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| The following is taken from 1st Lt Griscom's Diary from July 26th, 1864 through August 1, 1864 when the Texas Brigade fought General McCook's Raid | ||||||
| Battle (9th) Skirmish Brigade | ||||||
| July 26th, 1864 - 9th on picket today - all quite until a little before noon - Brigade comes to our support - Harrison's Brigade also - H[arrison] takes right, Brigade [Ross] takes our front & with the remnant of the regiment Col. Jones makes a detour to the left & then coming in on flank charges the Federal picket reserve composed of The 4th Kentucky Mounted Infantry & a battery - Killed 10 & captured & brought out 4 feds - Color Sergeant W. L. Murry acting as a volunteer guide and advance guard is dangerously wounded (loosing a leg & one horse killed) - Brigade Infantry skirmishers & enemy fire on us & the Federal battery at 50 yards but neither of the three fires injured us save to the extent spoken of - after an hour's skirmishing by the Legion we retire to camp & keep out a heavy picket.(45) 15Miles. | ||||||
| July 27, 1864 - Relieved at 7 AM by Legion - retire ˝ mile to camp in the rear of picket reserve to be ready in case of emergency (46) - heavy rainstorm in the PM - Received letter from H. Dud [Co.] "C" with late Va. Dates - write Citizen Canton - Boaz comes at 5 o'c. | ||||||
| July 28, 1864 - Brigade moves 2 miles to right to support Hume's Division - wagon comes up at 8 AM - get ready to unite but while eating Dinner a heavy fight on Infantry left [Battle of Ezra Church] causes us to saddle on "quick" & send squadron to picket another road - boys taking 1 Prisoner - 4 PM 9th ordered to support 3rd on picket but are halted & the Brigade joining us we go to "Owl Rock Church" 12 miles & Bivouac till dark - & 5 miles to the vicinity of Camp Bellton by 11 PM, draw 3 days rations & prepare to move against a raid that crossed the river this evening. Col Harrison fought them - killing a major & 3 men taking six prisoners & learning it was a raid abut 3800 strong under General McCook bound for the RR on a raid.(47) | ||||||
| 1 Battle & 1 Skirmish | ||||||
| July 29, 1864 - Move at light leaving C(ampbellton) to the right pass via Fairburn 6 miles - 3 miles down RR & take the Fayetteville road - rest at 9-3/4 - get plenty of apples on the road - 10-1/2 move on via Fayetteville - 2 miles this side struck raider's trail & find it to town & 4 miles beyond literally strewed with the ruins of burned trains QrMr desks trunks &c &c about 75 wagons destroyed - They are six hours ahead of us having a good herd of QrMrs & dead heads they captured to say nothing of waggoners & mules - Move on beyond F[ayetteville] across Flint River on Lovejoy Road - only a few of Jackson's scouts ahead who run into the feds near Lovejoy & are charged on - The head of our column 9th is in front with uncapped guns but Col. Jones charges them in column of fours with pistols - Meeting a Yankee charge recoils & again charges - They reinforce & repulse us & charge them again supported this time by the 6th Texas in column of squadrons - Generals Jackson & Ross & their escorts joined in the first charge using their pistols - but Colonel Dudley W. Jones here showed conspicuous gallantry in two hand-to-hand & personal encounters in the first of which he kills his opponent in the latter his pistol failing his life is barely saved by Private T. P. Woods, Company "K", 9th Texas who kills the fed just in time to save Col. J[ones] - Capts. E. M. Wright Co. "B", W. E. Alderson Co. "F", Color Sergeant Jno Grimes Co. "A" [Priv.] Doc Hogue Co. "C" & many others showed conspicuous gallantry - Brigade dismount as they come up & fight the enemy as Infantry for 3 hours but they leave by their left flank on the double quick ? Brigade takes to the right after them - 9th ordered to move on to the [Macon and Western Central] RR to see the extent of damage & - press on - take about 75 prisoners & find 25 dead Yankees & about a dozen wounded (badly) quantities of horses, saddles, arms &c &c - [General Joseph H.] Lewis (48) Infantry Brigade comes down from H[ume] & meets us here - 1 mile of RR torn up - pursue to Flint Road 3-1/2 miles & skirmish with them at a bridge all night - a stubborn fight with their mounted Infantry - Lts. J. C. Garrett [Co.] "K", R. W. Gallaher [Co.] "C", & E. Orr Co. "F" severely wounded, S. H. McClatchy slightly. | ||||||
| Battle & Skirmish | ||||||
| July 30, 1864 - Enemy leave a 3-1/2 AM burning the bridge but the ford is so deep cannot cross until light - Then ford or rather swim it & pursue the trails picking up some horses &c on road to Fayetteville where finding Brigade of [General Joseph] Wheeler's Cavalry gone ahead of us stop at the first corn & feed our jaded horses & rest one hour when we continue the pursuit through Newman & 4 miles beyond when we find the Brigade with other Cavalry engaging the enemy several hours - Move to the enemy's rear at 4 PM - 9th on front & right put out skirmishers who get 250 Confederates turned loose by raiders who are cornered & let them come out mounted & fitted out - 8th Iowa & Hospital surrender 5-1/2 AM in our front - Then their battery fire Rodman guns & 13 new ambulances & teams & portions of several other regiments all laying down their arms - giving up horses &c &c - guard the plunder & send prisoners to the rear ? boys get a lots of arms & trophies of all kinds. 30 miles | ||||||
| July 31, 1864 - At light go to Battle ground & get the trophies of the battle - They consist of in all 1200 prisoners about 1000 head of stock 500 stand arms 500 pistols 2 fine rifled (Rodman) cannon (spiked) 13 ambulances teams &c & so much other plunder the men were all loaded - taking our prisoners & plunder move through Newman & 2 miles east & camp - The men allowed to select each a good horse provided they only keep one and turn all others into Government pasture - Among prisoners are two or 3 Colonels acting Brigadier Generals 1 Acting General and many other officiers - Their loss not less than 150 in killed & more than twice as many wounded - Their best regiment 4th Kentucky Infantry being kept out as a rear guard was annihilated - During fight yesterday by a dexterous flank movement the enemy got possession of all our Brigade horses but a charge recaptured nearly all & today get the rest of them from among captured ones - rain storm - Captured battery presented to Ross' Brigade. | ||||||
| August 1, 1864 - Remain in camp resting - This raid consisting of 2800 to 4000 picked men under Brigadier General Ed McCook (51) was intended to destroy Hood's communications - burned about 75 wagons of the reserve or Quarter Masters wagons - tore up about 1 mile of RR & in return lost about 150 killed about 250 wounded & 1200 taken prisoners only a few of them escaping in the dark across the Chattahoochie river & many of them were drowned in crossing - They armed Ross' brigade quite well with pistols & Cavalry guns - | ||||||
| The numbers that appear behind names or sentences are footnotes in Griscom's book. Will retrieve and display. | ||||||