rear, proposing to strike him at daylight. The enemy, it seems, ascertaining in some way the proximity of a larger force than he expected to encounter, left his camp during the night (not withdrawing his pickets), taking the direction of Rockyford, on the Tallahatchie river. He was overtaken by the advance of my troops under Colonel Bartean and Captain Earle (who marched all night), and attacked in the cane-brake swamp of the "Atchchubby-paliah," before reaching the Tallahatchie. Arriving on the field with the main body, and after a conflict of three hours, the enemy was entirely routed and driven from an exceedingly strong position, in dense swamps, and behind almost impassable creeks. Near fifty of his killed have been found in these thickets, a few are prisoners, the remainder fled in confusion, barely saving his artillery, losing caissons, and nearly all of his baggage and ammunition train. The pursuit was continued to the Tallahatchie, at Rockyford.
Colonel Phillips, in command of the enemy's troops, had with him the Ninth Illinois, Tenth and Eleventh Missouri, and Fifth Ohio regiments, with two companies of Tories, mounted infantry and cavalry, numbering over a thousand men, one Parrott gun and one twelve-pounder howitzer, and had moved out to co-operate with other forces of the enemy near the Central railroad.[1]
I was much gratified with the conduct of officers and men who engaged the enemy with vigor and determination, and after final dispositions were made, gave evidence of their ability to drive greater numbers than were then opposed to them from the field.
Colonel Bartean's Second Tennessee, Colonel Boyle's First Alabama, and Captain Earle's Second Alabama regiments of cavalry vied with each other in pressing the enemy home, while Captain Owen's light battery and First Lieutenant Holt's Williams guns[2] swept the cane brakes and jungles with marked effect.
But for the difficulty in obtaining guides in the dense thickets, extending some miles, a flank movement would have been made to the right, by which the enemy's rear might have been gained, resulting unquestionably in the destruction or capture of his entire force.[3]
- ↑ From subsequent representations, deemed authentic, Colonel Phillips' Federal force numbered between sixteen hundred and two thousand well appointed veteran troops on the field.
- ↑ Four prairie guns, from which the Gatling gun partially springs, apparently, by Darwinian derivation, designed for cavalry service in the field.
- ↑ It has been stated that Colonel Phillips had two companies of Tories, and the fact is noteworthy, that in the extended field of our operations there were many disaffected people, as well as many practicing neutrality, impeding, when not absolutely obstructing Confederate operations in the field.
