OBITUARY – GENERAL HOOD
The latest papers give the sad news of the death of
Gen. John B. Hood, who departed this life at New Orleans, August
30th. The gallant
and chivalrous soldier of the “Lost Cause” who had faced the “lethal hail”
of many bloody fields has fallen beneath the withering breath of the
direst pestilence that has ever afflicted our sunny land. He a true type of the martial
South has been a shining victim to all the woes to which we have been
subjected since the fiery cross of war passed through our afflicted
country. With a body
shattered by the rude strokes of war and broken fortune, and all the
desponding influences that could appall the heart of man, he has struggled
on through glint and gloom patiently, steadily and heroically, and with
the same intrepidity that marked him when he led his veterans to the
harvest of death upon many a stricken field. No truer heart ever beat in man’s
bosom. A more heroic soul
never animated the body of a hero, and a braver Knight never won his spurs
upon the “battles’ bloody marge.” Though he has been the
theme of military criticism and the war’s disasters have been laid at his
door, there is not a censor of his military actions can point to a single
act in which the typical character of the southern cavalier has not been
upheld in all the true faith of manhood and martial heroism. No abbey walls may shed their
stately gloom over his mail clad effigy, no pride, pomp and circumstance
of glorious war will throng his sad march to the grave. But the luminous pages of history
will tell how the “Lone Star” blazed in glory when the chivalrous Hood led
his gallant Texans through the reeling strife of battle. Though in the close of his
military career defeat and disaster paled his glorious star, yet all who
knew his many worth, his devoted, and fiery valor will sign when they
know, “Young Harry Percy’s spur is cold.”
(Vernon Clipper, Sept 12, 1879)
“OLD
FORREST”
THE BATTLE OF TISHMINGO CREEK. “YOU CAN’T WHIP OLD
FORREST.”
We copy the following from a speech of GEN. CHALMERS, before the
Southern Historical Society, on the splendid military career of GEN
FORREST.
FORREST reached Tupelo, Mississippi on the 5th of
May, 1864, and was busily engaged in reorganizing his command, now
considerably increased by recruits and the addition of GEN. GHOLSON’S
brigade.
On the 26th, by order of GEN. S. D. LEE, department
commander, CHALMER’S with MCCULLOCH’s and NEELY’S brigades were ordered to
Monte Vallo,
Alabama, to protect the
iron-works of that region. On
the 31st FORREST started with BUFORD’S division to Tuscumbia to
assist RODDY in meeting a movement in that quarter, and had reached
Russellville, Alabama when he received information that STURGIS,
with eight thousand infantry, five thousand cavalry and six batteries were
moving from Memphis into Mississippi, parallel with the Memphis and Charleston railroad. FORREST began at once to
concentrate his scattered command.
RUCKER, from Oxford, with three
small regiments, was thrown across the Tallahatchie at New Albany, and
commenced to retard the enemy’s advance. This little brigade, under RUCKER,
who was second only to FORREST as a fearless fighter – composed of three
regiments, under three dashing young Colonels, DUFF, BILL TAYLOR, and
ALEXANDER CHALMERS – was highly complimented by FORREST for his gallantry
in performing his duty. On
the 9th FORREST took position with two brigades of BUFORD’S
division, JOHNSON”S brigade of CHALMER’S division, and RUCKER’S brigade of
CHALMER’S division, east of the Hatchie, near Rienzi, to dispute the
passage of STURGIS, over that river, supposing he was moving to reinforce
SHERMAN in Georgia. The
scouts now reported STURGIS moving south toward FORREST’S camp at Tupelo. CHALMERS, with two brigades, was
then at Monte Vallo, Alabama; RODDY, with one brigade, near Tuscumbia;
GHOLSON, with one brigade, near Jackson, Mississippi. GEN. S. D. LEE, now in command,
determined to fall back toward Okalona until he could concentrate his
foress, and left that night by rail, after ordering FORREST to get in
front of STURGIS and retard his advance. FORREST moved before day to take
position at Bryce’s cross-roads, on a dividing ridge where the waters of
the Hatchie rise and run north and of the Tallahatchie rise and run south,
and when in for miles of that place he learned that the enemy had already
occupied it and were now between him and his headquarters at
Tupelo.
He had with him there his three smallest brigades, the effective
strength of which at that time he reported as follows: LYONS’, eight
hundred; RUCKER’S, seven hundred; while BUFORD, with BELL’S brigade, about
fifteen hundred strong, and two batteries of artillery, were some distance
in the rear. Ordering them to
move instantly up, which they did, coming eight miles in a gallop, he
moved forward with the men he had and opened the fight, and at the same
time ordered BUFORD to send one regiment across the country to attack the
enemy in the rear. The
battles raged fiercely for some hours, with doubtful success, and eight
hundred federals and six hundred and forty confederates fell dead and
wounded around Bryce’s house.
One peculiarity of FORREST’S fighting was his almost reckless use
of artillery, and on this occasion he had eight pieces of artillery that
were boldly handled by CAPTAIN MARTIN, a beardless youth, with the face of
a woman and the courage of a lion.
The federals made several splendid charges, that were repulsed at
short range by the artillery, double-shotted with cannister. The confederates insist that both
the federal infantry and cavalry were in this fight. The federal cavalry officers who
censured STURGIS say they had cavalry alone, and that instead of falling
back with his cavalry on to his infantry, prepared in line, he undertook
to hold the position with his cavalry and bring up his infantry five or
more miles at double-quick, and that they arrived broken down and unformed
just as the cavalry were driven back on them, and all went pell mell
together. Be this as it may,
when FORREST captured Bryce’s house, the enemy’s infantry in column were
in full view coming up. He
turned loose on them his own eight pieces of artillery and six more just
captured, and about that time BARTIAN’S regiment struck them in the rear,
and the flight commenced.
A more terrific pursuit was never seen. The negroes had been sworn on
their knees in line before starting from Memphis to show no quarter to
FORREST’S men, and on their shirts and banners was inscribed, “Remember
Fort Pillow.” This had a
double effect; it made the federals afraid to surrender, and infuriated
FORREST’S men; and it is said that nineteen hundred were killed in this
pursuit, which was continued sixty miles. The exact truth as to this flight
will, perhaps, never be known; but taking either the federal or
confederate accounts of it, it was the most brilliant victory of the war
on either side. FORREST
reports his force at thirty-two hundred cavalry and eight pieces of
artillery. The federal report
places STURGIS; force at thirty-three hundred cavalry, fifty-four hundred
infantry and seventeen pieces of artillery. With a superior force of cavalry,
hi might well have expected to hold, with them alone, his position, well
selected at Bryce’s cross-roads, until his infantry could come up. STURGIS was as much astonished at
his defeat as any one, and was so terribly mortified that when A. J. SMITH
moved our after FORREST, a confidential spy from Memphis reported that
STURGIS was sitting in a hotel soliloquizing, “It can’t be don, sir!” and
when asked what could not be done he said “They c-a-n-‘t whip old
FORREST!”
In this battle two thousand prisoners were taken, all the artillery
(seventeen pieces), the whole ordinance train, well supplied with
ammunition and many articles of value to us; the ambulance and wagon
train, filled with most acceptable supplies, especially coffee, which the
hungry Confederates had not tasted for many
days.
GEN. SHERMAN, in a cipher dispatch, dated June 20, 1864, says: “He whipped STURGIS fair and
square, and now I will put him against A. J. SMITH and MOVER, and let them
try their hand.” By this
victory FORREST no only saved Columbus and
the rich prairie of Mississippi again,
but he saved Mobile also by the withdrawal of A. J.
SMITH’S division, which had been ordered to its
attack.
ROAMER says: “From
that great day when in person ALEXANDER led the Macedonian horse, he ranks
the first of cavalry general of all times, and the tactics there displayed
were in every respect the same which now received the sanction of modern
science – sudden deployment and bold attack, outflanking the enemy’s
wings, dividing the enemy’s forces, rallying, attacking the rear,
supporting the menaced point, and to crown all, a pursuit of six hundred
stadia (seventy-five miles) in twenty-four hours. Never was there a greater
achievement in ancient or modern
warfare.”
When a new edition of ROEMER’S work on cavalry is written it is to
be hoped that the battle of “Tishomingo Creek,” or “Bryce’s Cross-roads,”
as the federals call it, will not be forgotten, where the battle was
fought and a pursuit of sixty miles made all in thirty
hours.
It has been said that FORREST was uneducated, and this is true; but
his ideas, when properly clothed in correct language, were pointed and
strong, and he was exceedingly tenacious that his own ideas, and most
those of the writer, should be expressed by those who wrote for him. His strong and touching final
address to his troops, though shaped by another, was his own creation, and
he felt all that the language imported when he said: “Civil war, such as you have just
passed through, naturally engenders feelings of animosity, hatred and
revenge. It is our duty
to divest ourselves of all
such feelings, and as far as in our power to do so, to cultivate friendly
feelings toward those with whom we have so long contended and heretofore
so widely differed. Neighborhood fends, personal animosities and private
differences should be blotted out, and when you return home a manly,
straightforward course of conduct will secure the respect of even your
enemies. Whatever your
responsibilities may be to government, to society, or to individuals, meet
them like me. ****** I have never on the field of battle sent you where I
was unwilling to go myself, nor would I now advise you to a course which I
felt myself unwilling to pursue.
You have been good soldiers; you can be good citizens. Obey the laws, preserve your
honor, and the government to which you have surrendered can afford to be
and will be magnanimous. ”Like the cause he loved, he is dead. In coming years, when the
bitterness of strife has passed away; when that mystic harp, whose chords
connect the graves of the dead with the hearts of the living, shall
vibrate the music of a restored union, and some blind old bard shall sing
the praises of American heroes while eager children listen to their deeds
of valor, the story of none will awaken loftier feelings of emulation than
----“FORREST, the wizard of the saddle.” (Vernon Clipper, Sept 26,
1879)
