In the fall of 1863, in the absence of Capt. Jarrette, who had rejoined
Shelby’s command, I became, at 19, captain of the company. Joe Lea was
first lieutenant and Lon Railey second lieutenant.
When Capt. Jarrette came north again, I again became lieutenant, but when
Capts. Jarrette and Poole reported to Gen. Shelby on the Red river, they
were sent into Louisiana, and I again became captain of the company, so
reporting to Gen. Henry E. McCulloch in command of Northern Texas at
Bonham. All my orders on the commissary and quartermaster’s departments
were signed by me as Capt. C.S.A. and duly honored.
Around Bonham I did scout service for Gen. McCulloch, and in November he
sent me with a very flattering letter to report to Gen. E. Kirby Smith, at
Shreveport, Louisiana, the headquarters of the Trans-Mississippi
department. Capts. Jarrette and Poole were at Shreveport and Gen. Smith
gave us minute orders for a campaign against the cotton thieves and
speculators who infested the Mississippi river bottom. An expedition to
get rid of these was planned by Gen. Smith with Capt. Poole commanding one
company, myself the other, and Capt. Jarrette over us both.
Five miles from Tester’s ferry on Bayou Macon we met a cotton train
convoyed by 50 cavalry. We charged them on sight. The convoy got away
with ten survivors, but every driver was shot, and four cotton buyers who
were close behind in an ambulance were hung in a cotton gin near at hand.
They had $180,000 on them, which, with the cotton and wagons, was sent
back to Bastrop in charge of Lieut. Greenwood.
A more exciting experience was mine at Bayou Monticello, a stream that was
deeper than it looked. Observing a cotton train on a plantation across
the bayou, I called to my men to follow me and plunged in.
Seeing me floundering in the deep water, however, they went higher up to a
bridge, and when I landed I found myself alone. I was hard pressed for a
time, till they came up and relieved me. There were 52 soldiers killed
here. Other charges near Goodrich’s Landing and at Omega put an end to
the cotton speculation in that locality.
The Confederate army in that section was not well armed, and our company,
each man with a pair of dragoon pistols and a Sharpe’s rifle, was the envy
of the Southern army. Gen. Kirby Smith told me he had not seen during the
war a band so well armed. Consequently when, in February, 1864, Gen.
Marmaduke sent to Gen. Shelby for an officer and 40 of the best mounted
and best armed men he had, it was but natural that Shelby’s
adjutant-general, John N. Edwards, should recommend a part of the Missouri
boys, and told me to select my men and report to Gen. Shelby, who in turn
ordered me to report for special service to Gen. Marmaduke at Warren, Ark.
Only twenty, and a beardless boy, Gen. Marmaduke looked me over rather
dubiously, as I thought, but finally told me what he wanted—to find out
whether or not it was true that Gen. Steele, at Little Rock, was preparing
to move against Price at Camden, and to make the grand round of the picket
posts from Warren to the Mississippi river, up the Arkansas to Pine Bluff
and Little Rock, and returning by way of the western outpost at Hot
Springs.
We were to intercept all messages between Price and Marmaduke, and govern
our movements by their contents.
About half way between Pine Bluff and Little Rock we came up with a train
of wagons, followed by an ambulance carrying several women and accompanied
by mounted Federal soldiers. The soldiers got away into Pine Bluff, but
we captured the wagons and ambulance, but finding nothing of importance
let them proceed.
We made a thorough examination of the interior of Little Rock, and
satisfied ourselves that no movement on Price was imminent, and were on
our way out before we became involved in a little shooting match with the
patrol, from which no harm resulted to our side, however, except a shot in
my leg.
Years afterward, in prison, I learned from Senator Cushman Kellogg Davis,
of Minnesota, that he was one of the officers who galloped into Pine Bluff
ahead of us that day. He was at that time on the staff of the judge
advocate general, and they were on their way into Pine Bluff to hold a
court-martial. The women were, as they had said, the wives of some of the
officers.
Senator Davis was among the prominent Minnesotans who worked for our
parole, although he did not live to see it accomplished.