RAID INTO MEMPHIS
Deeply disappointed over the many futile and disastrous attempts to
vanquish Forrest and his troopers, the Union Army headquarters again,
about the month of August, 1864, assembled a formidable army and marched
it into Mississippi, fully determined to crush this bold Cavalier of the
South. General Forrest was fully informed as to the numerical strength
of his enemy, and he knew that he was so outnumbered that his only
chance was to win by his wits. Indeed, this necessity was not new to
him, but it had never been so great as at that time. With a handful of
men and a legion of original and brilliant ideas, this untaught genius
had piled up a list of victories which will never cease to be the wonder
of the military student.
In that latest crisis and danger to our little army and to our cause we,
who had so long followed Forrest, knew not what strategic plan was
being worked out in his brain; but we were one in the thought that he
would find some way to save the situation. How unique and almost
unbelievable was his plan!
When the advance of the blue army had been pushed to Oxford, Miss.,
Forrest instructed General Chalmers, one of his division commanders, to
gather all of the force that was left and put it in battle array before
the enemy, and to parry the advance as much as possible without bringing
on a decisive engagement. By these tactics the Union commander was
deceived into looking for and preparing for a pitched battle each day.
While the situation rested thus in the balance of expectancy, Forrest
selected from each unit of our army a squad of picked men, well mounted
and equipped. Placing himself at the head of this special troop, without
a word of explanation, he bade us follow him; and, with hearty obedience
and blind confidence, we obeyed, grimly ready for whatever desperate
enterprise awaited us at our unknown destination. We headed toward the
west, crossing the Tallahatchie River, and then turned northward in the
direction of Senatobia, Miss., and the Cold Water River. All bridges and
crossings of these rivers and their tributaries had been rendered
impassable, and we were forced to all manner of inventions to get over
the streams. At one place we made a pontoon bridge, with grapevines as
the main support, and carried the floor planks from a barn a half mile
distant.
At daylight on the morning of August 21 we rode into the suburbs of the
city of Memphis, Tenn. It was as if we had come down out of the sky on
winged horses, so great was the surprise to Generals Washburn and
Hurlbut; and these commanders, by a margin of two minutes, escaped from
their headquarters in night attire, leaving uniforms and paraphernalia
of every kind. The boldness of the stroke saved us. There were enough
Union troops in Memphis to have surrounded and captured us, but they
fled to shelter, and we had possession of the town for three or four
hours. We captured several cannon and a number of prisoners, but the
swiftness of our mission made it necessary that we leave all of these
behind.
In leaving the city we fought everything that made the slightest show of
resistance, but there was no organized effort to interfere with us.
When we reached the city limits, General Forrest returned General
Washburn’s uniform and other clothing taken from his headquarters in the
early dawn, and some time afterwards General Washburn had a new
Confederate uniform made and sent to General Forrest.
This expedition had the desired effect. The headquarters knew not what
designs lay behind the strange and startling raid into the very heart of
the military government of that department, and the army of invasion was
hurriedly recalled to protect Memphis.
Thus again had the untutored Forrest, with the strategy of a Hannibal or
a Frederick, substituted his wits for guns and soldiers and chased an
army with his genius.
We wended our way back to Mississippi
[Illustration: THOMAS D. DUNCAN
At the age of fourteen, two years before he rode with Forrest’s famous
troop]
and to our command, men and horses weary, worn, sleepy, hungry, and
tired, but with the happy consciousness that we had vanquished the foe
from the gates of Oxford without the loss of a man.
“Up the broad valley, fast and far,
The troubled enemy had sped.
Up rose the glorious morning star,
And the mighty host had fled.”
[Illustration: text decoration]