Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

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Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862–1867
He and the balance of the regiment moved along the track. The defenders saw the
men on the track at some distance and began firing but abandoned their position
hastily when the troopers in the swamp opened fire and Cook led a charge across
the trestle. The retreating Confederates left three dead behind; the 3d USCC’s
casualties amounted to three men wounded. Stuffing the trestle with dry underbrush,
the victors poured kerosene over it and set it alight. Soon after they left to
rejoin the main body of the expedition, Confederate cavalry arrived and put out
the blaze. 90
Osband’s expedition made its way to Yazoo City, arriving there on 29 November.
While the Union troops marched west, the Confederates who had put
out the fire—a small force of Arkansas and Mississippi cavalry and mounted infantry—repaired
the bridge across the Big Black and crossed it in pursuit. As the
Union troops rested their horses on 30 November, the Confederates drew near
Yazoo City. Their willingness to engage the Union pickets that day and the next
convinced Osband that he faced a much stronger force than was present. Since
his own stock of ammunition was low—the 3d USCC alone had fired ten thousand
rounds during its assault on the bridge—he ferried his own troops across the
Yazoo River during the night of 1–2 December on a single boat, taking sixteen
hours to move a dozen horses and men at a time. The entire expedition returned
to Vicksburg by steamer on 4 December. 91
Despite his raid’s end in retreat and disengagement, Osband described it
as successful. His troops, he wrote, had destroyed bridges and thirty miles of
railroad that earlier in the week had carried three trainloads of infantry north
to join Hood’s Confederate army on its way to attack Nashville. Union generals
did not know that the attack on the bridge had failed to destroy it when they
issued congratulatory orders a few days afterward. General Dana in Vicksburg
called the charge across the trestle “one of the most dashing and heroic acts of
the war,” and recommended Major Cook’s promotion to lieutenant colonel. At
his headquarters in New Orleans, Maj. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby approved the
promotion, subject to presidential approval. The most striking aspect of these
jubilant reports is that they did not mention the race of the men who captured the
bridge, other than to name their regiment. In some parts of the Army, at least, it
seemed no longer necessary to exclaim at black soldiers’ good performance. It
had become a matter of course, to be expected more often than not. 92
Two days after Osband’s expedition returned to Vicksburg, General Halleck
ordered General Dana at Memphis to move against the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.
General Grant, supervising siege operations in Virginia but responsible besides
for Union land operations across the country, had begun pondering the Mobile
and Ohio a few weeks after the Confederate withdrawal from Atlanta. Late
in the fall, with Hood’s army advancing north toward Nashville, Grant wanted to
do “as much damage as possible” to the line. Dana sought a delay. He had only
a thousand troopers at Memphis, he told Halleck, and their horses were in poor
90 OR, ser. 1, vol. 45, pt. 1, pp. 779–82, 785; Main, Third United States Colored Cavalry, pp.
200–202.
91 OR, ser. 1, vol. 45, pt. 1, pp. 782, 785–86; Main, Third United States Colored Cavalry, p. 203.
92 OR, ser. 1, vol. 45, pt. 1, pp. 777, 779, 782 (quotation, p. 779).