Mississippi River traffic -- passengers

[DixieRifles]

For my study of the Battle of Fort Pillow, April 12, 1864, I would like to find details of the passengers and regiments that were traveling on the Mississippi River. I don't have experience with the Naval records and have not used the Naval OR's very much.

My first objective was to find a passenger manifest for the wounded that were transported by the Platte Valley to Mound City, IL. I contacted the author of "Tinclads in the Civil War" and he said that this information should be available in the archives. I don't know if this info is on the internet.

However, my question for now is an easy one.
Q: What artillery units were onboard the Olive Branch that departed Memphis on April 12th?
General George F. Shepley gave his testimony to the Congressional Investigation and said he was traveling from Vicksburg to Cairo. The Olive Branch, commanded by Captain Pegram, stopped at Memphis and loaded two artillery regiments. He testified that one was a Ohio regiment and one Missouri, both belonging to the 17th Army. Captain Charles C. G. Thornton gave testimony that he was on staff with General Shepley and reported the same thing and estimated a total of 120 men for both batteries. He also estimated 150 non-combatants were on board.

I thought that if I could identify what artillery batteries were on board, then I may be able to find some more first-hand accounts of the Battle of Fort Pillow.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

It's more likely to be in the O.R. than the O.R.N.; nearly all transports on the Western rivers were chartered by the Army Quartermaster Department and were therefore independent of the Navy. There could be an incidental mention here and there, but definitely nothing systematic.

 

[DixieRifles]

Okay. That may work. Would I find the QM documents in a different section of the OR's?

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

I fear I'm not as familiar with the O.R. as I am the O.R.N. I could look up the Olive Branch in my copy of Gibson and Gibson's Dictionary of Transport and Combatant Vessels this evening; there might be a reference to a specific record.

 

[redriver6]

http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moawar;cc=moawar;type=simple;rgn=full text;q1=olive branch;firstpubl1=1880;firstpubl2=1922;view=reslist;subview=detail;sort=occur;start=1;size=25;didno=waro0057

didn't see any mention of specific units..might have missed it tho...

 

[DixieRifles]

I think I've read all of those. I thought the QM records may be in a different Chapter.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Here's what I found in Gibson and Gibson:

"Olive Branch; steamer; tonnage unknown.​

​

"Seized March 15-16, 1864; used for a period of time, extending at least into that Apr, as a troop carrier. Used to carry released Union prisoners from Vicksburg to St. Louis in May 18685 [sic].​

​

"[HR-337, Western Rivers, pp. 160-227; ORA I, 32, 48]"​

First place I'd dig would be the ORs in I:32 and then I:48; I'd guess that one of those probably refers to the prisoner carrying, so the other would be what you'd want. HR-337 is a government document pertaining to the chartering of commercial vessels for the QMD, I believe. The note that it was seized rather than chartered is interesting though; wonder if it had been caught running contraband?

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Further... a search for "Olive Branch" at http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?xc=1&page=simple&g=moagrp led to these citations:

Series I, Volume 32, Part 1, pp. 554, 572-4, 614

 

[DixieRifles]

Series I, Volume 32, Part 1, pp. 554, 572-4, 614

I believe that is getting back to the correspondence between the different Union units that were reporting on the battle and its aftermath.

Page 554 has the following comment in Gen. Hurlbut's report to his HQ.

The list* of killed and wounded, so far as received, accompanies this report, and demonstrates the severity of the action.

The footnote reads:
* See Van Horn's and Fergunson's reports pp 569 and 571

However, there is no Casualty list in this report. I wish there was. In Fold3, there is a Civil War file for Confederate Casualties. Under Tennessee it has a folder for Forrest's Campaign of 1864 that includes 26 documents. These are casualty reports for battles other than Fort Pillow. And I don't see a similar folder for Union casualties.

{Edited to add}
A search of "olive branch" gets a lot of hits as this term has other meanings including names of towns. That is a good place to search both the OR's and other Documents. This is the only place I can find(as I recall) that lists the wounded and civilians who were picked up at the Fort and along the river banks. Most of the 20 mentioned below and some of the 69 were civilians but I don't know how many.

In case you have not seen this one, this is the report from the Captain of the Silver Cloud.

Series I - Volume 26: Naval Forces on Western Waters (March 1, 1864 - December 31, 1864)
OR Dated 14 April 1864 (pg 222)

"The dead we buried amounted to about 150. We removed 69 wounded from the battle field, beside 20 I took on board before the flag of truce was sent in by the enemy."