162
Ross’
In
the progress of the fight with McCook, Lieutenant
T.
J. Towles, of Company G, Third Texas Cavalry, was
dangerously wounded, and
remained, for some time,
within the lines of the enemy. Says
Lieutenant Towles:
"As
I was sitting, with my back to a tree for support,
my clothing saturated with blood, from the
loss of which I
was very faint and weak, General McCook,
accompanied
by some members of his staff, halted in front
of me, and
the General remarked: 'Major, you appear to be
suffering.'
I
replied that I thought I was mortally wounded, and
requested surgical aid. The General
replied that he could
not even give his own wounded the necessary
attention,
and said, apologetically: 'You have been a
soldier long
enough to know how these things
are, and you must not
think hard of me.' He wished to
know what forces were
opposing him on the immediate field.
I replied that he
could form as correct an estimate
of their numerical
strength as I could, as the divisions
of
and Roddy were
present; whereupon, he remarked to his
staff: 'We must get out of this!'
and immediately rode
away."
This
revelation of Lieutenant Towles explains the
panic with which McCook's men were seized, when
General
Ross, soon after, bore down upon them in the
headlong charge which routed and
dispersed them. Too
much praise can not be accorded
this brave officer for his
fortitude and loyal devotion to his
country's cause, though
suffering from excruciating pains that
amounted to agony.
Captain
Towles is now a prosperous merchant of
Van
Zandt county,
Ross’
who love the true, the noble, and the brave.
Long may his
voyage of life be fanned by the
breezes of prosperity, is the
wish of his friend, the author.
Lieutenant T. J. Towles was
long the brave, vigilant, and
efficient commander of the
brigade scouts, and a such, was the
eyes and ears of the
command. In the discharge of this
hazardous service, he
won the confidence of his commanding general,
and we
always slept with a sense of
security when the faithful
Towles was on
duty. Lieutenant Dan. H. Alley performed
a similar duty for the division commander,
General W. H.
might arise. Of him we have spoken
elsewhere.
154
Ross’
The
lines of
disputed, stubbornly, each inch of
ground, and every
advance of the Northern army was
dearly paid for.
success of his movements in front,
and had recourse to
cavalry raids in the rear of the
Confederate position, with a
view to cutting their lines of
communication. General
McCook,
with an expeditionary force of cavalry
numbering about 5,000, passed the left
flank of the
Confederate
position, and gained the rear; but so closely
was he pursued by the Texas Brigade and the
Eighth Texas
Cavalry
(the Terry Rangers), that but little opportunity
was allowed him to destroy the railroad.
Finally, he was
brought to bay near
that his forces were demoralized,
many were captured,
and the remainder put to flight.1 Not being
fully satisfied
with the result of McCook's failure, General Sherman
dispatched General
Kilpatrick on a similar mission.
The
Legion was on picket. This brave old regiment,
handled by its gallant Colonel, John
H. Broocks, contested
the ground to the last, but was compelled to
yield to
overwhelming numbers, and
Kilpatrick turned the flank of
the Confederate position, and proceeded to the
rear; but
the vigilant Ross soon had his men in the
saddle and in
pursuit. A little after daylight,
Ross struck the enemy in
the flank, and inflicted considerable loss on
him. But the
innumerable attacks made on
this raiding column by Ross'
Brigade,
are now impossible of description. Suffice it to
say, that no opportunity for attack was
allowed to go
unimproved. Finally,
Kilpatrick attempted to enter
Ross’
Lovejoy
Station, and finding a division of infantry there,
retired. General Ross had formed his
brigade in the
enemy's rear, expecting to be
supported by the brigades of
Cosby
and
appearance. Finding the
infantry too strong for him, and
meeting with an unexpected attack
from Ross in the rear,
Kilpatrick
attempted to intimidate the Texans by a furious
shelling, and then charged through
the line-a feat by no
means remarkable, when we consider
that Ross did not
have exceeding five hundred men,
and Kilpatrick as many
thousands. Add to this the fact that
the Texans were
dismounted, and armed with
short guns-not having a
bayonet in the brigade-and it will
not be wondered at that
they did not repulse a cavalry
charge of ten times their
number. Ross lost two or three men
killed and wounded,
and about thirty prisoners, many of whom
escaped the
first night.
Scarcely
had the charging column passed the line,
when the indomitable Ross had his
bugler to sound the
rally, and, in an incredibly short
space, renewed his
unceasing attacks upon the enemy's
rear. From this time
on, Kilpatrick found no rest, and, evidently,
was bent upon
the sole plan of making the best of his way
out of a bad
scrape. He was somewhat more
fortunate than his
predecessor, McCook, and
made
good order. As the author was
captured in the charge at
Lovejoy
Station, the remainder of the narrative is told as it
was told to him. Nothing like a minute
description has
been attempted in the hasty
tracing of the
campaign. Each day was a battle,
without characteristics to
distinguish it from the
battle of the day before, or that of
156
Ross’
the next day; and that campaign, being, as it
was, one
series of contests, will always
defy the efforts of the
conscientious historian. He
may deal with it in the
concrete-in the abstract,
never.