The Lone Star Defenders 10

The Lone Star Defenders 10

Leaving the battlefield in the manner stated, we moved very slowly all

day. In fact, fatigue, loss of sleep, and hunger had rendered a rapid

movement impossible with the infantry. Our men were so starved that

they would have devoured almost anything. During the day I saw some of

the infantry men shoot down a hog by the side of the road, and, cutting

off pieces of the meat, march on eating the raw bloody pork without

bread or salt. The country through which we were marching was a poor,

mountainous district, almost destitute of anything for the inhabitants

to subsist upon, to say nothing of feeding an army. Stock of any kind

appeared to be remarkably scarce. J. E. Dillard managed to get a small

razor-back pig, that would weigh perhaps twenty-five pounds, strapped

it on behind his saddle and thus carried it all day. When we were

relieved of picket duty and went into camp at midnight, he cut it up

and divided it among the men. I drew a shoulder-blade, with perhaps as

much as four ounces of meat on it. This I broiled and ate without salt

or bread.

 

We continued the march southward, passing ten or twelve miles east

of Fayetteville. About the fourth day we had been resting, and the

commissary force was out hustling for something to eat, but before

we got any rations the Third Texas was suddenly ordered to mount

immediately and go in search of our missing artillery. This was in the

afternoon, perhaps four o’clock. Moving in a northeasterly direction,

we marched all night on to the headwaters of White River, where that

stream is a mere creek, and I do not think it would be an exaggeration

to say that we crossed it twenty times during the night. About 10 A. M.

we passed through Huntsville, county seat of Madison County, a small

town having the appearance of being destitute of everything. By this

time the matter of food had become a very serious question, and we

appeared to be in much greater danger of dying from starvation in the

mountains of northern Arkansas than by the enemy’s bullets. Our belts

had been tightened until there was no relief in that, and, as if to

enhance my own personal suffering, the tantalizing fact occurred to me

that I was treading my native heath, so to speak, for I am a native

of Madison County, and Huntsville had been my home for years, where

to enjoy three squares a day had been an unbroken habit of years. But

to-day I was literally starving in the town of Huntsville, County of

Madison, aforesaid, and not a friendly face could I see, nor could

a morsel of bread be procured for love or patriotism. Passing onward

two or three miles, and having learned that the guns were coming, we

rested, and privately made details to scour the country and beg for a

little food “for sick and wounded men.” Tom Johnson went out for our

mess, and the sorrowful tales that were told in behalf of the poor

sick and wounded soldiers we were hauling along in ambulances, with

nothing with which to feed them, would have melted a heart of stone.

The ruse was a success, as the details came in at night with divers

small contributions made from scant stores for “the poor sick and

wounded men,” which were ravenously consumed by the well ones. The

artillery shortly afterwards came up and was escorted by us to the

command. Camping that night a few miles from Huntsville, the artillery

had taken the wrong road as it left the battlefield, had gone up into

Missouri, and had had a long circuitous drive through the mountains,

but otherwise they were all right.

 

After we returned with the guns, the army moved on southward. When we

were again in motion, as there was no further apprehension of being

followed by the enemy, hunger having nearly destroyed my respect

for discipline, I left the column by a byroad leading eastwardly,

determined to find something to eat. This proved a more difficult

errand than I had expected, for the mountaineers were very poor and

apparently almost destitute of supplies. I had traveled twelve or

fifteen miles when I rode down the mountain into a little valley, at

the head of Frog Bayou, coming to a good log house owned and occupied

by a Mr. Jones, formerly of Jackson County, Alabama, and a brother of

Hosea, Allen, William, and Jesse Jones, good and true men, all of whom

I knew. If he had been my uncle I could not have been prouder to find

him. Here I got a good square meal for myself and horse, seasoned with

a good hearty welcome. This good, true old man was afterwards murdered,

as I learned, for his loyalty to the Confederate cause. After enjoying

my dinner and a rest, I proceeded on my way, intending to rejoin the

command that evening; but, missing the road they were on, I met the

regiment at our old winter quarters. Thus about the middle of March

the Third Texas Cavalry was again housed in the huts we had erected on

the bank of the Arkansas River. I do not know the casualties of the

regiment, but as far as I remember Company C had only one man, Jos.

Welsh, wounded, and one man, Orderly Sergeant W. M. Caldwell, captured.

But as the prisoners were exchanged, our captured men soon returned to

us.

 

Thus ended a short campaign which involved much suffering to me, as

well as others, and was the beginning of trouble which nearly cost

me my life, a trouble which was not fully recovered from until the

following winter. When I was taken with measles in Missouri, the

disease affected my bowels, and they became ulcerated, and all through

the long spell of typhoid fever and the very slow convalescence this

trouble was very hard to control. When I left Rusk to return to the

army I was apparently well, but having been comfortably housed all

winter was not in proper condition to enter such a campaign at this

season of the year. Before leaving winter quarters the men were ordered

to prepare ten days’ rations, and when we overtook the command at

Fayetteville they had been out nearly that length of time, and rations

were already growing scarce. We furloughed men and a number of recruits

who had accompanied us to join the command were not here to draw or

prepare rations, and our only chance for a living was to share rations

with our comrades, who were as liberal and generous as they could be,

but they were not able to do much.

 

[Illustration: CAPTAIN D. R. GURLEY

 

Sixth Texas Cavalry, A. A. G. Ross’ Brigade]

 

From the time I overtook the command until we got back to winter

quarters was about ten days, and the few days we were in winter

quarters were spent in preparing to cross the Mississippi River. For

the first four or five days I managed to procure, on an average, about

one biscuit per day; for the other five days we were fortunate to get

anything at all to eat, and usually got nothing. We were in the snow

for two days and nights, and in a cold, drenching rain one night. On

the 7th it was impossible to get a drink of water, to say nothing of

food and sleep, and from the time the firing began in the morning until

the next morning we could get no water, although we were intensely

thirsty. While at winter quarters I had a chill, and started down grade

in health, a decline in physical condition that continued until I was

apparently nearly dead.

 

In December parts of our cavalry regiments went with Colonel James

McIntosh into the Indian Territory to suppress Hopothlaohola, an

ex-chief of the Creek nation, who, with a considerable band of

disaffected followers, was making trouble, and part of the Third Texas

went on this expedition. They had a battle with the Indians in the

mountains on the headwaters of Chustenala Creek, defeated and scattered

the warriors, captured their squaws, ponies, and negroes, scattering

them so effectually that we had no further trouble with them.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER VI

 

THE SIEGE OF CORINTH

 

Leaving Winter Quarters—The Prairies—Duvall’s Bluff—Awaiting

Transportation—White River—The Mississippi—Memphis—Am Detailed—En

Route to Corinth—Corinth—Red Tape—Siege of Corinth—“A Soldier’s

Grave”—Digging for Water—Suffering and Sickness—Regiment

Reorganized—Evacuation of Corinth.

 

 

CAPTAIN FRANK M. TAYLOR having died, First Lieutenant J. J. A. Barker

was promoted to captain and Private James E. Dillard was promoted to

second lieutenant. After remaining at our winter quarters for a few

days, resting and feeding up, we started on our long eastward journey,

leaving the wounded and sick in charge of Dr. I. K. Frazer. We moved

down on the north side of the Arkansas River, stopping two or three

days opposite Little Rock. During our stay here I availed myself of

the opportunity of seeing the capital of the State. From Little Rock

we crossed the country to Duvall’s Bluff on White River, where the men

were requested to dismount, send their horses back to Texas, and go

afoot for a time. This they agreed to without a murmur, on the promise

that, at a proper time, we should be remounted.

 

On this march from Arkansas River to White River we crossed grand

prairie, and, though I had often heard of these great stretches of dead

level country, had never seen them. I do not know the distance that

we marched in this grand prairie, but it was a good many miles, as we

entered it early in the morning one day and had to camp in it that

night, and for almost the whole distance water stood on the ground to

the depth of about two or three inches, and it was a difficult matter

to find dry ground enough to camp on at night.

 

Men having been detailed to take our horses back to Texas, the animals

were prepared for the journey, each detailed man having to manage a

number of horses; and to do this they tied the reins of one horse to

the tail of another, each man riding one horse and guiding the leader

of the others, strung out in pairs behind him. As they were recrossing

the grand prairie the buffalo-gnats attacked the horses, stampeding

them and scattering them for many miles over the country, and were with

much difficulty recaptured.

 

We waited several days at Duvall’s Bluff for transportation to Memphis,

Tenn., on our way to Corinth, Miss. General Joseph L. Hogg, who had

been commissioned brigadier-general, accompanied by his staff, came

to us here, with orders to take command of a brigade, including the