Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

Middle Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, 1863–1865 267
small brigades amounting to some seventeen hundred men, attacked three stations
within forty miles of Memphis. Neither raid did any lasting damage. 18
In mid-November, Confederate mounted troops throughout the region readied
themselves for another assault on the Union lines of communications. By the time
preparations were complete, Grant’s armies had broken the siege of Chattanooga
and driven Bragg’s troops into northern Georgia. Swollen rivers impeded the progress
of the Confederate cavalry, but the expedition was under way by the end of
the month. General Chalmers led three small brigades out of Oxford, Mississippi,
and on 4 December reached Moscow, Tennessee, on the Memphis and Charleston.
Chalmers told Col. Lawrence S. Ross and his Texans to burn the railroad bridge
that spanned the Wolf River. 19
The bridge guard at Moscow was the 2d Tennessee (AD), camped west of town
near where the railroad and a wagon road crossed the river. The regiment had mustered
in its last four companies as recently as late August, after an expedition returned
with two hundred ten recruits, but it had not been idle since. A bridge guard did not
lead a passive existence. It was responsible for detecting and suppressing enemy
activity, intercepting Confederate mail service, and capturing furloughed soldiers
during their visits home. Company G’s Record of Events, entered on the bimonthly
muster roll, described one capture tersely:
November 25 1863 Capt [Henry] Sturgis with 40 men from the company marched
to Macon Tenn, starting from camp at 6 o’clock P.M. Captured Lt [Joseph L.] Newborn,
13” Tenn Infty (Rebel) one Colts Navy Revolver, one Mule saddle & equipments.
Returned to camp at 4 o’clock A.M. November 26. Slight skirmishing while
returning. No loss. Distance marched twenty miles. 20
Just a week after Company G’s night march, a few Confederate cavalry
appeared in midafternoon, “dashing up on the gallop even to the bridge, and
firing on the pickets stationed there,” Col. Frank A. Kendrick reported. A local
Unionist had told Kendrick four days earlier that mounted Confederates were
on the move. Since then, the men of the regiment had been especially wary,
removing the planks of the wagon bridge and replacing them only when the
guard allowed traffic to approach. Unable to cross the dismantled bridge, the
Confederates rode off. 21
The next day, 4 December, heavy smoke appeared on the western horizon
not long after noon. Kendrick conferred with officers of the 6th Illinois Cavalry,
who arrived about that time in advance of a column moving to intercept
the Confederate force. They decided that the enemy must have avoided Moscow
and gone on toward La Fayette, some eight miles to the west. When the
18 OR, ser. 1, vol. 31, pt. 1, pp. 25–31, 242–54, and pt. 3, pp. 746–47; Robert C. Black III, The
Railroads of the Confederacy (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998 [1952]), pp.
5–6. 19 OR, ser. 1, vol. 31, pt. 1, pp. 589–90, and pt. 3, pp. 704–05, 865.
20 Ibid., pt. 3, p. 190; Maj E. R. Wiley Jr. to “Captain,” 24 Aug 1863, 61st USCI, Entry 57C, RG
94, NA; NA Microfilm Pub M594, Compiled Rcds Showing Svc of Mil Units in Volunteer Union
Organizations, roll 212, 61st USCI (quotation).
21 OR, ser. 1, vol. 31, pt. 1, p. 583 (“dashing up”), and pt. 3, p. 276.