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
Third Texas Cavalry at Memphis. General Hogg’s staff was composed of
civilians who had never seen service in the army, and this proved to
be an unfortunate time of the year for men not inured to camp life
to go into active service. His staff consisted of William T. Long,
quartermaster; Daniel P. Irby, commissary; H. H. Rogers, of Jefferson,
usually called General Rogers, ordnance officer; in addition there were
E. C. Williams, John T. Decherd, and H. S, Newland.
After several days’ waiting a steamboat came up the river, landing at
the Bluff, and we were crowded upon it for our journey down White River
into the Mississippi and up to Memphis, and it was hard to realize
that the booming, navigable river we were now on was the same stream
we had forded so many times in the mountains of northern Arkansas on
the night we went in search of our lost artillery. When we got on the
Mississippi we found it very high, numbers of houses along the banks
being surrounded by water up to the front doorsteps, where numerous
small skiffs could be seen moored. These skiffs furnished the residents
their only means of going from house to house.
Arriving at Memphis, we marched away up Poplar Street to the suburbs,
and camped in a grove, where we remained several days, spending the
time in preparation for the move to Corinth, Miss. Here General Hogg
took formal command of his brigade, and, having told me that he wanted
Tom Johnson and myself at his headquarters, he had us detailed,—Tom to
the ordnance department and me in the quartermaster’s department, while
John A. Boyd was detailed to work in the commissary department.
Word having finally come for us to proceed to Corinth, we were crowded
into a train on the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, en route to that
city. On this train, as conductor, I found my former friend and
schoolmate, William Wingo. The trip to Corinth was a very slow and
tedious one, the train being loaded down with troops and supplies, and
unfortunately had lost so much time it had to be run very carefully
and make numerous stops. In consequence of this, some of our
over-suspicious “patriots” went to General Hogg and implied that the
enemy had forces but a short distance north of us and that the slow
running and the many stoppages of the train was done evidently through
treachery, and that the plan apparently was to give the enemy an
opportunity to capture the train with the men and munitions on board.
I had been riding on a rear platform, conversing with Mr. Wingo, when I
proceeded to General Hogg’s coach, and found him considerably excited.
In answer to my inquiry he told me what had been intimated and said
the suggestion, he thought, was a plausible one, and that he had about
determined to order the train forward at all hazards. He was rather an
irritable man, and his suspicions were easily aroused. I endeavored
to quiet him, and did so for a time, by explaining the situation, and
pointed out the danger we would be in of colliding with some other
train unless the utmost caution was used, as was being done; and
finally told him that I had known the conductor since he was a small
boy, had gone to school with him, and was sure there was no treachery
in him. It was not a great while, however, before others came around
with similar evil suspicions, until the general was wrought up to such
a pitch that he peremptorily ordered the train run through to Corinth,
regardless of consequences, else some dire calamity would overtake
every person in charge of it. Well, we made the rest of the journey
in very good time, at the risk of many lives, but fortunately without
accident. For this our friend and new brigadier-general was on the next
day ordered under arrest by General Beauregard. But nothing more ever
came of it.
After dragging along for more than thirty hours over a distance
ordinarily made in six or seven, we finally disembarked, in the middle
of the night, on the north side of the railroad, about two miles
west of Corinth. So here we were, without horses, to confront new
conditions, under new commanders, constrained to learn the art of war
in a different arm of the service, and to drill, to march, and fight as
infantry.
The next morning after our arrival I mounted the quartermaster’s horse,
and rode into town, which was my duty as the quartermaster’s right-hand
man, to procure forage for our stock—that is, for the regimental and
brigade headquarters horses, artillery horses and the wagon teams. I
found the road leading from our camp to town almost impassable owing to
the mud, impassable even for a good horse and rider, and utterly and
absolutely impassable for a wagon at all, as the best team we had could
not have drawn an empty wagon over the road.
I found Corinth all aglitter with brass buttons and gold lace, the
beautiful Confederate uniform being much in evidence everywhere. I
never had seen anything like it before.
The Battle of Shiloh had been fought while we were on the steamer
between Duvall’s Bluff and Memphis, General Albert Sidney Johnston had
been killed, and the army under General Beauregard had fallen back to
Corinth, and the town was literally alive with officers and soldiers.
There were more headquarters, more sentinels, and more red tape here
than I had ever dreamed of. I had not seen uniformed officers or men
west of the Mississippi River, and had known nothing of red tape in
the army. Knowing nothing of the organization of the army beyond our
own brigade, I had everything to learn in reference to the proper
quartermaster, forage master, and master of transportation, as I must
needs have railroad transportation for my forage.
So beginning at the top, I made my way to General Beauregard’s
headquarters; from there I was directed to division headquarters;
thence to a quartermaster; and from one quartermaster to another,
until I had about done the town—and finally found the right man. One
lesson learned not to be gone over. Finding there was no difficulty in
getting forage delivered in Corinth, I had now to hunt up the master
of transportation and satisfy him of the impossibility of hauling
it on wagons. Owing to the immense business just then crowding the
railroad and the scarcity of rolling stock, it was really a difficult
matter to get the transportation; but by dint of perseverance in the
best persuasive efforts I could bring to bear, I succeeded in having
one day’s rations sent out by rail. The next day the same thing as to
transportation had to be gone over, and the next, and the next, and
each succeeding day it became more difficult to accomplish, until a day
came when it was impossible to get the forage hauled out at all.
I rode back to camp and notified the battery and the different
headquarters that I would issue forage in Corinth, which would have to
be brought out on horseback. All accepted the situation cheerfully
except Rogers, who didn’t seem to like me, and I suppose it was because
I called him _Mr._ Rogers, instead of General Rogers, as others did.
He went directly to General Hogg and said: “I think that fellow Barron
should be required to have the forage hauled out.” General Hogg said:
“I do not think you should say a word, sir; you have been trying for a
week to get a carload of ammunition brought out and have failed. This
is the first day Barron has failed to get the forage brought out; if
you want your horses to have corn, send your servant in after it.” I
had no further trouble with Mr. Rogers.
I cannot remember exactly the time we spent at Corinth. It was from
the time of our landing there until about the 29th day of May, say six
or seven weeks; but to measure time by the suffering and indescribable
horrors of that never-to-be-forgotten siege, it would seem not less
than six or seven months. From the effects of malaria, bad water, and
other combinations of disease-producing causes, our friends from home
soon began to fall sick, and, becoming discouraged, the staff officers
began to resign and leave the service. Rogers, I believe, was the first
to go. He was soon followed by the quartermaster and commissary, and
soon all the gentlemen named as coming to the front with General Hogg
were gone, except John T. Decherd, who had been made quartermaster
in place of William T. Long, resigned. I bought Long’s horse and
rigging, and Decherd and myself continued to run that department for
a time, and Tom Johnson was made ordnance officer in place of Rogers,
resigned. General Hogg, being stricken down with disease, was removed
to the house of a citizen two or three miles in the country, where he
was nursed by his faithful servant Bob, General W. L. Cabell meantime
being placed in command of the brigade. General Hogg died a few days
later—on the day of the battle of Farmington.
The following “pathetic story of Civil War times” having been published
in the Nashville (Tenn.) _Banner_, _Youth’s Companion_, Jacksonville
(Tex.) _Reformer_, and perhaps many other papers, I insert it here in
order to give its correction a sort of permanent standing:
A SOLDIER’S GRAVE
A pathetic story of Civil War times is related to the older people of
Chester County in the western part of Tennessee by the recent death
of ex-Governor James S. Hogg of Texas. Some days after the battle of
Shiloh, one of the decisive and bloody engagements of the war, fought
on April 6-7, 1862, a lone and wounded Confederate soldier made his
way to a log cabin located in the woods four miles west of Corinth,
Miss., and begged for shelter and food. The man was weak from hunger
and loss of blood, and had evidently been wandering through the woods
of the sparsely settled section for several days after the battle. The
occupants of the cottage had little to give, but divided this little
with the soldier. They took the man in and administered to his wants
as best they could with their limited resources. They were unable to
secure medical attention, and the soldier, already emaciated from the
lack of food and proper attention, gradually grew weaker and weaker
until he died. Realizing his approaching end, the soldier requested
that his body be buried in the wood near the house, and marked with a
simple slab bearing his name, “General J. L. Hogg, Rusk, Texas.”
The request was complied with, and in the years that passed the
family which had so nobly cared for this stranger moved away, the
grave became overgrown with wild weeds, and all that was left to
mark the soldier’s resting-place was the rough slab. This rotted by
degrees, but was reverently replaced by some passer-by, and in this
way the grave was kept marked; but it is doubtful if the few people
who chanced to pass that way and see the slab ever gave a thought to
the identity of the occupant of the grave, until after the election
of Hon. James S. Hogg to the governorship of the State of Texas. Then
someone of Chester County who had seen the grave wrote Governor Hogg
concerning the dead soldier. In a short time a letter was received,
stating that the soldier was Governor Hogg’s father, and that he
entered the Confederate army when the war first broke out, and had
never been heard of by relatives or friends.
After more correspondence Governor Hogg caused the grave to be
enclosed by a neat iron fence, and erected a handsome plain marble
shaft over the grave. This monument bears the same simple inscription
which marked the rough slab which had stood over the grave of one of
the South’s heroic dead.
Conceding the truth of the statement that General J. L. Hogg, of Rusk,
Texas, died at a private house four miles west of Corinth, Miss., in
the spring of 1862, was buried near by, and that his grave has been
properly marked by his son, ex-Governor James S. Hogg, not a word
of truth remains in the story, the remainder being fiction pure and
simple, and the same may be refuted by a simple relation of the facts
and circumstances of General Hogg’s brief service in the Confederate
army and his untimely death—facts that may easily be verified by the
most creditable witnesses.
Joseph L. Hogg was appointed brigadier-general by the Confederate War
Department in February, 1862. When his commission came he was ordered
to report for duty at Memphis, Tenn., where he would be assigned to
the command of a brigade of Texas troops. After the battle of Elkhorn
a number of Texas regiments were ordered to cross the Mississippi
River, among them the Third and Tenth Texas Cavalry—Company C of the
Third and Company I of the Tenth were made up at Rusk. General Hogg’s
oldest son, Thomas E. Hogg, was a private in Company C, and these two
regiments formed part of the brigade.
General Hogg met the Third Texas at Duvall’s Bluff on White River,
where we dismounted, sent horses home, and went by steamer to Memphis,
accompanied by General Hogg. (The battle of Shiloh was fought while we
were on this trip.) After the delay incident to the formation of the
brigade, getting up necessary supplies, etc., we were transported by
rail, in command of General Hogg, to Corinth, or rather we were dumped
off on the side of the railroad some two or three miles west of that
town. Here General Hogg remained in command of his brigade until he
was taken sick and removed by the assistance of our very efficient
surgeon, Dr. Wallace McDugald, attended by his negro body servant,
Bob ——, than whom a more devoted, a more faithful and trustworthy
slave never belonged to any man.
General Hogg was taken to a private house some two miles west of our
camp, where he had every necessary attention until his death. The
faithful Bob was with him all the time. Dr. McDugald turned his other
sick over to young Dr. Frazer, his assistant, and spent the most of
his time with the General,—was with him when he died,—giving to him
during his illness every medical care known to the science of his
profession.
Thomas E. Hogg also was frequently with his father—was there when he
passed away. I visited General Hogg only once during his illness, some
two or three days before his death. I was kept very busy during this
time, and owing to a change in our camps I had to ride six or seven
miles to see him, and only found one opportunity of doing so. I found
him as comfortably situated as could be expected for a soldier away
from home, and receiving every necessary attention.
I will state that General Hogg came to us neatly dressed in citizen’s
clothes—never having had an opportunity of procuring his uniform, so
that in fact he never wore the Confederate gray. He was not wounded,
was not under fire of the enemy; neither was his brigade, until the
battle of Farmington, which occurred the day that General Hogg died.
After his death and after the army was reorganized, “for three years
or during the war,” Dr. McDugald,—who afterwards married General
Hogg’s daughter,—Dr. I. K. Frazer, Thomas J. Johnson, one of the
General’s staff, Thomas E. Hogg, and the ever-faithful Bob all came
home, and of course related minutely to the widow, the two daughters,
and the three minor boys, John Lewis, and James Stephen, all the
circumstances of the sickness, the lamented death and burial of the
husband and father, Brigadier-General Joseph Louis Hogg.
Our camp was moved to a point about three miles east of Corinth.
Decherd, the quartermaster, resigned and W. F. Rapley was appointed
quartermaster by General Cabell. The rate at which our men fell sick
was remarkable, as well as appalling, and distressing in the extreme.
The water we had to drink was bad, very bad, and the rations none of
the best. The former we procured by digging for it; the earth around
Corinth being very light and porous, holding water like a sponge.
When we first went there the ground was full of water, and by digging
a hole two feet deep we could dip up plenty of a mean, milky-looking
fluid; but as the season advanced the water sank, so we dug deeper, and
continued to go down, until by the latter part of May our water holes
were from eight to twelve feet deep, still affording the same miserable
water. My horse would not drink a drop of the water the men had to use,
and if I failed to ride him to a small running branch some two miles
away he would go without drinking. The rations consisted mainly of
flour, made into poor camp biscuit, and the most unpalatable pickled
beef.
As fared General Hogg and his staff, so fared all the new troops who
saw their first service at Corinth. While many of the old troops were
taken sick, it was much worse with the new. We had one or two new Texas
regiments come into our brigade, whose first morning report showed 1200
men able for duty; two weeks from that day they could not muster more
than 200 men able to carry a musket to the front. The sick men were
shipped in carload lots down the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, some dying on
the trains, and hundreds of others succumbing at the different towns
and stations where they were put off along down that road south of
Corinth. It seemed impossible for the surgeons and their assistants
properly to care for the number of sick on their hands. Day after day
as I passed the Mobile & Ohio depot, I saw scores of the poor sick
fellows on the platform waiting to be hauled off. On the day we left
Corinth I passed Booneville, a station ten miles below Corinth, and
here were perhaps fifty sick men lying in the shade of the trees and
bushes. One of the attendants with whom I was acquainted told me he had
just returned from a tramp of two or three miles, after water for a
wounded man. At every house he came to the well buckets had been taken
off and hid, and he finally had to fill his canteen with brackish pond
water. Why these sick men had been put off here in the woods, when the
station was the only house in sight, where they could not even get a
drink of water, I do not know. The mere recollection of those scenes
causes a shudder to this day. I was told that two dead men were lying
on the platform at Booneville, and a Federal scouting party burned the
station during the day. If it was true, they were cremated.
As for myself, I was sick, but was on duty all the time. I performed
all the active duties of the brigade quartermaster, being compelled
to go to Corinth and back from one to three times daily, looking
after forage and other supplies; carried all orders and instructions
to the regimental quartermasters; superintended the moving of the
trains whenever and wherever they had to be moved; and, in fact, almost
lived in my saddle. But, with the exception of two or three nights
spent with the troops at the front, when the day’s duties were over, I
was comfortably situated at headquarters, having a good wall tent, a
cot, and camp-stool, and was kindly treated by General Cabell and the
members of his staff. Dr. S. J. Lewis of Rusk was our brigade surgeon,
and did everything he could for my comfort and, had I been well, my
position would have been as pleasant as I could have desired in the
army, as my duties mainly involved active horseback exercise, while
my personal surroundings were very agreeable. Nevertheless, I lost my
appetite so completely that I was unable to eat any of the rations that
were issued to the army. I could no more eat one of our biscuits than I
could have eaten a stone, and as for the beef, I could as easily have
swallowed a piece of skunk. The mere sight of it was nauseating. Had I
not been at headquarters doubtless I would have starved to death, since
there we were able to get a ham or something else extra occasionally,
and I managed to eat, but barely enough to keep soul and body together.
Dr. Lewis saw me wasting away from day to day, and advised me to take
a discharge—and quit the service; but this I declined to do. I paid
General Hogg a short visit one afternoon during his illness, and
another afternoon I rode over to Colonel Bedford Forrest’s camp, to
see my brother and some other Huntsville, Ala., friends. I found that
my brother had gone, on sick leave, with Wallace Drake, one of his
comrades, to some of Drake’s relatives, down the railroad. With these
exceptions I was not away from my post at any time. I must have gained
some reputation for efficiency, as the quartermaster of our Arkansas
regiment offered to give me half his salary if I would assist him in
his office.
All the time we were at Corinth Major-General Halleck, with a large
army, was moving forward from Pittsburgh Landing, on the Tennessee
River, near the Shiloh battlefield, by regular approaches. That is, he
would construct line after line of intrenchments, each successive line
being a little nearer to us. Hence our troops were often turned out
and marched rapidly to the front, in expectation of a pitched battle
that was never fought, sometimes being out twenty-four hours. On one
occasion an active movement was made to Farmington in an effort to cut
off a division of the enemy that had ventured across Hatchie River,
and the move was so nearly successful that the enemy, to escape, had
to abandon all their camp equipage. On one of the days when our troops
were rushing to the front in expectation of a battle, I came up with an
old patriot marching along through the heat and dust under an umbrella,
while a stout negro boy walking by his side carried his gun. This was
the only man I saw during the war that carried an umbrella to fight
under. As the battle failed to come off that day, I had no opportunity
of learning how he would have manipulated the umbrella and gun in an
engagement.
After General Hogg’s death and the promotion of Colonel Louis Hebert
to brigadier-general, the Third Texas was transferred to Hebert’s
brigade, and I was temporarily separated from it. On May 8 our year’s
enlistment having expired, the men re-enlisted for three years, or
during the war, and the regiment was reorganized by the election of
regimental and company officers, when all the commissioned officers
not promoted in some way returned to Texas. Captain Robert H. Cumby,
of Henderson, was elected colonel, Captain H. P. Mabry, of Jefferson,
lieutenant-colonel, and our Captain J. J. A. Barker, major. James A.
Jones was elected captain of Company C, John Germany, first lieutenant,
William H. Carr and R. L. Hood, second lieutenants. I was not present
at the election. Dr. Dan Shaw, of Rusk County, was made surgeon of the
regiment.
Finally, on May 28, we received orders to strike tents and have the
trains ready to move. General Cabell came to my tent and advised me to
go to the hospital, but I insisted that I could make it away from there
on horseback. The next morning the trains were ordered out. Dr. Lewis,
having procured about eight ounces of whisky for me, I mounted my horse
and followed, resting frequently, and using the stimulant. About noon I
bought a glass of buttermilk and a small piece of corn bread, for which
I paid one dollar. This I enjoyed more than all the food I had tasted
for several weeks.
On the day of the evacuation of Corinth, May 29, the Third Texas,
being on outpost, was attacked by the enemy in force, and had quite
a sharp battle with them in a dense thicket of black jack brush,
but charged and gallantly repulsed them. Our new colonel and
lieutenant-colonel not being able for service, Major Barker had asked
our old Lieutenant-Colonel Lane to remain with us for the time, so the
regiment was commanded by him and Major Barker. The regiment sustained
considerable loss in this affair, in killed and wounded. Among the
killed was my friend, the gallant young Major J. J. A. Barker; our
orderly sergeant, Wallace Caldwell, was mortally wounded, and John
Lambert disabled, so that he was never fit for service again. For the
gallant conduct of the regiment on this occasion, General Beauregard
issued a special order complimenting the Third Texas, and specially
designating a young man by the name of Smith, from Rusk County. Smith
in the charge through the brush found himself with an empty gun
confronting a Federal with loaded musket a few feet from him. The
Federal threw his gun down on him and ordered him to surrender. Smith
told him he would see him in Hades first, and turned to move off when
the fellow fired, missed his body, but cut one of his arms off above
the elbow, with a buck and ball cartridge. This was the kind of pluck
that General Beauregard admired.[1] On that day the entire army was
withdrawn and moved out from Corinth and vicinity. The manner and
complete success of this movement of General Beauregard’s has been very
highly complimented by military critics.