroads
Wallihan, John, 24
Wall’s Bridge, 191-203, 204, 207
Washington, D. C, 62
Washington (D. C.) National Tribune, 110n, 235
Water Valley, Miss., 55
Weapons, cavalry, 14-15, 17
Weatherall, Capt., 33, 35, 43, 44
Weatherall Plantation, 45
Weedon, Charles, 74
Westgate (cavalryman), 28
West Point, Miss., 69, 77, 90
Westville, Miss, 139
Whitefield, Miss., 85, 87
White River, 7
Willbourn, Lt.-Col. C. C, 210
Williams’ Bridge, 190, 204, 205, 206, 207, 209, 220
Williams Plantation, 139, 148, 153
Wilt, Lt. Daniel, 56
Winnesheaks, the, 79, 80
Wolf, Miss., 73
Wolf River, 7
Wood, Arthur, 74, 80, 85, 196, 198, 213, 214
Woodville, Miss., 188
Woodward, Lt. Samuel, 62, 115, 174, 215, 227
Wren, Lt. William S., 185, 190, 207
Yockeney River, 55
Youngstown, Ohio, 24
Yule, Surgeon Erastus D., 64, 65, 202, 239, 240, 241
Infant Dee Brown with his half-siblings, Mildred and Daniel Brown, around 1908.
A young Brown in Arkansas, before 1920. (Ph
oto courtesy of the Dee Brown LLC.)
Brown in the early 1920s. (Photo courtesy of the Dee Brown LLC.)
Brown’s college photo, taken in the 1920s.
Brown in the late 1920s in Wilson, Arkansas.
Brown with his mother, Lula Brown (left), and wife, Sally Stroud (right), in Washington, DC. in the 1930s.
A portrait of Brown taken during World War II.
Brown in the 1940s with his dog, Ivan, most likely taken in Maryland.
A studio shot of Brown from around 1950.
Brown with his grandson, Nicolas Wolfe, in 1972. He dedicated Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee to Nicolas. (Photo courtesy of Linda Luise Brown.)
Brown in the 1970s, in a photo taken by friend Rueben Thomas.
Brown in 1981, after the publication of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. (Photo courtesy of Linda Luise Brown.)
The Bold Cavaliers
Morgan’s Second Kentucky Cavalry Raiders
For TWO GRANDFATHERS
Contents
KENTUCKY BOYS ARE ALLIGATOR HORSES
2 GREEN RIVER CAVALIERS
3 SHILOH
4 THE LEBANON RACES
5 RETURN TO THE BLUEGRASS
6 THE SPARTAN LIFE
7 DARK AND BLOODY GROUND
8 CHRISTMAS RAID
9 WINTER OF DISCONTENT
10 THE GREAT RAID BEGINS
11 FARTHEST POINT NORTH
12 THE CAPTIVES
13 THE SURVIVORS
14 EPISODE OF THE CLOAK-AND-SWORD
15 NO MORE BUGLES
Image Gallery
Sources
Notes
Index
Illustrations
(Grouped in this order following page 162)
General John Hunt Morgan
Colonel Basil W. Duke
Captain Tom Quirk
George St. Leger Grenfell
Captain John B. Castleman
Thomas Henry Hines
Lt. George B. Eastin
Lt. Kelion F. Peddicord
George Ellsworth
William C. P. Breckinridge
Martha Ready Morgan and General John Hunt Morgan
Colonel Adam Johnson
Colonel Frank Wolford
Raiders interned at Fort Delaware, 1864
Escape of John Morgan and his officers from Ohio prison
Prisoners and yard, Camp Douglas, 1864
President Jefferson Davis bids farewell to his cavalry escort
1
Kentucky Boys Are Alligator Horses
I
AT DUSK THE TOWN of Lexington was quiet, the gas lamps not yet lighted, and only an occasional horseman was moving along tree-shaded Main Street. From the Lexington Rifles’ armory at the corner of Main and Upper streets, passers-by could hear the tramp of marching feet and the hoarse calls of a drillmaster, but the sounds were familiar ones. For the past two or three years the Rifles had been drilling regularly twice a week. Although a month had passed since the pro-Union state government ordered this militia company’s members to pack their rifles and ship them to Frankfort, the men continued their semi-weekly meetings, drilling without arms.
The day was September 20, 1861, the soft air of the dying Blue-grass summer deceptive of the time. After months of indecision, of uneasy neutrality, Kentucky was about to enter the Civil War.
During the past eighteen hours events had moved swiftly in Lexington. At midnight of the nineteenth, a regiment marched in from the Federal recruiting post at Camp Dick Robinson, twenty-five miles away, and occupied the Lexington fairgrounds. All day of the twentieth, rumors ran through the town that the Federal commander had issued orders to arrest certain members of the Lexington Rifles, including the company’s commander, Captain John Hunt Morgan. Morgan had been flying a Confederate flag over his hemp and wool factory since the fall of Fort Sumter in April, and most of his military subordinates made no effort to conceal their preference for the Confederate cause.
Sometime that afternoon, Captain Morgan dispatched notes to the most trusted members of the Rifles, and in a hurried meeting revealed to those not in the secret that he had not shipped the company’s arms to Frankfort after all. The packing cases which some of them had helped to make ready for shipment actually had been filled with stones. The rifles were concealed in the armory and in the homes of the members.
The time had come, Captain Morgan informed them, to leave Lexington and join the Confederate forces. He had information that Kentucky’s own Confederate leader, General Simon Bolivar Buckner, had marched up from Tennessee, occupying Bowling Green with five thousand soldiers. From Bowling Green an advance force was moving north to form a Confederate line along Green River, and that was where Captain Morgan would march his Lexington Rifles, a little more than a hundred miles to the southwest.
“We then and there took an oath,” one of the Riflemen recalled afterward, “to stand by our arms till death.”
And so at dusk they gathered at the armory on Main Street, a dozen or so going through the drills in which they were so proficient, stamping boots firmly on the hard flooring, the drillmaster’s voice more strident than usual. At the same time, others were busy in the alley entranceway where two farm wagons piled high with hay were drawn up, the drivers dressed in country jeans. At each end of the alley, guards loitered with a pretended indifference belying the alertness in their eyes, ready to signal any hint of danger—the approach of a stranger, a known Union sympathizer, or a blue-clad soldier from the camp at the fairgrounds.
The men in the armory slipped rifles outside to the wagons where they were buried deep in the hay. When the last weapon was safely packed aboard, the alley guards signaled all clear and the wagons moved out into Main Street. The gas lamps had been lit now against the darkness which bore a hint of autumn chill, a faint scent of autumn smoke. They passed a few Federal soldiers, in town from the fairgrounds to see the sights before taps sounded. After weeks of drilling in the back country at Camp Dick Robinson, the blue-coated soldiers strolling on the brick sidewalks were not interested in a pair of hay wagons rumbling along the hard-packed earth of Main Street.
Entrusted with this first dangerous mission of a militia company which later would form the nucleus of the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, Confederate States Army, were Sergeants Henry Elder and William R. Jones, Corporal Tom Logwood, and Privates Tom Howe and Bowlin Roberts. They turned south on the turnpike, heading west for Versailles.
Somewhere along the way they were overtaken by Captain Morgan and about a dozen Riflemen who had remained behind in the armory for a while to continue the deception of drilling. These men were all mounted. Being from the horse country of Kentucky they had already made up their minds they would serve the Confederacy as cavalrymen. They had cartridge boxes belted on their backs and when they reached the wagons they armed themselves with rifles. Already they considered themselves soldiers of the Confederate States of America.
Around midnight the party crossed the Kentucky River at Shryock’s Ferry, and as dawn began breaking over the misted, rolling hills they reached their first prearranged stop, pulling the wagons into the barn of one of Captain Morgan’s trusted friends.
After making certain that all was secure, Morgan turned back to Lexington to round up other men he was certain would be eager to join his expedition.
Throughout the day, Logwood, Elder, Howe, Jones, Roberts and the others remained concealed in the barn with their wagons and horses, eating good food brought them by their host, resting in the hay and trying to sleep against the excitement of the past night’s ride. They talked, joked, and in lapses of silence, they thought and wondered on what was happening to them.
They were all young, most of them a full decade or more younger than their captain, John Morgan, who was thirty-six, a veteran of the War with Mexico. Few were interested in politics, as Morgan was. To his young followers the Civil War was a part of the natural fabric of their lives; it had come upon them as slowly and inevitably as summer
turning to winter, gradual as time.
When John Morgan organized the Rifles back in 1857, about fifty-young men joined up for fun, excitement, and perhaps the prestige of the company’s gay green uniforms. Almost immediately, the Rifles were much in demand for parties and picnics. In August 1858, the Kentucky Statesman reported a visit of the company to Crab Orchard Springs, a fashionable watering place of the day, noting particularly “their bright and shining uniforms, tail coats, braided trousers, cross-belts and fancy headgear.”
The following summer, with John Brown’s abolitionist raid only a few weeks away in the future, the Lexington Observer & Reporter took note of the Rifles’ presence at Blue Lick Springs. “We are certain that a finer body of men never shouldered a musket—a beautiful uniform, well drilled, and being composed of young and handsome gentlemen, we should advise all beautiful ‘young sixteens’ at the Springs to guard well their hearts, or perchance some of them will become attached to the ‘Rifles’ and be persuaded to learn the ‘infantry tactics.’ ”
After John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859, Kentucky organized a state guard, composed of local militia companies, and the Lexington Rifles had the honor of being named Company A of the 1st Regiment. Captain Morgan reported to Governor Beriah Magoffin that he had fifty guns and sixty men ready for duty. But there was to be no immediate call for their services. Radical abolitionist sentiment being scarce in Kentucky, local controversies centered mainly on fine points of states’ rights questions, and as 1860 moved into 1861, the Bluegrass remained a comparatively calm center in the raging national storm. Kentucky’s leaders generally agreed on the aim of preserving peace.
Then came Fort Sumter, a cold shock of reality, startling the many Kentucky families with close blood ties in the deep South. When President Lincoln called for volunteers, Governor Magoffin replied: “Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern States.” The legislature, eager to preserve neutrality, approved the Governor’s decision 89 to 4, and a sudden quietness fell over the state.