Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

Along the Mississippi River, 1863–1865 213
this time, the field officers of both black regiments were wounded and out of action,
leaving the senior captains in command, insofar as either regiment retained
any organization at all. The 55th USCI had about 200 men present of 604 that had
gone into action, the 59th about 250 of 607. Bouton decided to retreat. Along the
way, the men of the 59th picked up ammunition that had been thrown away by
stampeding white troops. By 11:00 p.m., when the remnant of Bouton’s brigade
caught up with the rest of Sturgis’ force, the regiment held an average of twentyfive
rounds per man. 60
This came in handy the next day, for the expedition had lost most of its supplies
on the day of the battle. Panic-stricken teamsters deserted their wagons, setting fire to
some of them. Burning and abandoned wagons blocked the federal retreat on the narrow,
muddy road to Ripley, but once Sturgis’ command had struggled past them, they
delayed the Confederate pursuit as well. The ammunition wagons fell into the hands
of Forrest’s cavalry. Men of the 55th USCI felt the loss keenly the next morning,
when the Confederates caught up with them near Ripley. “As our ammunition was
captured we were unable to stand even a test & made a hasty retreat,” the regiment’s
summary of the expedition recorded at the end of the month. “The enemy came on to
us with cavalry & scattered both officers and men all through the woods.” 61
Because of the headlong retreat, casualty lists were largely conjectural. “The
fighting was desperate, and many reported then ‘missing’ were killed on the field,”
one company commander reported; “but I am unable to tell which ones they were.
I think most of them were killed. . . . But we were obliged to leave our dead and
wounded. . . . Although about 10 wounded have come in [by 30 June] having hid
in the bushes and traveled nights living on berries and bark, and occasionally getting
food from colored people in the country. They were annoyed very much by
[civilians] with blood hounds.” Regimental descriptive books for the 55th and 59th
USCIs—volumes that contain each soldier’s record and were kept up-to-date until
the regiments mustered out after the war—show 7 missing men rejoining within a
few days after the battle, 12 rejoining between July and October, and 9 rejoining at
an unnamed or illegible date. Pvt. Claiborne Merriweather of the 59th USCI was last
seen firing a carbine that he had taken from a Confederate whom he had just beaten
to death with the butt of his rifle. Left behind in the retreat, Merriweather did not turn
up again for seven weeks. Pvt. Henry Guy had to escape from his captors twice, the
first time from the hospital where a Confederate surgeon treated his wounds, before
he was able to rejoin the 55th USCI at La Grange, Tennessee, late in August. 62
At least nineteen of Guy’s comrades waited until the war was over to rejoin.
These men had been taken prisoner and put in hospitals to recover from their wounds
or sent to Mobile to work on the city’s fortifications when Union forces occupied its
seaward approaches in August. After the forts on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay
fell in April 1865, the prisoners moved north to Montgomery, where they stayed
until after Confederate troops in the region surrendered the next month. Most of the
60 OR, ser. 1, vol. 39, pt. 1, p. 126 (quotation), 904; Cowden, Brief Sketch, pp. 98–99.
61 OR, ser. 1, vol. 39, pt. 1, pp. 115, 224; NA M594, roll 211, 55th USCI.
62 NA M594, roll 211, 55th USCI (“the fighting”); Regimental Books, 55th and 59th USCIs,
RG 94, NA; Declaration, Henry Guy, 7 Apr 1885, and Affidavit, Henry Guy, 27 Feb 1886, both in
Pension File WC571997, Henry Guy, CWPAF.