TerryB
Lt. Colonel
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2008
- Location
- Nashville TN
On April 21, 1864, Lieutenant Horace C. Scovill, of Ogle County, Illinois, took command of a small force of pickets belonging to the 92nd Illinois Mounted Infantry. Newly arrived at Ringgold, Georgia, the 92nd was armed with Spencer repeaters, having fought at Chickamauga in Wilder's Brigade. Scovill, of K Company, had just been approved for promotion to captain. Thirty years old and single, he would one day hold political office in Rockford, Illinois, including mayor and town clerk. Yet all his subsequent experiences, to the day he died, would be shaped by a few tragic and horrifying hours at a place called Nickajack Gap.
Just over the Tennessee state line from Chattanooga, Taylor's Ridge runs north-south in Catoosa County, Georgia. The ridge is intersected by a number of roads and a strategic rail line. About five miles southeast of Ringgold is Tunnel Hill, where Confederate General Joseph Wheeler's Cavalry Corps was headquartered. Eight miles south and slightly to the west, lies Nickajack Gap, scene of much hard fighting in the spring of 1864. Connecting Ringgold, Tunnel Hill and Dalton, the Western & Atlantic Railroad was the key to Atlanta, 151 miles into the heart of Georgia. Sherman's army group would have to dislodge the Army of Tennessee from its fortified positions at Dalton and then supply itself by the railroad, or any attempt to capture Atlanta would fail. One mission of the cavalry of both sides was to watch the strategic mountain passes, known locally as gaps, giving their army commanders vital intelligence on enemy movements. Lieutenant Scovill had the unenviable task of picketing Nickajack Gap, highly vulnerable due to its relative distance from Ringgold and close proximity to Tunnel Hill.
Scovill's force numbered sixty-three men, which he posted in squad-sized units, their horses available if needed. Fewer than half a dozen were mounted as videttes, patrolling between the picket posts, whose strength varied from seven to twelve men. The largest group was the eighteen-man reserve squad, which bedded down at Lyle's farm in the low ground west of the ridge. Scovill would remain with the reserve so that he could dispatch support to any section of the line that might come under Confederate attack. These deadly attacks were initiated by both sides, one having taken place on the 20th at Spring Place, a few miles east of Dalton. Union forces had surprised Confederate pickets there, capturing roughly thirty Tennesseans, as well as killing their lieutenant.
Such fights had been going on since February, barely meriting a few lines in newspaper columns and official reports. Rarely ever involving more than a company or two on either side, nonetheless, this type of fighting brought in valuable horses, equipment, and most of all, prisoners. Captured men would be hustled off to headquarters, where they would be interrogated for military intelligence before being sent off to prison camps. Many would die in the camps from starvation, disease and exposure, or simply be shot by trigger-happy guards.
The 92nd Illinois had only acquired mounts in the summer of 1863, allowing them to transfer to Wilder's "Lightning Brigade," eventually arming themselves with Spencers. Yet when they arrived at Ringgold, they were told by General Washington Elliott, commander of the Union Cavalry Corps, that they would not receive fresh mounts. In fact, Elliott wanted to dismount and rearm them with Burnside carbines and pistols. Resistance from the officers of the regiment had prevented any of that from happening, still, the official word on the 92nd was that they were
thoroughly demoralized. Running courier lines in Alabama, as well as a miserable, rain-soaked, mud-slogging trek over the mountains to Ringgold, had taken their toll.
The 92nd also found the command structure of the cavalry in constant flux, with regimental commanders sometimes heading up brigades or even divisions. Colonel Eli H. Murray of the 3rd Kentucky wore all three hats until the arrival of General Judson Kilpatrick from the Army of the Potomac. Kilpatrick relieved Murray of command of the 3rd Division on April the 17th. Murray would eventually command the new brigade to which the 92nd had been assigned, relieving Col. Robert Minty, who had been in temporary command for less than two weeks.
At first, Kilpatrick seemed inclined to go ahead with the plan to replace the Spencer rifles that the Illinois troopers had become so attached to. However, he agreed to give them a chance to prove themselves and their repeaters before making any final decision. Meanwhile, the order for the 92nd to picket Nickajack Gap came down. Knowing how dangerous the assignment was, Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin F. Sheets protested it in writing. When the order stood, Sheets turned in his resignation, effective April 23rd, the day all hell broke loose.
Scovill, a transplanted New Yorker and former school teacher, would not have known all the men he led out on the 21st. Since they were drawn from every company of the regiment, effective command over them would be dubious in such an exposed position. A vivid eyewitness account shows just how tenuous Scovill's command and control was. Without that account, piecing together what happened would be next to impossible.
Diarist Corporal John M. King recalled; "The cavalry guarded every little cow path over the mountains for miles up and down the ridge, and trouble along the picket line was almost a daily occurrence. The rebels being well acquainted with every cow path, peak, and hiding place, they had the advantage. It was nothing unusual for a rebel with a field glass to mount some high peak and examine our position thoroughly. Picketing became more and more dangerous every day."1 King described Nickajack Trace thus: "This little steep, rugged path…wound its way in a zig-zag course around huge rocks, knolls, and broken cedars, until it reached an altitude a half a mile up. This path was so steep that a horse could not climb it…" 2
On the night of Friday the 22nd, fifty hand-picked men of the Confederate 1st Kentucky Cavalry Battalion, led by Lieutenant Joseph Vincent of B Company, crept over Taylor's Ridge. Where the Old Alabama Road converged with Nickajack Trace, a rail fence provided something essential to Vincent's plan. After dismounting his troopers, Vincent had them pile the rails chest high into a horseshoe-shaped breastwork to cover and conceal his men. This construction had the added benefit of being virtually escape-proof.
A native of Oldham County, Kentucky, the twenty-seven year-old Vincent stood an imposing six-foot-three. Two of his brothers also served in B Company, but both were then being held in Northern prison camps. Vincent's part in the upcoming fight was described in some detail in a letter to a Memphis newspaper, at the time published in Atlanta. Writing from the camp of the 1st Kentucky, the author of the letter signed it "Gentillus." 3 Other than naming the commander of the raid, Gentillus said almost nothing of the other Confederates forming up for the attack.
Meanwhile, Scovill's troopers had settled in. The night air being chilly in the mountains, where snows had fallen as recently as early April, the men wore their overcoats. Those not actually up and manning a post huddled around campfires, sleeping uneasily, their horses tethered lower down the ridge. One of the videttes, Private Edwin Elliott, would be the first to sound the alarm, just before 4am. What he saw as he straddled his horse were the silhouettes of a large body of mounted men ascending the eastern slopes of the ridge. He could hear the snapping of twigs as they advanced, as well as the orders quietly spoken by their officers. In overwhelming force, having achieved almost complete surprise, the Rebels were coming!
Wheeler's answer to the Union raid at Spring Place had been sudden and swift. General William W. Mackall, Johnston's chief of staff, had written Wheeler a terse note, strongly suggesting he retaliate. Wheeler then turned to Colonel Reuben R. Ross, a colorful Tennessean and West Pointer, class of 1853. Married and the father of three children, Ross had won honors for his skillful direction of one of the heavy artillery batteries that turned back the naval flotilla attacking Fort Donelson in February 1862. Two years later, Ross was officially the assistant inspector general of Davidson's Brigade, Humes's Division. He was also its intelligence officer, having run "scouts" in Middle Tennessee all through 1863, signing their lodging vouchers in the name of the Confederate Secret Service. 4
Ross chose the men who would make the assault on Taylor's Ridge from two regiments of Tennesseans. He began with General Davidson's escort company, men belonging to the 1st Tennessee Cavalry (Carter's), but commanded by a Texan, a former medical student named Captain Richard M. Swearingen.5 Ross also selected men from Lieutenant Colonel Paul Anderson's 4th Tennessee, probably because they had been picketing the Confederate side of the gap for several weeks. They knew the terrain better than anyone else, and they had lost men at Spring Place.
Vincent's Kentuckians had recently returned from Alabama, and were not assigned to Davidson. However, in November 1863, as a part of Butler's 1st Kentucky, he and his men had picketed Nickajack Trace. Neither well-educated nor politically connected, Vincent had worked as a surveyor before the war. Bearing the scars of three separate wounds, he was a natural leader and a fearless combatant. Once the shooting started, he would play a major role in the brief but bloody fight. For now, though, his mission was to lie in wait.
The assault force ascending Taylor's Ridge was divided into three battalions. One attacked from the north down the ridge, another from the east, out of Houston Valley, while a third came up from the south. Their plan of attack was to force the retreating Federals into Vincent's ambush. Union reports estimated their numbers at perhaps as much as a hundred men per battalion. Colonel Ross was in command, most likely riding with Swearingen's Company, rather than with the battalion now bearing down on Private Elliott.
Once he spotted the Confederates, Elliott hurriedly woke the men around their campfire near the crest, missing John M. King in the confusion. Elliott then decided it was his duty to ride back to his post and stand his ground. Meanwhile, the sleepy-eyed troopers began to pull themselves together to meet the assault. Elliott's stand may have bought them a few seconds, but his misplaced sense of duty sealed his fate. He was probably the first man captured in the raid.
Hearing the ruckus, King roused himself, only to hear something that made his hair stand on end. A doleful voice cried out in desperation, "For God's sake! Don't shoot me again! You have shot one of your own men!" 6 Next, a lone figure approached within yards of his position. King could not be sure if the man was friend or foe, so he covered him with his Spencer. The dark form laid his weapon against a boulder and turned to look over his shoulder. As the man once again took up his weapon, pointing it straight at him, King heard him say, "Lieutenant, these are Yanks down here." 7 King fired. He did not think it was possible to have missed, and may well have killed the only Confederate reported to have died that day.
King had no time to investigate. Since his little squad had no chance against the onrushing Confederates, he quickly gave the order to fall back. Eventually, he lost his rifle, overcoat, and horse in his mad scramble down the ridge in the dark, falling over a steep crag at one point. Skulking through the cedars, he somehow managed to keep his wits about him, while everywhere men were running, some falling off their horses, or having their horses fall. It was their fate to be shot or taken prisoner, while few men anywhere on the ridge were making a stand.
Lieutenant Scovill was kept busy doling out the reserves, first to one point of attack, then to another, until he determined to personally lead the last group in a desperate attempt to break out. Meeting up with King's retreating squad, the lieutenant headed them in the direction of the Old Alabama Road. It was a tragic mistake, for no help lay in that direction. A gap in the lines between the 92nd Illinois and 3rd Kentucky pickets had allowed the Confederates to execute a stunning attack, cutting the Federals off from each other in the confusion. King's stealthy Rebel with a field glass had indeed spotted their weakness. Scovill's men, in the words of Gentillus, "ran pell-mell, helter-skelter, right down on the ambush." 8 At least one man was killed and another wounded before they realized they were trapped, their horses unable to jump the barricade.
Once Scovill and his squad were captured, Vincent turned his attention to King and the others making their way along the base of the ridge. King was one of the lucky ones who managed to escape, along with an unnamed sergeant who played dead as Vincent's men nearly rode over him. With King no longer a witness, what happened next comes from Gentillus. "Lieut. Vincent killed ten of them dead in the lane and captured forty-three others. Nearly all of them were wounded in some way, and none went back to tell the story." 9 Though the numbers are obviously exaggerated, the words can be read in a far more sinister way than Gentillus may have intended. The question, simply put, is what did Vincent do with his prisoners? Thirteen can be accounted for, but there were others—men whose treatment would soon be described as "murder."
As the retreating Confederates made off with their spoil, small bands of Yanks retook their abandoned positions. The stories they would hear that morning both appalled and enraged them. About a mile from Vincent's ambush, Private William Castenach was found, shot twice, but still alive. He told his friends that a Confederate lieutenant had shot him after he surrendered. He would later die of his wounds. The body of Private William Hill was found by a woman who told of seeing him shot in the chest after handing over his weapon. At the ambush site, Private R. J. O'Conner was also found alive, but mortally wounded. He would die later that day, but not before telling a story similar to Castenach's.
Private James W. Rhodes was shot twice, the second shot hitting him as he was trying to find a place to lie down. He, too, lived long enough to give a statement. Adding to the growing testimony, a local man told of witnessing the murder of a trooper who had surrendered. Then three of the men of the 92nd signed a sworn statement saying they witnessed the death of Castenach, agreeing that he had been shot while in the hands of the enemy. Both Castenach and O'Conner told of being shot for not running fast enough to keep up with their mounted captors, who were hurrying them toward Tunnel Hill. Regimental surgeons wrote that some of the bodies exhibited powder burns on their skin, and that Hill's coat had caught fire from the pistol blast. Their conclusion: some six or seven men had been deliberately murdered after they surrendered, two died in the fight, while the other cases were ambiguous.10 All witnesses agreed that a Confederate lieutenant had done the shooting, or in one case, a captain of a Tennessee regiment.
Of the 64 men on picket at Nickajack Gap, perhaps thirty were killed, wounded or captured. Lieutenant Scovill and twelve men were brought back to Tunnel Hill, while ten others died that day. Three more would die by the 25th, another two within weeks. Private Elliott and eight others later died at Andersonville.
While Scovill and his men were on their way to the prison camps, Eli Murray and Benjamin Sheets compiled their reports, attaching those of the surgeons. Civilized warfare had been abandoned by the Rebels, they asserted, and the time had come to answer in kind. 11 The reports were detailed and lengthy. Meanwhile, someone styling himself "Dr. Adonis" used virtually identical language in a letter published in a Louisville paper.12
After the reports reached General George Thomas at Chattanooga, he sent a brief reply. First, he criticized Sheets for not patrolling aggressively enough. However, he added, the nature of the ground meant that such surprises were bound to happen. Finally, he promised that the "outrages" would be "attended to." 13 Yet on April the 27th, he received a report from Kilpatrick telling of another Confederate raid on Nickajack Gap. A few horses had been lost, but no men. Then, on the 29th, Kilpatrick mounted a reconnaissance through Ringgold Gap, taking with him 1500 cavalry, 300 infantry and section of artillery. The Confederates fell back, allowing their camp at Tunnel Hill to be shelled. Having barricaded the gaps with felled trees, they preferred to fight from prepared positions.
Humes reported losing twenty men, while back at Dalton, W.W. Mackall sent Wheeler a dispatch ordering him to come up at once. However, since the Confederates would not come out to meet him in the open, Kilpatrick withdrew. He again came out on May 2, with similar results. Disappointed, he left Wheeler a note at the home of a civilian—a note which Mackall described as far more "dignified" than he would have expected of a man of Kilpatrick's reputation. 14 However dignified, it was still a schoolboy's taunt, daring Wheeler to come out in the open and take his lumps. Somehow, Kilpatrick and all concerned, including the men of the 92nd, felt that Nickajack Gap had been avenged, their honor restored. 15 Thomas apparently agreed, for, other than giving Kilpatrick a vague order to "punish" the Rebels, there is no record that he ever "attended to" anything.
Two years after the war, in October 1867, Horace Scovill, now living at Rockford, Illinois, responded to an ad run in newspapers throughout the North. The US House of Representatives, said the ad, was investigating the treatment of Union prisoners while in Rebel hands and would like to hear their testimony. Scovill responded with a letter but was never interviewed. He wrote that his men had been marched about two miles from where they were captured, where he was pistol-whipped by one Lieutenant Pointer of General Wheeler's staff. He added that Pointer had shot most of the five or six men who had been gunned down after they surrendered. At Tunnel Hill, he was interrogated by Wheeler for about an hour. He told the general about the shootings, but Wheeler "feigned it could not be true." A Colonel King had led the party who had captured his men, Scovill confidently asserted. 16 In one brief paragraph, Scovill pointed the finger at two individuals, one of whom has had a black mark on his record ever since. Lieutenant Pointer was accused of shooting Castenach and O'Conner in all subsequent Union versions of the affair, including John M. King's diary and Fox's Regimental Losses, 17 both published in the 1880s.
Marcellus Pointer, of Holly Springs, Mississippi, had just turned twenty-three at the time of the raid. He had served on Wheeler's staff since before the Battle of Perryville, having been wounded at least twice. On December 28, 1863, Pointer had been briefly captured at Charleston, Tennessee, in a botched raid. 18 One of Joe Vincent's brothers had also been captured there. Pointer, however, had managed to shoot one of his captors, and was simultaneously shot by the other one before breaking out of the trap. It was the second time Pointer had shot his way out of a trap, protecting Wheeler both times, making it possible for the general to escape as well.
Needless to say, Wheeler was indebted to his young aide. When Mackall asked him for a report of the Nickajack incident, Wheeler proceeded cautiously. On the 27th, he wrote Mackall, saying he had investigated the matter and found that none of his staff officers had acted improperly. This one-paragraph note is the only official Confederate report that has survived. Wheeler alluded to one that Mackall was supposedly preparing, saying he had not received it yet, and asking the names of those involved. "Exaggerated and false reports concerning this matter…should be corrected without delay," Wheeler concluded. 19
Mackall's report has yet to be found. All other Confederate references to the Nickajack fight are found in less than half a dozen newspaper accounts, one mention of it in Joe Vincent's bio, published in 1899 20 , and a brief reference published in Nashville in 1878.21 The most detailed account is the letter Gentillus wrote the day of the raid. As previously quoted, he claimed that Vincent had shot ten Yankees dead, and that none of his wounded prisoners "went back to tell the story."
Thus we have precious little from the Confederate side, none of which plainly tells of any prisoners being murdered. All the allegations against Marcellus Pointer can be traced to Horace Scovill's un-vetted written statement made in 1867, three and a half years after the fact. In naming Pointer, John M. King obviously relied on Scovill's account.
Still, we can test Scovill's recollection that a Colonel King led the party that captured him. Two colonels named King served in Wheeler's Corps at the time of the raid. One was being held in a Northern prison camp, 22 while the other had been put out of action by a serious wound in February 1864.23 Furthermore, Scovill eventually told reporters in Rockford a different story. Failing to mention any murders, he said the "brutal officer" who captured him relieved him of his boots and overcoat. 24 When Marcellus Pointer was shot through the body at Charleston, four months before Nickajack, he was wearing an overcoat, which the bullet penetrated. Every account of that incident contains this detail. His wound disabled him, and, as of January 31st, 1864, he was on leave, according to his service records. Whatever his clothing deficiencies, they could easily have been supplied by his father, a prosperous Mississippi cotton planter.
Finally, when Scovill read Pointer's obituary in July 1909, he spoke harshly of him, all but calling him a war criminal. Yet Scovill again failed to repeat the allegation that Pointer had shot any prisoners the day of the raid. 25 Had it all been a case of mistaken identity? After a century and a half, we may never know who actually murdered prisoners at Nickajack Gap. Still, General Wheeler is on record as saying none of his staff officers acted improperly that day. That leaves Joe Vincent.
End Notes
King, John M., and Claire E. Swedberg. Three years with the 92nd Illinois the Civil War diary of John M. King, p192
Ibid, 192
Gentillus. "Letter From Tunnel Hill." Memphis Daily Appeal [Atlanta] 27 Apr. 1864,
Evening ed.: 2.
Compiled Service Records, Col. Reuben R. Ross, pp35-36
Compiled Service Records, Pvt. James Bellows (Bellers), the only Confederate captured in the raid. He belonged to Swearingen's Company.
King, 194
Ibid, 194
Gentillus
Ibid
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, V 32 (part 1) pp684-685. One of the seven men listed as murdered actually survived the war.
Ibid, 685
Adonis, "Barbarous Affair At Nickajack Trace, Georgia." Louisville Daily Journal 2 May 1864: 1.
Official Records, Series I, V 32, (part 3) pp470-71
Mackall, William. "Papers and letters of William Whann Mackall." UNC Library Wilson. Folder 3, May 3, 1864, pp80-81
Ninety-Second Illinois Volunteers, p139
Report on the Treatment of Prisoners of War by the Rebel Authorities During the War of the Rebellion " Report No. 45, p1138
Fox's Regimental Losses, Chapter VII, Muster-Out-Rolls, Anthropological Statistics."
Dodson, Carey. "Campaigns of Wheeler and his Cavalry, 1862-1865, p158, Appendix, p371
Wheeler, Joseph, Order Book, April 1864, p41
Confederate Military History, V-9, pp565-66
Annals of the Army of Tennessee, Dec. 1878, Supplement, p49. Dr. E.L. Drake may have had inside knowledge, since he names "Wheeler's Scouts" as the Confederates taking part.
Compiled Service Records, Col. Henry Clay King, 1st Confederate Cavalry, captured June 27, 1863, at Shelbyville, Tennessee.
Dodson, Appendix, p371. Col. Hugh M. King, of Wheeler's staff, was wounded in the hip on Feb. 26, 1864. On April 24, he wrote a letter to the War Department in Richmond, protesting the dropping of his name from the rolls. (Compiled Service Records)
Horace Curtis Scovill (1833 - 1912) - Find A Grave Memorial, Transcribed Obituary. Private William Reynolds, also mortally wounded, had told of having his boots forcibly taken, as did R. J. O'Conner, in statements summarized in the Official Records.
E-mail from Jeff Giambrone, author of Remembering Mississippi's Confederates, attached scan of Daily Register Gazette, Rockford, Il, 24 Jul. 1909
Adonis, "Barbarous Affair At Nickajack Trace, Georgia." Louisville Daily Journal 2 May 1864: 1. Tennessee State Library and Archives, Digital Collections. Web. 28 Sept. 2012.
Annals of the Army of Tennessee and early western history - Google Books. Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://books.google.com/books?id=-3...ce=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false>. Dr. E.L. Drake, editor and publisher
Compiled Service Records ,"Fold3 - Historical military records." Fold3 - Historical military records. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://www.fold3.com/>.
Confederate Military History; a library of Confederate States history, written by distinguished men of the south, and edited by Gen. Clement A. Evans of Georgia ... - Kentucky Digital Library." Kentucky Digital Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://eris.uky.edu/catalog/xt7wst7ds072_633/text>.
Dodson, Carey. "Campaigns of Wheeler and his Cavalry, 1862-1865 : Dodson, W. C. (William Carey), b. 1846 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive." Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://archive.org/details/campaignswheele00assogoog>.
DuBose, John. "General Joseph Wheeler and the Army of Tennessee" Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924030918100/cu31924030918100_djvu.txt>.
Dyer's History of 92nd Illinois Infantry." The Illinois Civil War Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://civilwar.illinoisgenweb.org/dyers/092inf.html>.
E-mail from Jeff Giambrone, author of Remembering Mississippi's Confederates, attached scan of Daily Register Gazette, Rockford, Il, 24 Jul. 1909, classified section
Fox's Regimental Losses, Chapter VII, Muster-Out-Rolls, Anthropological Statistics." The American Civil War Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://www.civilwarhome.com/chapt7.htm>.
"Full text of "Ninety-Second Illinois Volunteers". Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://archive.org/stream/ninetysecondilli00illi/ninetysecondilli00illi_djvu.txt>.
Gentillus. "Letter From Tunnel Hill." Memphis Daily Appeal [Atlanta] 27 Apr. 1864,
Evening ed.: 2. Tennessee State Library and Archives, Digital Collections. Web. 28 Sept. 2012.
Horace Curtis Scovill (1833 - 1912) - Find A Grave Memorial. Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records. Horace Scovill's obituary N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/f...Sst=16&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=59224768&df=all&>.
King, John M., and Claire E. Swedberg. Three years with the 92nd Illinois the Civil War diary of John M. King. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1999. Print.
Mackall, William. "Papers and letters of William Whann Mackall." UNC Library Wilson. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/m/Mackall,William_Whann.htmlhttp://>. Collection # 01299, scanned letters
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, "Cornell University Library Making of America Collection." Cornell Library Windows on the Past. United States , n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/m/moawar/waro.html>.
Report on the Treatment of Prisoners of War by the Rebel Authorities During the War of the Rebellion "A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875." American Memory from the Library of Congress - Home Page. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llss&fileName=1300/1391/llss1391.db&recNum=8http://>. Link # 1391
Sisler, George, "The Arrest of a Memphis Daily Appeal War Correspondent on Charges
of Treason, 1957, V11, p76 "Tom Leatherwood, Shelby County Register of
Deeds." N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. West TN Historical Society Papers,
<http://register.shelby.tn.us/wths/index.php?acc=on>.
Wheeler, Joseph, Order Book, April 1864, photocopy, Alabama Department of Archives
and History. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://www.archives.state.al.us/>.
Map courtesy of Fold3
Just over the Tennessee state line from Chattanooga, Taylor's Ridge runs north-south in Catoosa County, Georgia. The ridge is intersected by a number of roads and a strategic rail line. About five miles southeast of Ringgold is Tunnel Hill, where Confederate General Joseph Wheeler's Cavalry Corps was headquartered. Eight miles south and slightly to the west, lies Nickajack Gap, scene of much hard fighting in the spring of 1864. Connecting Ringgold, Tunnel Hill and Dalton, the Western & Atlantic Railroad was the key to Atlanta, 151 miles into the heart of Georgia. Sherman's army group would have to dislodge the Army of Tennessee from its fortified positions at Dalton and then supply itself by the railroad, or any attempt to capture Atlanta would fail. One mission of the cavalry of both sides was to watch the strategic mountain passes, known locally as gaps, giving their army commanders vital intelligence on enemy movements. Lieutenant Scovill had the unenviable task of picketing Nickajack Gap, highly vulnerable due to its relative distance from Ringgold and close proximity to Tunnel Hill.
Scovill's force numbered sixty-three men, which he posted in squad-sized units, their horses available if needed. Fewer than half a dozen were mounted as videttes, patrolling between the picket posts, whose strength varied from seven to twelve men. The largest group was the eighteen-man reserve squad, which bedded down at Lyle's farm in the low ground west of the ridge. Scovill would remain with the reserve so that he could dispatch support to any section of the line that might come under Confederate attack. These deadly attacks were initiated by both sides, one having taken place on the 20th at Spring Place, a few miles east of Dalton. Union forces had surprised Confederate pickets there, capturing roughly thirty Tennesseans, as well as killing their lieutenant.
Such fights had been going on since February, barely meriting a few lines in newspaper columns and official reports. Rarely ever involving more than a company or two on either side, nonetheless, this type of fighting brought in valuable horses, equipment, and most of all, prisoners. Captured men would be hustled off to headquarters, where they would be interrogated for military intelligence before being sent off to prison camps. Many would die in the camps from starvation, disease and exposure, or simply be shot by trigger-happy guards.
The 92nd Illinois had only acquired mounts in the summer of 1863, allowing them to transfer to Wilder's "Lightning Brigade," eventually arming themselves with Spencers. Yet when they arrived at Ringgold, they were told by General Washington Elliott, commander of the Union Cavalry Corps, that they would not receive fresh mounts. In fact, Elliott wanted to dismount and rearm them with Burnside carbines and pistols. Resistance from the officers of the regiment had prevented any of that from happening, still, the official word on the 92nd was that they were
thoroughly demoralized. Running courier lines in Alabama, as well as a miserable, rain-soaked, mud-slogging trek over the mountains to Ringgold, had taken their toll.
The 92nd also found the command structure of the cavalry in constant flux, with regimental commanders sometimes heading up brigades or even divisions. Colonel Eli H. Murray of the 3rd Kentucky wore all three hats until the arrival of General Judson Kilpatrick from the Army of the Potomac. Kilpatrick relieved Murray of command of the 3rd Division on April the 17th. Murray would eventually command the new brigade to which the 92nd had been assigned, relieving Col. Robert Minty, who had been in temporary command for less than two weeks.
At first, Kilpatrick seemed inclined to go ahead with the plan to replace the Spencer rifles that the Illinois troopers had become so attached to. However, he agreed to give them a chance to prove themselves and their repeaters before making any final decision. Meanwhile, the order for the 92nd to picket Nickajack Gap came down. Knowing how dangerous the assignment was, Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin F. Sheets protested it in writing. When the order stood, Sheets turned in his resignation, effective April 23rd, the day all hell broke loose.
Scovill, a transplanted New Yorker and former school teacher, would not have known all the men he led out on the 21st. Since they were drawn from every company of the regiment, effective command over them would be dubious in such an exposed position. A vivid eyewitness account shows just how tenuous Scovill's command and control was. Without that account, piecing together what happened would be next to impossible.
Diarist Corporal John M. King recalled; "The cavalry guarded every little cow path over the mountains for miles up and down the ridge, and trouble along the picket line was almost a daily occurrence. The rebels being well acquainted with every cow path, peak, and hiding place, they had the advantage. It was nothing unusual for a rebel with a field glass to mount some high peak and examine our position thoroughly. Picketing became more and more dangerous every day."1 King described Nickajack Trace thus: "This little steep, rugged path…wound its way in a zig-zag course around huge rocks, knolls, and broken cedars, until it reached an altitude a half a mile up. This path was so steep that a horse could not climb it…" 2
On the night of Friday the 22nd, fifty hand-picked men of the Confederate 1st Kentucky Cavalry Battalion, led by Lieutenant Joseph Vincent of B Company, crept over Taylor's Ridge. Where the Old Alabama Road converged with Nickajack Trace, a rail fence provided something essential to Vincent's plan. After dismounting his troopers, Vincent had them pile the rails chest high into a horseshoe-shaped breastwork to cover and conceal his men. This construction had the added benefit of being virtually escape-proof.
A native of Oldham County, Kentucky, the twenty-seven year-old Vincent stood an imposing six-foot-three. Two of his brothers also served in B Company, but both were then being held in Northern prison camps. Vincent's part in the upcoming fight was described in some detail in a letter to a Memphis newspaper, at the time published in Atlanta. Writing from the camp of the 1st Kentucky, the author of the letter signed it "Gentillus." 3 Other than naming the commander of the raid, Gentillus said almost nothing of the other Confederates forming up for the attack.
Meanwhile, Scovill's troopers had settled in. The night air being chilly in the mountains, where snows had fallen as recently as early April, the men wore their overcoats. Those not actually up and manning a post huddled around campfires, sleeping uneasily, their horses tethered lower down the ridge. One of the videttes, Private Edwin Elliott, would be the first to sound the alarm, just before 4am. What he saw as he straddled his horse were the silhouettes of a large body of mounted men ascending the eastern slopes of the ridge. He could hear the snapping of twigs as they advanced, as well as the orders quietly spoken by their officers. In overwhelming force, having achieved almost complete surprise, the Rebels were coming!
Wheeler's answer to the Union raid at Spring Place had been sudden and swift. General William W. Mackall, Johnston's chief of staff, had written Wheeler a terse note, strongly suggesting he retaliate. Wheeler then turned to Colonel Reuben R. Ross, a colorful Tennessean and West Pointer, class of 1853. Married and the father of three children, Ross had won honors for his skillful direction of one of the heavy artillery batteries that turned back the naval flotilla attacking Fort Donelson in February 1862. Two years later, Ross was officially the assistant inspector general of Davidson's Brigade, Humes's Division. He was also its intelligence officer, having run "scouts" in Middle Tennessee all through 1863, signing their lodging vouchers in the name of the Confederate Secret Service. 4
Ross chose the men who would make the assault on Taylor's Ridge from two regiments of Tennesseans. He began with General Davidson's escort company, men belonging to the 1st Tennessee Cavalry (Carter's), but commanded by a Texan, a former medical student named Captain Richard M. Swearingen.5 Ross also selected men from Lieutenant Colonel Paul Anderson's 4th Tennessee, probably because they had been picketing the Confederate side of the gap for several weeks. They knew the terrain better than anyone else, and they had lost men at Spring Place.
Vincent's Kentuckians had recently returned from Alabama, and were not assigned to Davidson. However, in November 1863, as a part of Butler's 1st Kentucky, he and his men had picketed Nickajack Trace. Neither well-educated nor politically connected, Vincent had worked as a surveyor before the war. Bearing the scars of three separate wounds, he was a natural leader and a fearless combatant. Once the shooting started, he would play a major role in the brief but bloody fight. For now, though, his mission was to lie in wait.
The assault force ascending Taylor's Ridge was divided into three battalions. One attacked from the north down the ridge, another from the east, out of Houston Valley, while a third came up from the south. Their plan of attack was to force the retreating Federals into Vincent's ambush. Union reports estimated their numbers at perhaps as much as a hundred men per battalion. Colonel Ross was in command, most likely riding with Swearingen's Company, rather than with the battalion now bearing down on Private Elliott.
Once he spotted the Confederates, Elliott hurriedly woke the men around their campfire near the crest, missing John M. King in the confusion. Elliott then decided it was his duty to ride back to his post and stand his ground. Meanwhile, the sleepy-eyed troopers began to pull themselves together to meet the assault. Elliott's stand may have bought them a few seconds, but his misplaced sense of duty sealed his fate. He was probably the first man captured in the raid.
Hearing the ruckus, King roused himself, only to hear something that made his hair stand on end. A doleful voice cried out in desperation, "For God's sake! Don't shoot me again! You have shot one of your own men!" 6 Next, a lone figure approached within yards of his position. King could not be sure if the man was friend or foe, so he covered him with his Spencer. The dark form laid his weapon against a boulder and turned to look over his shoulder. As the man once again took up his weapon, pointing it straight at him, King heard him say, "Lieutenant, these are Yanks down here." 7 King fired. He did not think it was possible to have missed, and may well have killed the only Confederate reported to have died that day.
King had no time to investigate. Since his little squad had no chance against the onrushing Confederates, he quickly gave the order to fall back. Eventually, he lost his rifle, overcoat, and horse in his mad scramble down the ridge in the dark, falling over a steep crag at one point. Skulking through the cedars, he somehow managed to keep his wits about him, while everywhere men were running, some falling off their horses, or having their horses fall. It was their fate to be shot or taken prisoner, while few men anywhere on the ridge were making a stand.
Lieutenant Scovill was kept busy doling out the reserves, first to one point of attack, then to another, until he determined to personally lead the last group in a desperate attempt to break out. Meeting up with King's retreating squad, the lieutenant headed them in the direction of the Old Alabama Road. It was a tragic mistake, for no help lay in that direction. A gap in the lines between the 92nd Illinois and 3rd Kentucky pickets had allowed the Confederates to execute a stunning attack, cutting the Federals off from each other in the confusion. King's stealthy Rebel with a field glass had indeed spotted their weakness. Scovill's men, in the words of Gentillus, "ran pell-mell, helter-skelter, right down on the ambush." 8 At least one man was killed and another wounded before they realized they were trapped, their horses unable to jump the barricade.
Once Scovill and his squad were captured, Vincent turned his attention to King and the others making their way along the base of the ridge. King was one of the lucky ones who managed to escape, along with an unnamed sergeant who played dead as Vincent's men nearly rode over him. With King no longer a witness, what happened next comes from Gentillus. "Lieut. Vincent killed ten of them dead in the lane and captured forty-three others. Nearly all of them were wounded in some way, and none went back to tell the story." 9 Though the numbers are obviously exaggerated, the words can be read in a far more sinister way than Gentillus may have intended. The question, simply put, is what did Vincent do with his prisoners? Thirteen can be accounted for, but there were others—men whose treatment would soon be described as "murder."
As the retreating Confederates made off with their spoil, small bands of Yanks retook their abandoned positions. The stories they would hear that morning both appalled and enraged them. About a mile from Vincent's ambush, Private William Castenach was found, shot twice, but still alive. He told his friends that a Confederate lieutenant had shot him after he surrendered. He would later die of his wounds. The body of Private William Hill was found by a woman who told of seeing him shot in the chest after handing over his weapon. At the ambush site, Private R. J. O'Conner was also found alive, but mortally wounded. He would die later that day, but not before telling a story similar to Castenach's.
Private James W. Rhodes was shot twice, the second shot hitting him as he was trying to find a place to lie down. He, too, lived long enough to give a statement. Adding to the growing testimony, a local man told of witnessing the murder of a trooper who had surrendered. Then three of the men of the 92nd signed a sworn statement saying they witnessed the death of Castenach, agreeing that he had been shot while in the hands of the enemy. Both Castenach and O'Conner told of being shot for not running fast enough to keep up with their mounted captors, who were hurrying them toward Tunnel Hill. Regimental surgeons wrote that some of the bodies exhibited powder burns on their skin, and that Hill's coat had caught fire from the pistol blast. Their conclusion: some six or seven men had been deliberately murdered after they surrendered, two died in the fight, while the other cases were ambiguous.10 All witnesses agreed that a Confederate lieutenant had done the shooting, or in one case, a captain of a Tennessee regiment.
Of the 64 men on picket at Nickajack Gap, perhaps thirty were killed, wounded or captured. Lieutenant Scovill and twelve men were brought back to Tunnel Hill, while ten others died that day. Three more would die by the 25th, another two within weeks. Private Elliott and eight others later died at Andersonville.
While Scovill and his men were on their way to the prison camps, Eli Murray and Benjamin Sheets compiled their reports, attaching those of the surgeons. Civilized warfare had been abandoned by the Rebels, they asserted, and the time had come to answer in kind. 11 The reports were detailed and lengthy. Meanwhile, someone styling himself "Dr. Adonis" used virtually identical language in a letter published in a Louisville paper.12
After the reports reached General George Thomas at Chattanooga, he sent a brief reply. First, he criticized Sheets for not patrolling aggressively enough. However, he added, the nature of the ground meant that such surprises were bound to happen. Finally, he promised that the "outrages" would be "attended to." 13 Yet on April the 27th, he received a report from Kilpatrick telling of another Confederate raid on Nickajack Gap. A few horses had been lost, but no men. Then, on the 29th, Kilpatrick mounted a reconnaissance through Ringgold Gap, taking with him 1500 cavalry, 300 infantry and section of artillery. The Confederates fell back, allowing their camp at Tunnel Hill to be shelled. Having barricaded the gaps with felled trees, they preferred to fight from prepared positions.
Humes reported losing twenty men, while back at Dalton, W.W. Mackall sent Wheeler a dispatch ordering him to come up at once. However, since the Confederates would not come out to meet him in the open, Kilpatrick withdrew. He again came out on May 2, with similar results. Disappointed, he left Wheeler a note at the home of a civilian—a note which Mackall described as far more "dignified" than he would have expected of a man of Kilpatrick's reputation. 14 However dignified, it was still a schoolboy's taunt, daring Wheeler to come out in the open and take his lumps. Somehow, Kilpatrick and all concerned, including the men of the 92nd, felt that Nickajack Gap had been avenged, their honor restored. 15 Thomas apparently agreed, for, other than giving Kilpatrick a vague order to "punish" the Rebels, there is no record that he ever "attended to" anything.
Two years after the war, in October 1867, Horace Scovill, now living at Rockford, Illinois, responded to an ad run in newspapers throughout the North. The US House of Representatives, said the ad, was investigating the treatment of Union prisoners while in Rebel hands and would like to hear their testimony. Scovill responded with a letter but was never interviewed. He wrote that his men had been marched about two miles from where they were captured, where he was pistol-whipped by one Lieutenant Pointer of General Wheeler's staff. He added that Pointer had shot most of the five or six men who had been gunned down after they surrendered. At Tunnel Hill, he was interrogated by Wheeler for about an hour. He told the general about the shootings, but Wheeler "feigned it could not be true." A Colonel King had led the party who had captured his men, Scovill confidently asserted. 16 In one brief paragraph, Scovill pointed the finger at two individuals, one of whom has had a black mark on his record ever since. Lieutenant Pointer was accused of shooting Castenach and O'Conner in all subsequent Union versions of the affair, including John M. King's diary and Fox's Regimental Losses, 17 both published in the 1880s.
Marcellus Pointer, of Holly Springs, Mississippi, had just turned twenty-three at the time of the raid. He had served on Wheeler's staff since before the Battle of Perryville, having been wounded at least twice. On December 28, 1863, Pointer had been briefly captured at Charleston, Tennessee, in a botched raid. 18 One of Joe Vincent's brothers had also been captured there. Pointer, however, had managed to shoot one of his captors, and was simultaneously shot by the other one before breaking out of the trap. It was the second time Pointer had shot his way out of a trap, protecting Wheeler both times, making it possible for the general to escape as well.
Needless to say, Wheeler was indebted to his young aide. When Mackall asked him for a report of the Nickajack incident, Wheeler proceeded cautiously. On the 27th, he wrote Mackall, saying he had investigated the matter and found that none of his staff officers had acted improperly. This one-paragraph note is the only official Confederate report that has survived. Wheeler alluded to one that Mackall was supposedly preparing, saying he had not received it yet, and asking the names of those involved. "Exaggerated and false reports concerning this matter…should be corrected without delay," Wheeler concluded. 19
Mackall's report has yet to be found. All other Confederate references to the Nickajack fight are found in less than half a dozen newspaper accounts, one mention of it in Joe Vincent's bio, published in 1899 20 , and a brief reference published in Nashville in 1878.21 The most detailed account is the letter Gentillus wrote the day of the raid. As previously quoted, he claimed that Vincent had shot ten Yankees dead, and that none of his wounded prisoners "went back to tell the story."
Thus we have precious little from the Confederate side, none of which plainly tells of any prisoners being murdered. All the allegations against Marcellus Pointer can be traced to Horace Scovill's un-vetted written statement made in 1867, three and a half years after the fact. In naming Pointer, John M. King obviously relied on Scovill's account.
Still, we can test Scovill's recollection that a Colonel King led the party that captured him. Two colonels named King served in Wheeler's Corps at the time of the raid. One was being held in a Northern prison camp, 22 while the other had been put out of action by a serious wound in February 1864.23 Furthermore, Scovill eventually told reporters in Rockford a different story. Failing to mention any murders, he said the "brutal officer" who captured him relieved him of his boots and overcoat. 24 When Marcellus Pointer was shot through the body at Charleston, four months before Nickajack, he was wearing an overcoat, which the bullet penetrated. Every account of that incident contains this detail. His wound disabled him, and, as of January 31st, 1864, he was on leave, according to his service records. Whatever his clothing deficiencies, they could easily have been supplied by his father, a prosperous Mississippi cotton planter.
Finally, when Scovill read Pointer's obituary in July 1909, he spoke harshly of him, all but calling him a war criminal. Yet Scovill again failed to repeat the allegation that Pointer had shot any prisoners the day of the raid. 25 Had it all been a case of mistaken identity? After a century and a half, we may never know who actually murdered prisoners at Nickajack Gap. Still, General Wheeler is on record as saying none of his staff officers acted improperly that day. That leaves Joe Vincent.
End Notes
King, John M., and Claire E. Swedberg. Three years with the 92nd Illinois the Civil War diary of John M. King, p192
Ibid, 192
Gentillus. "Letter From Tunnel Hill." Memphis Daily Appeal [Atlanta] 27 Apr. 1864,
Evening ed.: 2.
Compiled Service Records, Col. Reuben R. Ross, pp35-36
Compiled Service Records, Pvt. James Bellows (Bellers), the only Confederate captured in the raid. He belonged to Swearingen's Company.
King, 194
Ibid, 194
Gentillus
Ibid
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, V 32 (part 1) pp684-685. One of the seven men listed as murdered actually survived the war.
Ibid, 685
Adonis, "Barbarous Affair At Nickajack Trace, Georgia." Louisville Daily Journal 2 May 1864: 1.
Official Records, Series I, V 32, (part 3) pp470-71
Mackall, William. "Papers and letters of William Whann Mackall." UNC Library Wilson. Folder 3, May 3, 1864, pp80-81
Ninety-Second Illinois Volunteers, p139
Report on the Treatment of Prisoners of War by the Rebel Authorities During the War of the Rebellion " Report No. 45, p1138
Fox's Regimental Losses, Chapter VII, Muster-Out-Rolls, Anthropological Statistics."
Dodson, Carey. "Campaigns of Wheeler and his Cavalry, 1862-1865, p158, Appendix, p371
Wheeler, Joseph, Order Book, April 1864, p41
Confederate Military History, V-9, pp565-66
Annals of the Army of Tennessee, Dec. 1878, Supplement, p49. Dr. E.L. Drake may have had inside knowledge, since he names "Wheeler's Scouts" as the Confederates taking part.
Compiled Service Records, Col. Henry Clay King, 1st Confederate Cavalry, captured June 27, 1863, at Shelbyville, Tennessee.
Dodson, Appendix, p371. Col. Hugh M. King, of Wheeler's staff, was wounded in the hip on Feb. 26, 1864. On April 24, he wrote a letter to the War Department in Richmond, protesting the dropping of his name from the rolls. (Compiled Service Records)
Horace Curtis Scovill (1833 - 1912) - Find A Grave Memorial, Transcribed Obituary. Private William Reynolds, also mortally wounded, had told of having his boots forcibly taken, as did R. J. O'Conner, in statements summarized in the Official Records.
E-mail from Jeff Giambrone, author of Remembering Mississippi's Confederates, attached scan of Daily Register Gazette, Rockford, Il, 24 Jul. 1909
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Map courtesy of Fold3
Bringing the