The Capture of Eli Lilly founder of Eli Lilly and Co

[richard]

If you will bear with me, I would like to share with you a talk that will be given to the Greencastle CWRT this month. The talk is about a little known part of Eli Lilly’s civil war service.

Up until three years ago, I had no idea the Lilly had been in the civil war. None of this his contributions can be found in the history books used in Indiana Schools. I found out about part of his service while reading “That Terrible Sound”, a wonderful description of the Battle of Chickamauga. Even though I had lived and went to college in Chattanooga, I had no idea that he was even in the war.

His story of founding and service in the 18th Indiana Light Artillery is well documented in several books. But, his service in the 9th Indiana Cavalry is not well known. I hope that you will enjoy this short snippet of a relative unimportant part of the war in the west.

[richard]

April of 1864 found Eli Lilly faced with the task of helping organize a new cavalry regiment in Indiana. Along With Col George W. Jackson, commander of the regiment, it was raised and was sent south to Nashville in May. Arriving in Nashville, the regiment found it’s self unmounted. Lack of horses had always been a major factor for Lilly since his days with Wilder. The regiment was moved further south to be stationed at Pulaski. There about 70% of the available horses were given to the 9th Indiana. The rest of the 9th were assigned guard duty along the rail road from Pulaski and to the north. Along with other members of the regiment, Lilly spent a great deal of time pressing horses from the country side for duty in the regiment. Wm. Dubois reported that Lilly passed by the block house at Linnville on August 21st searching for horses. This was something he had done while helping General Wilder while stationed at Murfreesboro in the winter of 1862 and ’63. General John Stark weather, commander of the post at Pulaski at the end of June had 2212 cavalrymen and only 536 horses

[richard]

Near the last of August, it was reported that General Wheeler and General Roddy had been planning raids on the trestle at Elk River and at Sulphur Trestle. Meanwhile. Forrest had been ordered to proceed to Mobile. At *******n Miss. Forrest’s train had been stopped by General Richard Taylor. Taken to Taylor, Forrest was informed that he was to carry out his plans for a raid on the railroads in Middle Tennessee. The object of this raid was to try and draw Sherman back up from Atlanta. After being assured of how his force was going to be supplied, Forrest returned north to formulate his plan and prepare for its execution.

[gary]

Richard, I'd love to attend, but the commute is a bit far from San Francisco. Any talks going on between Oct 11-17? Conner Prairie has its Arms Making Workshop and I might be able to attend.

[larry_cockerham]

Richard, you have my attention and interest! Please continue. GG Grandpa James Patterson Cockerham received broken ribs while shoeing a horse at Tullahoma about June 1, 1864 and was then taken to Pulaski. The 10th TN US was 'under-horsed' as well. It's possible JP crossed the path of Eli Lilly sometime in his travels.

[richard]

From the history of the 9th Indiana Cavalry: " On Sunday September 2, 1864 at 8 am, pursuant to orders, the regiment marched out on the Nashville Pike....The moverment was occasioned by reports to teh effect that Wheeler with a considerable body was in the neighorhood with the purpose of destroying the railroad."

When they were about 6 miles out of Pulaski, a messenger arrived and reported that at Lynnville, the rebels were in town with a heavy force.

Lilly was ordered to take a column of about seventy men to releave the men at Lynnville. "Advancing at a galllop...about 3/4 to 1/2 a mile from town, from a slight elevation, a full view was obtained of rebels. Halting for a moment, Major Lilly ordered a charge to be made with the sabre.... The orders ' forward , trot, gallop, charge' were given in quick succession and in a moment all were hidden in a cloud of dust."

When the column was about a 1/4 of a mile from the confederates, they broke and ran. The confederate cavalry that was in Lynnville proved to be men from the 3rd and 4th Georga Cavalry.

In there haste go get away, the confederates threw away there guns, blankets, haversacks and muster rolls and what else they could.

During the night, Wheeler and his estimated 8000 men and his battery of Light artillery, moved in the direction of Lawerenceburg. General Rousseau was pressing Wheeler near his rear and left flank. The 9th was ordered back to Pulaski. On Monday evening the 3rd, the 9th was ordered to Lawerenceburg to try and head off Wheeler if possible. General Rousseau was pressing Wheeler hard.

[richard]

From the History of the 9th Indiana Cavalry: “The 9th reached Lawrenceburg at about 7 am on the 4th of September just in time to see the 9th Ohio Cavalry assist Wheeler’s rear guard out of town. At about 10 am, the 10th Indiana Cavalry engaged with the strong rear guard and drove them about two or three miles, when the 10th was turned back. Major Lilly, who was with General Granger when it was reported that the 10th had been turned back, requested of the General that he be permitted to take his battalion to the front.” Permission was granted and along with Col George Jackson, the rest of the regiment followed.

When they found the site of the engagement, Wheelers rear guard was on the uphill side of a narrow valley and the 10th was on the opposite side. Wheelers men welcomed the 9th with heavy fire but the fire was high and only hit the tree tops in front and beside them.

The rear guard then brought up some artillery and the 9th not wanting to fight it, took a short rest. “The offer of battle thus made by Wheeler to Granger was not accepted for reasons not known to this world”. It was just after Wheeler started to move away that the 10th Tennessee and the 12th Tennessee Union Cavalry arrived to relieve the 9th Indiana.

Next, Forrest's move from Mississippi

[richard]

As the month of September wore one, the rumors of Forrest became more and more frequent. Granger began to worry but the repeated assurances from Grant also kept coming. Finally, Granger could stand it no more. He began to send out scouting patrols on a daily basis.

On the 21 st of September, Forrest moved out of Cherokee station and headed for Florence, Alabama. After marching through the city to what looked like a victory celebration, Forrest crossed to the north side of the Tennessee River a short distance east of Florence. General Granger had ordered shallow draft gunboats up river but due to the low river stage, they were forced not to go further. Forrest had almost a free passage to the north side of the river.

Knowing that Decatur was a Union strong hold, Forrest marched his force of about 4500 men and Mortons 8 gun battery, toward an area just south of Athens, Alabama.

During this time General George Starkweather at Pulaski had ordered Col George Spalding of the 12thTennessee Cav with about 800 men south west toward Florance by the Lamb’s ferry road. General Granger at Decatur sent Col. John B. Minnis and his detachment of the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry, north from Athens to an area near Lexington, Al..
. Both men encountered elements of Forrest force. Col Spaulding captured 3 men and 5 wagons of Forrest train and Minnis reported Forrest and about 12,000 men on the Athens and Florence road. Both men sent messengers to Pulaski but they did not arrive until 2 pm on Saturday, September 24th.

[richard]

Before Dawn on Saturday Sept 23rd General Starkweather ordered Col. Pace of the 10 Indiana Cav and Major Lilly and his detachment of the 9th Indiana Cav south along the railroad to Elk River Bridge in response to reports that General Roddy was reported in the area. Lilly’s men consisted of 128 men and were issued 40 rounds of ammunition for there Gallagher carbines. Both units arrived at the Elk River Bridge in the afternoon. On Saturday, Lilly proceeded south in the direction of Sulphur Trestle. On the way, Lilly established a courier line back north, as the telegraph was dead.

[richard]

At the Fort at Sulphur Trestle, located 1 mile south of the present day town of Elkmont and about 10 miles from the bridge at Elk River and 30 miles from Pulaski, Lilly met with the commander of the fort and its two blockhouses. Col. William Lathrup, originally for Cincinnati, was in command of about 600 men of the 111 USCT stationed there. At about 4 pm, Lilly left the fort and headed south in the direction of Athens. Near Hay’s Mill, about 2 miles south of the fort, Lilly ran into Confederate Pickets and skirmished with them. While doing so, Lilly determined that they belonged to Forrest. Spotting the advancing column, about a mile long, Lilly disengaged and returned to the fort at Sulphur Trestle.

Minnis and his men had stopped at the fort earlier that day on there way back to Athens but finding there way blocked, had returned to the fort. Lilly arrived a short time later and sent his report up the courier line to General Rousseau in Nashville. Because of earlier reports, Rousseau had started to round up additional infantry to send forward to Pulaski but at the same time he had stopped all rail traffic south. General Starkweather at Pulaski, had also sent a message to Col Lathrup to hold the fort at all costs.