I can't remembr if I have posted this somewhere else in here; so my apologies if it is a repeat.
In April of 1863 General William S. Rosecrans of the Union Army was getting worried. He had begun to believe that he was outnumbered in Middle Tennessee. Despite the fact that his forces stood at a little over 80,000 men as compared to Braxton Bragg's 49,000; he was convinced that he was outnumbered. "I am not , as you know, an alarmist," he wired his superior, General Halleck,, "but I do not think it will do to risk as we did before."
General Buck Van Dorn of the confederate cavalry with the aid of Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had recently been added to his force, had defeated Colonel John Coburn at Thompson's station capturing some 1221 prisoners and Coburn himself. Coburn had planned on uniting with Phil Sheridan and his forces out of Franklin directly south of Nashville. They never made the junction as Van Dorn and Forrest combined for a sudden swift victory. Sheridan's troops, hearing the boom of cannon, had pulled back towards Murfreesboro and out of danger or the day could have been much worse for Rosecrans.
Colonel Abel D. Streight, New York born commander of a regiment of Hoosier infantry, proposed to Rosecrans that a large body of mounted men, say 2000, be mounted for a quick and devastating raid into the unprotected vitals of the South. Rosecrans, who had been on the receiving end of more than one of these raids by Forrest and others was delighted at the chance to relieve the pressure he was facing since he was sure that he was outnumbered. He was convinced that such an action would effectively force Forrest and maybe even Bragg himself to fall back and defend the unprotected area of North Alabama and Northeastern Georgia. Rosecrans gave his approval to Streight's plan and assigned him an additional 3 regiments of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois infantry. He also assigned him two companies of Alabama Unionists or "homemade Yankees" as their compatriots knew them. Being familiar with the territory they would traverse on their way to their objective, a cannon foundry and iron works in Rome, Georgia; they would be a vital part of the mission.
One of the problems with the plan showed itself immediately. There simply weren't enough horses available to mount the men. A mounted cavalry raid without horses is a difficult proposition but Streight was so sure of the genius of his plan that he agreed to use the only mounts available, mules. He rationalized this substitution with the observation that "mules were not only more sure footed, they were more intelligent than horses as well." Being from New York, this may have seemed rational but one can only wonder what the boys from Alabama that were going on this mission thought of the substitution. Mules may be smarter than horses but the saying of "smart as a mule" isn't very well known in the south while every farm boy knows that "stubborn as a mule" is not an idle supposition. The second fly in the ointment was that there were only enough mules to mount 900 of the 2000 troops. Rosecrans explained that they could commandeer enough animals from "southern sympathizers" on the way to their starting point in the northeast corner of Mississippi to mount all the men.
Streight, his men, and his quartermaster mules boarded transports and steamed down the Cumberland to Palmyra where they disembarked for their march to Fort Henry. The march was in reality a horse stealing expedition and was fairly successful. The navy ship that was supposed to carry them from Fort Henry to Eastport was late so he was already 3 days behind schedule. Further complicating matters, it was discovered that a goodly portion of the mules were sick with distemper while many others were young and unbroken colts. He found that his converted infantrymen "were at first easily dismounted, frequently in a most undignified and unceremonious manner." The foraging or "horse stealing" march had netted them some five hundred animals, which more than made up for the one hundred or so sick mules that died on the way.
After arriving at Eastport, he went to General Grenville M. Dodge's headquarters to discuss their plans. Dodge had brought a 7500 man infantry column over from Corinth to serve as a blind for the departure of the cavalry raid. When Streight returned to his headquarters late that night he discovered that some 400 of the remaining mules had escaped from their crudely made corral and were roaming the countryside braying loudly in shrill tones that must have sounded much like laughter in the stillness of the night to the enraged Streight.
Streight lost two more days rounding up some 200 of the escaped mules (the rest were never recovered). He made up the rest by borrowing enough animals out of Dodge's pack animal train to mount his men and got underway on April 22, already 5 days behind schedule before he even started.
He reached Tuscumbia, Alabama on the 24th and called a 2 day rest halt before resuming his march at 11 PM on the 26th. During the rest, he culled some 500 men from his command for various reasons, not the least of which was that some of the men had neglected to hobble their mules and they were again roaming the countryside in force, with loud braying protests at their forced enlistment in the cavalry.
By the 29th ,after 2 more days of travel in rain, he was camped at Day's Gap, a narrow defile piercing a lofty ridge at the beginnings of the Appalachians. He was halfway to his destination and was out of the flatlands where cover was scarce. The next morning the sun came out brightly and they renewed their march confident, dry and secure in the knowledge that they were completely undetected by the Confederates. At least they believed they were undetected. As Streight neared the crest of the gap he heard the unmistakable sound of cannon and musketry in his rear.
It was Forrest. He had received word of Dodge's movements at Spring Hill, Tennessee and had covered 140 miles in the last 4 days. He had correctly discerned the danger of Streight and his 2000 man detachment and had not been fooled by Dodge's movements. He had divided his forces at Town Creek to cover any possible movements by Dodge and driven towards where he thought Streight would be. By this time he had some 1000 men to Streight's 1500 and had traveled many miles in a short time but he had caught Streight's rear and he determined to hang onto it.
Streight and his men were cutting a swath of horse thieving across the country-side and were steadily replacing the mules with fresh horses from the unpicked over part of the South they were traveling through. He had Forrest outnumbered and had the advantage in the hilly terrain of turning back in ambush at numerous good locations.
The first such ambush shortly beyond Day's Gap captured two 12-pound howitzers under the command of Lieutenant Wills Gould, and wounded Forrest's brother, Captain William Forrest. Forrest arrived on the scene in time to fly into a towering rage that 2 of his guns had been lost. He ordered the men to dismount and tie their horses to the saplings in the thin piney woods. He raged at the men and told them that "didn't need to leave anyone to hold the horses because they would have no need of horses if they didn't get his guns back." The battle lasted until 11 that morning but Streight slipped off with the bulk of his men.
Forrest kept up the pressure and Streight was forced to deploy and fight again at a ridge known as Hog Mountain. From an hour before dark until after 10 PM the two sides engaged in a brisk firefight. Forrest ordered his men to "shoot at anything blue and keep up the scare." The battle lasted until late into the night and Forrest himself, in the thickest part of the fighting as usual, had 3 horses shot from under him. Streight once again slipped away with the bulk of his force during a lull in the action but Forrest recovered the guns the loss of which had so angered him.
Forrest, once again was compelled to divide his force and send part of his men back towards Town Creek to make sure that Dodge had not attacked the drastically weaker force in his front and was not in fact coming up behind him. He need not have worried as Dodge had almost immediately after the departure of Streight headed back to Corinth, alarmed at unconfirmed reports of "that devil Forrest" operating in his rear.
Streight continued across Alabama, periodically laying ambushes for Forrest. The battle continued through Blountsville, Gadsden, Turkeytown and across the Warrior River. Forrest, for his part, continued the attack against the superior force in his front. Streight's men were not allowed any respite as one ambush after another failed. They burned a bridge at the Coosa river and Forrest, with the aid of a young sixteen year old girl named Emma Samson found a ford nearby and continued the attack. At Blount's plantation they lay another ambush at night and Streight's second in command, Colonel Hathaway, was killed. Streight and his men set another ambush in a thicket a half mile to the rear and it too failed when Forrest discovered it and started a flanking move around it.
Streight sent Captain Milton Russell with 200 of his best mounted men ahead to Rome with orders for them to seize the bridge across the Oostenhaula River there and hold it until the command could come up.
After another delaying battle at Centre, Streight and his men reached the ferry across the Chattooga River, only to discover that Captain Russell had neglected to leave a guard and local citizens had spirited the ferry away. He turned north towards a bridge at Gaylesville some eight miles upstream. The timber in the area had all been cut and burned for charcoal to supply the nearby Round Mountain Iron Furnace which made charcoal pig for the foundry at Rome. The old "choppings" were a maze of converging wagon tracks around piles of underbrush and unused tree limbs and in the confusion of the night many of the men wandered lost and confused for hours. It was daylight by the time the command made it across Dyke's bridge before burning it and pushed on to Cedar Bluff. There his exhausted men collapsed all along the roadside and he determined to rest and provision the men. At 9 oclock that morning, Sunday, May 3rd he halted at the plantation of Mrs. Lawrence in Cherokee County, Alabama. He was 20 miles from his destination.
Meanwhile, Captain Russell and his men arrived at Rome. At least close enough to see it through their field glasses. Forrest had sent messengers north from Gadsden and around Streight's command to Rome. He had correctly guessed it to be their destination and warned the people of Rome of their approach. When they arrived they could see the barricades of cotton bales and wagons that the home guard had erected at the approach to the city. They questioned several local people they found in the area and were told that Rome was "full of rebels." Ascertaining that it was useless to attack under these conditions, they turned back to warn Streight.
Forrest had rested most of his force the night before while a small contingent attacked the rear of Streight's dazed and exhausted force as they made their way through the "choppings" around the furnace at Round Mountain. The next morning, his men somewhat refreshed, Forrest forded the river near where the burned out remains of Dyke's Bridge were and managed to drag two cannon across the river with teams of horses and long ropes. They dragged the guns across the bottom of the river in a method they had become adept at while chasing Streight and his command across the state. They arrived in front of Streight's drawn up forces shortly after he arrived at the plantation.
Streight "found it impossible to keep the men awake long enough to be fed." When his pickets were driven in shortly thereafter "a large portion of my best troops actually went to sleep while lying in line of battle under a severe skirmish fire."
Forrest, by this time had fewer than 600 men in his command. While he was not sure of Streight's strength, he knew it exceeded his own. He sent Captain Henry Pointer of his staff forward with a flag of truce to demand immediate surrender "to stop the further and useless effusion of blood."
Streight had captured a Sergeant William Haynes of the Fourth Tennessee the day before and had closely questioned him on Forrest's numbers. Haynes had assured Streight that Forrest had not only his own brigade, but also Roddey's and Armstrong as well as one or two others. He received word back from Captain Russell that Rome was too strongly fortified to be taken and his own regimental commanders urged him to hold a conference with Forrest and ask for terms.
Forrest came forward and they met in a small little patch of woods on a ridge overlooking another ridge shortly in their front that eased down into a small hollow out of sight of the ridge they were standing on. Streight refused to surrender unless Forrest could demonstrate that he was indeed forced with a superior force. Forrest refused and again asked for his immediate and unconditional surrender. At this juncture Ferrell's battery, with it's two guns that had been dragged across the bottom of the Chattooga river that morning topped the ridge behind Forrest. Streight protested against movement of troops near the ridge where a flag of truce was in affect and Forrest ordered Captain Pointer to order the artillery back.
The two guns did go back, back around the edge of the ridge out of sight of the hill where negotiations were being conducted and then back over the same ridge they had just cleared. They carried out this maneuver the whole time the conference was going on.
Forrest was standing with his back to the ridge while he watched Streight during the negotiations count the guns as they circled and reappeared with different teams pulling them.
"Name of God! How many guns have you got? There's fifteen I've counted already!" Streight exclaimed.
Forrest slowly turned his head in the direction of the ridge and said, "I reckon that's all that kept up……" He periodically during the conference gave Captain Porter orders for dispositions of a large imaginary command and Biffle and McLemore, off the flanks, marched their men around and around the conical hills in their front.
Streight, in the face of such overwhelming forces, and with an exhausted and dispirited command surrendered on the condition that his men would be treated as prisoners of war and that his officers be allowed to keep their side arms and personal baggage. Forrest agreed.
The prisoners surrendered at Lawrence plantation numbered 1,266. With Russell's men, who surrendered on their march back from Rome; the total came to almost 1,500 men that surrendered that day to Forrest and his 600.
The two commands had fought constantly in a running battle over some 100 miles of mountainous terrain, riddled with rivers and large creeks. They had done so in a space of 4 days and nights of almost continuous running battles.
Forrest was beginning to take on an almost mythical reputation as "the wizard of the saddle."
blackirish
Bringing the