The American Civil War began with a spirit of romance and enthusiasm in the South, but by the end of the war entire families had been swept into the grinding conflict. The family of John Hardie of Thornhill farm in Talladega county, Alabama, was no exception; six Hardie brothers and a brother-in-law fought for the Confederacy, and they compiled remarkable records, even for that remarkable war. William T. Hardie fired the first cannon in the first battle of the war after the fall of Fort Sumter; a cavalryman shot and killed by Alva Hardie was the last Union casualty of the war. In almost every major battle there was at least one of these Hardie brothers in the fight: first and second Manassas, Shiloh, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Murfreesboro, Antietam, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, the siege of Petersburg, the siege of Vicksburg, the campaign for Atlanta, the March to the Sea, and countless other battles and skirmishes. Some were wounded and some were captured; yet, they all survived.

Return to Table of Contents

Chapter I: 1835, John Hardie in Talladega

The story of the six Hardie brothers and their sister's husband begins with John Hardie, an immigrant from Scotland who built a great farm, called Thornhill, in Talladega county, Alabama, and raised his children there until his death in 1848. His life is described in Lillian Galt Martin's book, John Hardie of Thornhill and his Family (1988).

John Hardie arrived in New York in July 1817 and almost immediately moved on to Richmond. In September 1818 he moved to Huntsville, Alabama, where he worked in a store, and in early 1820 he moved to Whitesburg, Alabama, on the Tennessee river where he owned a store. On November 27, 1828, he married sixteen year-old Mary Mead Hall in Huntsville, and their first three children were born in Whitesburg: John Timmons on November 29, 1829; James White on May 19, 1831, and Joseph on June 26, 1833.

In 1835 John Hardie moved to Talladega County, Alabama, where he built Thornhill farm. It was here that the rest of his children were born: Mary Isabella on November 5, 1835; Robert Alexander on February 7, 1838; William Tipton on December 9, 1840; Alva Finley on May 10, 1844; and Ann Eliza on July 6, 1846. Their last child, Thomas Chalmers, was born on January 19, 1849, after John Hardie's death.

When John Hardie died at age fifty-two on August 17, 1848, he left seven sons and two daughters to be brought up by his 36-year-old widow. Their childhood cannot have been too hard, even after his death; he left a prosperous store and a large farm with more than 35 slaves to operate it. Indeed, but for the death of their father, it would have been an idyllic childhood for the period. The children learned business in the family store, and they learned farming, especially raising and training horses, at Thornhill. By the time the war began many of the children had left home, and some had married.

Return to Table of Contents

Chapter II: 1861, Hardies Volunteer

At first, no great war was expected. None of the Southern states had armies when they seceded; the only armed forces were a few state guards that had been formed when John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry created the specter of a slave rebellion. It wasn't until the fall of Fort Sumter that the Confederacy saw the need to raise an army. War, if it came at all, was expected to be short, so volunteers were asked to enlist for only one year.

Joseph Hardie Joins the Governor's Guard

Joseph Hardie graduated from Princeton University in 1855 and moved to Selma, Alabama, to work in a store that he bought out in 1859. In December 1856 he married Margaret Isbell.

In November 1860 Joseph Hardie joined a group of men in Selma who, in response to Abraham Lincoln's election, organized a company of infantry for the Alabama militia. It was called the "Governor's Guard" in honor of the governor of Alabama, and Captain Thomas J. Goldsby was its commanding officer. When Alabama seceded in January 1861, the governor directed the Guard to seize Fort Morgan at the mouth of Mobile bay. The Guard took the fort without a fight and held it until May 1861 when the Guard was recalled to Montgomery, Alabama, for assignment to the newly organized Confederate army. The Guard was promptly sent to Dalton, Georgia, where it became Company A of the 4th Alabama Infantry Regiment. Joseph Hardie was elected 1st lieutenant and served as adjutant of Company A.

The 4th Alabama was immediately sent to Virginia and assigned to the army of the Shenandoah. By May 21, 1861, it was camped near Harpers Ferry, Virginia, where it was reviewed by the Inspector-General. He reported that the troops were

raw and inexperienced - wanting in even the first elements of the school of the soldier - and there is a great scarcity of proper instructors. Many of the captains are singularly ignorant of their duties. . . . To make up, however, . . . a fierce spirit animates these rough looking men . . . .

On May 23, 1861, General Joseph E. Johnston took command of the army of the Shenandoah, and the 4th Alabama was assigned to General Barnard E. Bee's division.

The history of the Fourth Regiment, which is on file in the State of Alabama Department of Archives and History, was written by its former adjutant, R.T. Coles, with the acknowledged assistance of Joseph Hardie. The first colonel of the regiment was Egbert J. Jones, and according to Coles, there was some dissatisfaction with Jones as commanding officer. Coles quoted a letter from a member of Company C:

One day while at Harpers Ferry papers were handed around in each company of the regiment for signature. . . . It was a request of Colonel Jones that he resign his commission as Colonel of the regiment. . . . I remember only that we were told by some one, he had been a captain of a Company in the Mexican War and had never gotten in a fight. . . . At this time there was no distinction socially between officers and privates and so Colonel Jones was deeply mortified. He decided to lay the case before General Joseph E. Johnston and to him he went accompanied by his friend, Joseph Hardie, Adjutant of the regiment. General Johnston being an old soldier told Colonel Jones to return the papers to the men and tell them to prefer charges against him. That settled it. There were no charges and so the matter ended.

Colonel Jones then told the men he would resign after the first battle. Coles calls the petition a "cruelly thoughtless act" and suggests that it may have had some bearing on Jones' willingness to hold the line against great odds at the first battle of Manassas.

William T. Hardie Joins the Washington Artillery

William Tipton Hardie lived at Thornhill until 1857, and then at age seventeen he moved to New Orleans to work with his oldest brother, John T. Hardie, in the cotton factoring business. He was still living in New Orleans when Fort Sumter fell to the Confederate bombardment in April 1861, and he enlisted at age twenty on May 26, 1861, as a private in the 1st Company of the Washington (Louisiana) Artillery, raised in New Orleans. By war's end he held the rank of first sergeant.

The Washington Artillery Battalion was originally organized in 1840 and fought in the war with Mexico over the annexation of Texas. On January 16, 1861, four months before the fall of Fort Sumter, the Washington Artillery seized the United States Arsenal at Baton Rouge in the name of the State of Louisiana.

The Washington Artillery was mustered into Confederate service on May 26, 1861, with four companies and left immediately for Richmond. A fifth company was formed in June, but it fought separately with the army of Tennessee at Shiloh, Murfreesboro (Stones River) and other battles in the west until it was captured at Blakeley when Mobile fell.

The first four companies of the Washington Artillery were commanded by Major (later Colonel) James B. Walton. Lieutenant (later Captain, then Major) C.W. Squires commanded the 1st Company. William M. Owen, first lieutenant and adjutant, wrote his memoirs of the battalion's Civil War service in 1885. Entitled In Camp and Battle with the Washington Artillery of New Orleans, Owen's book gives a thorough description of the war from the artilleryman's perspective.

The Washington Artillery arrived in Richmond on June 4, 1861. From there it moved to Manassas Junction and camped on the south bank of Bull Run at "Camp Louisiana." Walton's four companies were each assigned to a different brigade. The 1st Company, in which William T. Hardie served, was sent on July 17th to Col. Jubal A. Early's brigade and placed in reserve at Blackburn's ford with several other guns from the Washington Battalion.

Taul Bradford Joins the Tenth Alabama Infantry

Mary Isabella Hardie, called "Belle," completed her formal education in 1853, but she remained at home until she married Taul Bradford on February 13, 1856. Taul Bradford was born on January 20, 1835, and attended the University of Alabama where he received an A.B. degree in 1854. He read law at Talladega and was admitted to the bar in 1855. Of Taul and Belle's first three children, only two survived childbirth, and they were all living in Talladega when war broke out.

On June 4, 1861, Taul enlisted in the 10th Alabama infantry regiment. It was organized at Montgomery under the command of Col. John H. Forney, and Taul Bradford was chosen as major on the regimental staff. On July 10th Confederate President Jefferson Davis wrote to General Joseph E. Johnston that Forney's regiment was on the way to Virginia the next day, but it did not reach Virginia in time for the first battle of Manassas.

Return to Table of Contents

Chapter III: 1861, Virginia

First Manassas

Virginia voted to secede in May 1861, and the Confederate capital moved to Richmond. Public feeling in the North, encouraged by inflammatory newspaper editorials, spurred a Union invasion of Virginia to capture Richmond and end the rebellion. So, in July 1861 General Irvin McDowell led an army of inexperienced recruits against equally inexperienced recruits under Confederate General Pierre G.T. Beauregard, the man who started it all by firing on Fort Sumter.

Spies had warned the Confederates of the impending invasion, so advance brigades of Confederate troops were pulled back from Fairfax Court House to Manassas junction where they could join with Johnston's forces from the Shenandoah valley to form a defensive position. As the ranking officer, Johnston assumed command of the combined forces.

While the Union threat developed, Joseph Hardie's 4th Alabama left Winchester, Virginia, on July 18th and marched south to Piedmont station where it crossed the Shenandoah river. From there it traveled by train to its camp at Manassas junction, arriving on July 20, 1861.

The Confederate line began at Union Mills on Bull Run; from there it ran west a distance of about eight miles along the southern bank of Bull Run past the Manassas Gap Railroad bridge, several fords, and the stone bridge on Warrenton Turnpike. Headquarters for the Confederate army was the McLean farm house at the east end of this line, nearer the railroad station.

On July 18th the advancing Union army probed the Confederate defenses with attacks at several of the fords along Bull Run. A force of infantry, artillery and cavalry threatened Blackburn's ford, so Colonel Early and the 1st Company of the Washington Artillery with William T. Hardie were sent in as further support. About noon the Union infantry advanced while the opposing artillery fired at each other blindly. After some minutes the Union artillery got the range, and an artillery shell exploded in the midst of the Confederate battery. Several members of 1st Company were wounded, and the guns were moved forward by hand before the next shower of Union fire flew overhead. Eventually both Union and Confederate forces disengaged and withdrew. This was the first battle between the Union and Confederate armies after the fall of Fort Sumter, and William T. Hardie, as a cannoneer, fired one of the first shots in this first battle. Lieutenant Owen visited the men almost before the guns had cooled, and he described the scene:

I had the pleasure of congratulating upon their "fiery baptism" Watts Kearney, Rossiter, McGaughy, Hardie, L.E. Zebal, and others. They had all donned the high black army-hats of the enemy, found on the field, and were about as fierce a looking set of brigands in appearance as one could wish to see. They were all in high spirits and chock-full of confidence in themselves and their capacity to whip anything and anybody.

These probing attacks by the Union army and the topographical features on both sides of Bull Run led the Confederate generals to expect the major attack along the lower part of Bull Run near McLean's farm, but the same circumstances convinced the Union generals otherwise. They chose to turn the Confederate left flank on the west end of the line by circling around Sudley Spring.

On the morning of July 21st Early's brigade and Squire's battery were in reserve at McLean's farm. The Union attack began from the west before dawn, and by 7 a.m. William T. Hardie's guns were ordered to follow Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson's brigade towards the stone bridge. This battery was placed on a hill near the stone bridge and Lewis' farm house, and it spent the morning firing at the Union infantry which was then advancing against Joseph Hardie's 4th Alabama infantry. As Union gunners got their range, William T. Hardie's battery advanced by hand until his gun was on the crown of a hill exposed to the view of the Union guns. At 1 p.m. the 1st Company was moved to the Henry house hill in the middle of the heaviest fighting. William T. Hardie's gun fired directly onto the opposing artillery until the final retreat of the Union army.

On July 21st the 4th Alabama was awakened by cannon fire and moved into the line on the extreme left, on the hill near Henry house, supporting another brigade engaged in the attack. >From this position it was marched across Young's branch and the Warrenton turnpike to the top of the opposite ridge where the 4th Alabama drove back "regiment after regiment of Heintzelman's" division of Union infantry. But the 4th's flank was exposed, so it withdrew. Says Coles:

Enveloped on three sides, we were forced, by overwhelming numbers to retire, and with one accord, without orders, the 4th Alabama melted away to the rear, leaving that grand old man, Colonel Jones, wounded unto death, surrounded only with the dead and wounded, supporting himself with his arm thrown across his saddle, and seeing the men falling back he said feebly from loss of blood, "men don't run".

The men fell back across Young's branch without pursuit. After some confusion over the identity of a Union regiment on their left, the 4th attacked it, only to be repulsed again. By 11:00 a.m. the 4th Alabama was taking shelter in a wooded ravine behind the Robinson house about a half mile from the stone bridge on which the Warrenton turnpike crossed Bull Run. General Johnston took charge of the regiment because after Jones fell it had no command, and Johnston led it back to General Bee who was gathering his scattered forces. When Bee found the 4th he exclaimed, in words which Joseph Hardie must surely have heard: "Come with me and go yonder where Jackson stands like a stone wall." There, in support of Jackson, the regiment remained, but they were again forced back as the Union forces took the hills on which both the Henry and Robinson houses stood. By early afternoon Bee's division received reinforcements, and the fresh troops were able to drive the Union army completely from the field.

Joseph Hardie's 4th Alabama alone had thrown back four of Heintzelman's regiments before it fell back. The 4th suffered greater casualties than any other regiment in the battle on either side; of 560 men the 4th Alabama lost 40 killed and 156 wounded. Beauregard wrote in his report: "The Fourth Alabama also suffered severely from the deadly fire of the thousands of muskets which they so dauntlessly confronted under the immediate leadership of Bee himself." Bee was killed during the battle, not long after he made the remark which gave General Thomas J. Jackson his famous name, "Stonewall," and it was litter bearers from the 4th Alabama who carried Bee from the field.

So, at the first great Confederate victory, William T. Hardie was providing artillery support for his brother, Joseph Hardie, whose infantry regiment was taking the greatest punishment at the focus of the entire Union attack. After the battle, it was possible for the men to visit among the regiments in the area, and these brothers surely took advantage of the opportunity to share their experiences.

As a result of the success of the Confederate army at Manassas, Johnston was placed in command of the Department of Northern Virginia on October 22, 1861.

The Respite in Virginia

After the first battle of Manassas the Confederate army in Virginia enjoyed a peaceful period of some eight months during which it could reorganize and refit. The Washington Artillery had arrived in blue uniforms, but confusion on the battlefield led the battalion to adopt a new gray uniform for the field, and the blues were returned to Richmond for use on furlough. In September they moved to Centerville where they received the new fully tailored uniforms from New Orleans. In October William T. Hardie was promoted to corporal. In December the battalion moved from Fairfax Court House to Camp Louisiana at Blackburn's ford on Bull Run for their winter quarters. In March they withdrew to Orange Court House and finally to Richmond in mid-April 1862.

Taul Bradford's 10th Alabama infantry arrived in Virginia shortly after the first battle of Manassas, and it was assigned to the brigade of Brig. Gen. Cadmus M. Wilcox. His brigade bounced around among a number of command organizations during the period after Manassas, and that may have prompted Taul Bradford's decision to resign his commission in August 1861 and return home. Or perhaps he thought, as many did, that the threat to the Confederacy had ended. In September 1957, Taul Bradford's daughter, Alva Bradford Meade, wrote her grandniece, Judy Bradford, in a letter preserved by The Historic New Orleans Collection, that Taul Bradford "during the winter following First Manassas found snow had blown into his tent during the night and was stained with blood from a lung hemorrhage. After a short leave he was back in the army." Taul Bradford may have suffered from tuberculosis which influenced his decision to resign, but Alabama Confederate veterans records confirm that he resigned from the 10th Alabama infantry on August 12, 1861, well before the snows would have fallen. For soldiers from the Deep South, the notorious "snows of Virginia" were so fabled that an apocryphal story of blood-stained snow may have been combined with an actual health problem.

After the first battle of Manassas Joseph Hardie's 4th Alabama infantry was stationed at Bristow depot on the Orange & Alexandria RR about five miles southwest of Manassas junction. With all of its regimental officers wounded, Johnston assigned a temporary commanding officer who increased the men's dissatisfaction with their officers. Colonel Jones died of his wounds on September 1, 1861, and E.M. Law became colonel while Company A's commander, Thomas J. Goldsby, became lieutenant colonel of the regiment on October 28, 1861.

Just before winter set in the entire division, including the 4th Alabama, was sent to Dumfries in Prince William County, Virginia, below Washington, D.C., where Confederate batteries were trying to close the Potomac river to Union boats. The regiment remained there until the spring of 1862 in fairly comfortable tents and cabins with chimneys. Joseph Hardie's wife Margaret was able to join him.

In January 1862 the men were offered a sixty day furlough if they reenlisted for three years, and many accepted. The officers were less enthusiastic about reenlistment because the men were also promised the right to elect new officers after the original one year enlistment was up. Joseph Hardie accompanied the regiment to Yorktown in the spring, but he resigned when his one year term expired. In September 1862 Coles wrote a letter, quoted in his history of the 4th Alabama, to his own mother whose home in north Alabama had been occupied by Union forces:

Our former Adjutant, Joe Hardie, of whom I have so often written, whom I superseded, left us at Yorktown last May, has written me several kind letters. His mother, through him, sends a message to me to call on her for anything I need in the way of clothes and so forth. I also received before leaving for Maryland [and the battle of Antietam], a kind letter from his wife, who spent some time with us, when Lieutenant Hardie was our Adjutant, so if the Yankees return don't bother about me for my friends will take care of me.

Joseph Hardie must certainly have been affected by the death of his friend, Col. Jones, and the discontent of the men with their officers. For whatever reason, he resigned and returned to Talladega.

Return to Table of Contents

Chapter IV: 1861, Cavalry Volunteers

James W. Hardie and Alva F. Hardie Join Bowie's Independent Company of Cavalry

James White Hardie attended Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, and immediately following his graduation he married Margaret Caperton on May 22, 1851, in Jackson County, Alabama. She died less than two years later leaving an infant daughter. On April 23, 1856, he married Taul Bradford's sister Francina. Shortly after their marriage, James and Francina moved to Arkansas where their two children were born. He told his brothers that he opposed secession, but when war seemed inevitable, he closed his business in Arkansas and returned to Talladega to enlist.

Alva Finley Hardie was only seventeen years old when Fort Sumter fell, but he claimed he was nineteen so he would be accepted into the cavalry. It's hard to believe that Alva's mother was enthusiastic about his enlistment at such a young age, and she may have had some influence on the decision for both James and Alva to join the same unit where James could keep an eye on his younger brother. James and Alva Hardie both joined Captain Andrew W. Bowie's independent company of cavalry in early July while Joseph and William Hardie and Taul Bradford were already in Virginia.

Captain Bowie's company of cavalry was formed in the summer of 1858 for the purpose of drilling, military discipline and various feats of horsemanship, but it did not have any official sanction. Each member provided his own horse and uniform. In October 1859 John Brown made his raid on Harper's Ferry for the purpose of arming a slave revolt. Despite Brown's failure, the Southern states took the threat seriously enough to create State Guards, or militia, to put down such revolts should they occur. Governor Andrew B. Moore of Alabama accepted Bowie's independent company into the Alabama State Guards in late 1859 as the Mountain Rangers. The state supplied the members with sabers and Colt navy revolvers. In 1861, after Alabama had seceded, Governor Moore offered the Mountain Rangers to Jefferson Davis for Confederate service.

On July 4, 1861, the new recruits joined the company at Decatur, Alabama, and on August 13, 1861, the company was accepted into Confederate service by order of Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk.

The company, which consisted of 100 men, moved by rail through Iuka and Corinth, Mississippi to Union City, in the Northwest corner of Tennessee. There it joined General Polk's invasion of Kentucky which had remained in the Union. Polk's force occupied Columbus, Kentucky, approximately 15 miles south of Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio joins the Mississippi. The fort at Columbus barred Union access to the Mississippi, and James and Alva Hardie must have seen the frequent artillery duels between Union gunboats and the Confederate batteries on the bluffs overlooking the river.

Bowie's company was employed as videttes doing picket duty armed with newly supplied double barrelled shotguns. In November 1861 the company went into camp near Mayfield, Kentucky, about 60 miles east of Columbus. It was here that it was formed into Brewer's cavalry battalion with three other cavalry companies, all under the command of Maj. Richard H. Brewer. The battalion formed a picket line from Columbus to the Tennessee river, a distance of about 120 miles.

At this stage of the war there had been little fighting, and the surrounding countryside was friendly and generous. The men had slaves to cook, but they attended to their own horses. As one trooper wrote home: "Camp life agrees with me finely. I have never enjoyed better health or endured so many hardships." The hardships, of course, were nothing compared to the true deprivation and suffering to come, but at this time the cavalry must have seemed a great adventure to James and Alva Hardie.

Return to Table of Contents

Chapter V: 1862, Western Tennessee

In January 1862, U.S. Grant embarked on an expedition into Kentucky to clear out the Confederate occupiers. On February 6, 1862, Fort Henry on the Tennessee river was abandoned and the defenders retreated 15 miles to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland river. Brewer's battalion had been sent to relieve Fort Henry, but the fort surrendered before the battalion arrived. With their purpose frustrated, they moved on south to Paris, Tennessee, to protect the railroad there.

Fort Donelson fell to Union attackers on February 16, 1862, and the forces at Columbus, Kentucky, were separated from the rest of the Confederate army at Nashville, Tennessee. So, at the end of February 1862, Nashville surrendered and Columbus was abandoned. James and Alva Hardie arrived at Columbus on March 1, 1862, with the rest of Brewer's battalion just in time to dismantle the fortifications. The battalion then covered the retreat of Polk's army from Columbus and followed it to Purdy, Tennessee, near the Mississippi border.

Shiloh

The Confederate "Army of Mississippi" was commanded by Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston who concentrated his retreating forces at Corinth, Mississippi, the junction of the Mobile & Ohio RR and the Memphis & Charleston RR. These were the main north-south and east-west railroads serving the Mississippi valley, and their preservation was paramount.

The Union army followed Johnston's retreat, and crossed the Tennessee river at Pittsburg Landing. In response, Johnston brought Maj. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard up from New Orleans and Maj. Gen. Braxton Bragg from Mobile with a total of 15,000 men. From Corinth this force attacked the Union army at Pittsburg Landing before all of the reinforcements had crossed the river. On the first day of battle, which was fought near Shiloh church, the Union army was taken completely by surprise, and the Confederates believed they had won a great victory.

Bowie's company had been alerted for the attack on April 4, 1862, and marched out the next morning after a night spent in pelting rain without tents. On the evening of the 5th they formed up on Pea ridge, about two miles from the Union camp. The next morning Brewer's battalion was moved to the left of the line to support an artillery battery. When the Union troops broke and ran, the battalion captured an entire Union battery.

That night Bowie's company performed picket duties between the two armies and often as close as a quarter of a mile from the Union position on the river. James and Alva could probably hear the sounds of the arrival and departure of boats as the Union reinforced its army. This activity was mistaken for retreat, and the Confederates were surprised when, instead of retreating, Grant's army counterattacked the next morning. Again, Brewer's battalion fought on the Confederate left until two o'clock in the afternoon when the Confederate line faltered. Johnston was killed on the first day of battle, so it was Beauregard who ordered the retreat from Shiloh. Lt. John S. McElderry of Bowie's company carried the order from Beauregard to Bragg to withdraw from the field.

The Confederate army withdrew back to Corinth; Brewer's battalion covered the withdrawal and guarded the Mobile & Ohio RR tracks which ran north from Corinth. After a brief rest, the Union army resumed its slow march south toward Corinth. On May 25, 1862, facing encirclement and a long siege, Beauregard secretly removed his army from Corinth to Tupelo while Brewer's battalion provided cover.

As a result of his decision to withdraw, Beauregard was replaced as commander with Braxton Bragg, and a general reorganization of the army followed. Brewer's battalion was combined with four other companies from Alabama and four Mississippi companies into a regiment of ten companies under Brewer's command. Brewer was almost immediately promoted to Brigadier General and sent to Virginia (where he was killed in 1864). Command of this new cavalry regiment, to be called the 8th Confederate Cavalry Regiment, was given to Col. William B. Wade, a Mississippian who was not then a member of the regiment. While a remarkable soldier, Wade had an uncontrolled temper which occasionally led to insubordination and friction between him and those in authority over him.

On May 30, 1862, Captain Bowie resigned for reasons of health, and command of his company, now Company A of the 8th Confederate, was given to Lt. McElderry. The 8th Confederate was assigned to a new cavalry brigade under the command of Brig. Gen. James R. Chalmers.

Although Corinth had been abandoned, skirmishing continued in the area between opposing cavalry units. In June 1862, the 8th Confederate was on picket duty in Tishomingo county in the far northeast corner of Mississippi. It was there, near the village of Blackland on June 4th, that the 8th Confederate repulsed a Union attack with a daring countercharge. Company A, with James and Alva Hardie, lead the charge and suffered the worst casualties. It was here that McElderry was wounded and gave up his command to George Knox Miller.

Chalmers soon returned to an infantry command, and in July 1862 Joseph Wheeler was promoted from command of the 19th Alabama infantry to command the cavalry brigade which included the 8th Confederate cavalry.

Born September 10, 1836, Joseph Wheeler was only twenty-five years old that July. He was an extraordinary leader whose devoted staff officers compiled a book about his Civil War exploits published in 1899 under the title Campaigns of Wheeler and his Cavalry 1862-1865. Wheeler's Civil War reports show a certain self-promotion, and he was one of the few Confederate officers to return to the U.S. Army where he served after the war as Major General. He later served in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Return to Table of Contents

Chapter VI: 1862, Conscription

April 1862 was a watershed for the Confederacy. The fall of New Orleans on April 29, 1862, and the disastrous reversal at the battle of Shiloh made it clear to Southerners that the war would not be easily and quickly won, if it could be won at all. As the anniversary of Fort Sumter approached, the 12-month enlistments under which most of the army had volunteered were almost up. These realities led the Confederate administration to take several controversial steps, including conscription and the creation of the Partisan Rangers.

Conscription was the most controversial. An honorable southerner was expected to volunteer, so conscription implied dishonor. Nevertheless, reality overcame idealism, and on April 16, 1862, Confederate president Jefferson Davis signed the act of conscription which rendered all white males between the ages of 18 and 35 liable to military service. A number of professions were exempt, but not farmers. On September 27, 1862, the upper limit was extended to age 45. In response to the political power of its planters, and out of fear of its slaves, the Confederacy amended the conscription law on October 11, 1862, to exempt one white male for each farm with at least twenty slaves, but the amendment did not exempt men who had enlisted prior to its passage. On May 1, 1863, the exemptions were again amended to apply only to overseers on farms owned by minor children or widowed or single women.

Robert A. Hardie Joins the 31st Alabama Infantry and Taul Bradford Joins the 30th Alabama Infantry

The conscription law encouraged the formation of many new volunteer regiments. Among them were the 30th and 31st Alabama infantry regiments which were organized in Talladega in April 1862.

Robert Alexander Hardie was the fifth child of John and Mary Hardie, and he remained home after completing his education at the "common school" in Mardisville, Alabama, near Talladega. The war was already a year old when he enlisted on April 1, 1862, in Company G of the 31st Alabama infantry regiment as a lieutenant. The regiment was mustered into Confederate service at Camp Goldthwaite in Talladega on May 7, 1862, under the command of Colonel David R. Hundley.

Taul Bradford, who helped organize the unit, was elected on March 28, 1862, as lieutenant colonel of the 30th Alabama, and he served on the regimental staff. Colonel Charles M. Shelley was the commanding officer. Tipton Bradford served as a private in Company I of the 30th. The men were mustered in at Camp Curry in Talladega on April 18, 1862.

The 30th and 31st Alabama were sent to Chattanooga where they were within the Confederate Department of East Tennessee under the command of Maj. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith. The 30th Alabama was in Brig. Gen. Carter L. Stevenson's brigade while the 31st was at first unattached. In camp in eastern Tennessee the 31st suffered serious losses from mumps and measles before it ever saw any action. In June 1862 the roster carried less than half the regiment's standard strength.

In April 1862 the Union army undertook a difficult mountain action against the Cumberland Gap, northeast of Chattanooga. After several weeks of arduous mountain passages and skirmishes, the main action occurred on June 15, 1862, at Big Creek Gap with the Union army ultimately occupying the Cumberland Gap. The 30th and 31st Alabama infantry both saw action at Cumberland Gap in June 1862.

By July 3, 1862, both the 30th and the 31st Alabama regiments were together in a brigade under Brig. Gen. S.M. Barton in a division commanded by General Stevenson. It was under Stevenson that the division fought at Tazewell, Tennessee, on August 6th, and drove off a large Union force foraging in the Clinch river valley.

Return to Table of Contents

Chapter VII: 1862, The West

The Invasion of Kentucky

As a slave state, Kentucky was expected to secede with the other southern states, but in response to strong Unionist feeling its legislature declared neutrality, instead. A neutral Kentucky seems appropriate for, ironically, both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were natives of Kentucky. Neutrality didn't last long; when Leonidas Polk invaded the western end of the state in July 1861 an indignant legislature declared for the Union, and its Confederate sympathizing governor left for the south. When Polk withdrew from Kentucky in March 1862 the state remained firmly in Union hands. After the loss at Shiloh and the withdrawal from Corinth, the Union also controlled western Tennessee as well as northern Mississippi and northwest Alabama. These Union armies controlled a line from Western Arkansas to the Cumberland Gap.

For Confederate politicians and soldiers, Kentucky remained an attractive objective. It was widely believed that Kentuckians would flock to the Confederate cause if only they were given the opportunity. Consequently, in the summer of 1862 the Confederate government devised a plan to invade Kentucky and then drive the Union army out of Tennessee. The invasion was also intended to coincide with Lee's invasion of Maryland. Kirby Smith's army in eastern Tennessee would march toward Lexington, Kentucky, while Braxton Bragg's army would strike north from Chattanooga. Before the invasion began, John Hunt Morgan conducted his famous raid through Kentucky from July 4th to July 28th.

Bragg's army was in northern Mississippi, so he had to move it by rail from the Tupelo area to Mobile and then by rail northeast to Atlanta where it again changed rail lines for Chattanooga. Bragg left about a third of his force in Mississippi under the command of Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn and sent the rest to Chattanooga beginning on July 23, 1862. Within two weeks all of Bragg's army had arrived in Chattanooga.

Kirby Smith's army, which included C.L. Stevenson's division with both Taul Bradford's 30th Alabama and Robert Hardie's 31st Alabama infantry regiments, entered Kentucky on August 15, 1862, and took possession of Barbourville while Stevenson blocked the Union force at Cumberland Gap. After the Union troops withdrew from the Cumberland Gap, Stevenson's division followed Smith into Kentucky on August 19th and marched north as far as Versailles, Kentucky, between Lexington and Frankfort. On August 30th Smith's army drove a smaller force of Union defenders out of Richmond and went on to occupy Lexington and then Frankfort where he installed a new Confederate governor. Meanwhile, Bragg's army moved north on a parallel march; it entered Kentucky near Tompkinsville and reached Munfordville on September 17th.

The Union army was also on the move. Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell left Corinth, Mississippi, with part of the force that had been concentrated there. He was able to take the rail line directly east to Stevenson, Alabama, where he turned north on another rail line through Nashville, Tennessee, to Louisville, Kentucky.

Buell confronted Bragg and Smith at Perryville on October 7-8th, but neither army committed its full strength. After a preliminary skirmish on the 7th and a tentative engagement between elements of both armies on the 8th, Bragg abandoned the invasion in the belief that he was vastly outnumbered. Despite the purpose of the invasion, there was no decisive battle, and both Bragg and Kirby Smith retreated as they had come. Stevenson's division did not fight at either Richmond or Perryville, but it did hold off the Union pursuers at Harrodsburg and Lancaster, Kentucky, while in retreat. By October 25th Stevenson's division was back in camp at Blain's crossroads, near Knoxville, Tennessee. Although there was little fighting for Taul Bradford and Robert Hardie during this campaign, there was a lot of marching for their men. All of the reports stress the lack of water, the dust, and the miserable condition of the roads. As a result, the withdrawal from Kentucky was disorganized in the extreme. Kirby Smith wrote to Bragg on October 22nd: "My men have suffered on this march everything excepting actual starvation." It's little wonder that the men of Kentucky did not flock to the Confederate standard. It was during this campaign that Robert Hardie was elected captain on October 17, 1862, and placed in command of Company B when its commanding officer resigned.

One source indicates that Taul Bradford resigned from the 30^th Alabama Infantry on November 10, 1862, but it has not been confirmed. If it is correct, then references to Taul Bradford as a member of the 30^th Alabama Infantry after November 1862 would be incorrect.

Corinth

Corinth and Iuka, Mississippi, were located at important junctions of the only uninterrupted rail line within the Confederacy which ran between the Mississippi river and the east coast. When the Union army captured Corinth and occupied Iuka after the battle of Shiloh, it cut these important railway lines and blocked Confederate traffic between Chattanooga and Memphis. Consequently, it was another objective of the invasion of Kentucky to weaken the defenses of both cities by drawing off defenders to eastern Tennessee. A Confederate force of 15,000 under Maj. Gen. Sterling Price was successful in driving out the Union defenders from Iuka on September 14, 1862, but after a fight on the 19th he abandoned the town in the face of a two pronged attack by reinforcements. On October 3, 1862, a Confederate force, under Van Dorn attacked Corinth. The Confederates drove the Union outer defenders back despite "terrific volleys of shell, grape, and canister," according to the report of one of the brigade commanders, Brig. Gen. Albert Rust. On the morning of October 4th, the Confederate attack was broken on the breastworks and rifle pits which formed the inner defenses. Rust's report said that one of his regiments, which he identifies as the 31st Alabama, did not perform well:

I regret that a sense of duty to the service and justice to the balance of the brigade will not allow me to bestow the same unmixed praise upon the Thirty-First Alabama Regiment. A portion of this regiment, in spite of the gallantry of their colonel and his efforts to make them do their duty, following the example of some of its commanding officers, behaved disgracefully. At a most critical moment it broke in disorder and all efforts to restore it were unavailing.

The identification of the 31st Alabama is almost certainly an error on Rust's part, for the 31st is clearly identified as a part of Barton's brigade which was in eastern Tennessee at the time. Although the 31st is not individually mentioned in any of the reports of the invasion of Kentucky, it would have been senseless for the 31st to have been transferred west at the same time that Bragg was going to such trouble to move his army east. Moreover, Confederate records indicate that the 30th and the 31st Alabama infantry regiments were reorganized in early December 1862 into a brigade with three other Alabama regiments near Tullahoma, Tennessee, commanded by Brig. Gen. E.D. Tracy. Rust had taken command of his brigade in Corinth only a day or two before the battle, and he may have been genuinely ignorant of its constituent regiments. Moreover, the battle resulted in charges against Van Dorn for waiting to attack the inner defenses on the morning of October 4th rather than follow up his initial success by attacking on the evening before. Rust, who had just been transferred into the command, was one of the witnesses against Van Dorn, so Rust's report, which was written before the hearing, may not have received his full attention.

Return to Table of Contents

Chapter VIII: 1862, Partisan Rangers

Alva Hardie Joins the Partisan Rangers

During Gen. Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky in the late summer of 1862, Wade's 8th Confederate Cavalry operated under Brig. Gen. Joseph Wheeler to destroy railroads supplying the opposing Union forces and to provide intelligence of the movement of those forces. When the invasion was abandoned, Bragg's army withdrew to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, a town about a fourth of the way from Nashville to Chattanooga.

It was during this interval at Murfreesboro that Alva Hardie transferred on September 23, 1862, out of Wade's 8th Confederate cavalry into the 51st Alabama Cavalry Regiment, Partisan Rangers. He served in Company A under Major James T. Dye.

Passage of the Partisan Rangers Act was the other controversial action taken in April 1862 by the Confederacy. It authorized the creation of special troops to be used primarily on detached duty to meet emergencies as they arose; they were intended to operate behind Union lines on the model of Morgan's Raiders as free-booting cavalry units which profited from the goods seized on their raids. The Alabama 51st Cavalry Regiment, Partisan Rangers, was such a unit. Although it was the first Alabama regiment of Partisan Rangers, it was named the 51st to avoid confusion with the original 1st regiment of regular Alabama cavalry. The 51st was organized in August by Col. John Tyler Morgan with nine companies, and on September 2, 1862, it was assigned to the Army of Tennessee.

Why did Alva Hardie transfer to the 51st Alabama cavalry? Naturally, any answer is speculative in the absence of contemporary sources, but it seems obvious. John Tyler Morgan was the first cousin of John Hunt Morgan who achieved such fame in Kentucky in command of the model for the partisan rangers. Alva had already served in the cavalry for fifteen months, and his experience, especially in a major battle like Shiloh, had surely hardened him. Moreover, Alva must have known John Tyler Morgan well. John Tyler Morgan’s business travels had frequently taken him by Thornhill where he met and married Cornelia Willis, the niece and ward of Mrs. Hardie, on February 11, 1846. The young couple lived for a time at Thornhill before moving to Tuskegee and on to Selma.

At some point in time these cavalrymen became killers. To be sure, the infantrymen and artillerymen killed their enemy, and sometimes it was with bayonets and grape shot. But for the most part, the infantry and artillery killed at a distance with rifles and cannon; their enemy were usually faceless forms. The cavalry was at first armed only with shotguns, pistols and sabers, so it was forced to fight up close where, in the moment or two before death, the cavalryman might form an impression his enemy. Moreover, the infantry and artillery fought rarely and usually after ponderous troop movements among large bodies of their fellow soldiers. The cavalry fought often, and sometimes continuously. As pickets and scouts they fought in small groups after seeking out their enemy. That made them killers. For the benefit of Union General-in-chief H.W. Halleck, Sherman described the Confederate cavalry in a letter dated September 13, 1863:

[T]he young bloods of the South, sons of planters, lawyers about towns, good billiard players, and sportsmen - men who never did work nor never will. War suits them, and the rascals are brave; fine riders, bold to rashness, and dangerous subjects in every sense. . . . As long as they have good horses, plenty of forage, and an open country, they are happy. This is a larger class than most men supposed, and are the most dangerous set of men which this war has turned loose upon the world. They are splendid riders, shots, and utterly reckless. Stuart, John Morgan, Forrest, and Jackson are the types and leaders of this class. This class of men must all be killed or employed by us before we can hope for peace.

And as we shall see, they were later accused of murder for shooting their captives, a charge they denied, but in the circumstances we can readily believe. Perhaps such a metamorphosis influenced Alva Hardie to transfer to a partisan ranger company. If so, it is even more astounding that after the war he was able to return home to a prosaic life, marry and raise a family. Perhaps, too, he wanted to escape from his older brother; Alva was then eighteen years old, and James was thirty-one. If so, he did not escape far. James Hardie remained with Wade's 8th Confederate cavalry regiment, and both the 8th Confederate cavalry and the 51st Alabama cavalry continued to operate together under Wheeler.

Murfreesboro

At the end of December 1862 Wheeler's cavalry participated in three days of fighting on the Stones river at Murfreesboro. David Cozzens has written a thorough analysis of the battle of Stones river in No Better Place to Die, published in 1990.

After Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky was repulsed, Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans took command of the U.S. Army of the Cumberland at Bowling Green, Kentucky, on October 30, 1862. The rail lines between Louisville and Nashville had been destroyed by Confederate cavalry, and communications and supplies were threatened. To secure his communications, Rosecrans took his army unopposed to Nashville on November 4, 1862. Meanwhile, on November 26, 1862, Bragg established his headquarters in Murfreesboro, about thirty-five miles to the southeast.

Rosecrans was not allowed to remain on the defensive. Union losses at Fredericksburg and Chickasaw Bayou, created political demands for a Union victory in Tennessee. The Union attack from Nashville to Murfreesboro began in stages on December 24, 1862. Wheeler's brigade was about half way between the two towns, bivouacked along Stewart's creek across the Murfreesboro-Nashville Turnpike. From there he should have been able to cover the direct approach to Murfreesboro, but advance elements of the Union army surprised one of Wheeler's outposts on the pike on December 26th. Moreover, Wheeler's reports of Union movements the next day were late and incomplete. As a consequence, Rosecrans' force was able to reach Murfreesboro without significant resistance from Bragg's army.

On Monday, December 29, 1862, the armies opposed each other about two miles north of Murfreesboro on the left (or northwest) bank of the west fork of the Stones river. The next two days were taken up by skirmishes as the armies probed each other's positions. The weather was cold and rainy, but to conceal their position and strength Confederate camp fires were forbidden. At dawn on the 31st, the Confederate left wing attacked the Union right while its infantry was still breakfasting. The Union troops were shattered and fell back until a stubborn Ohio cavalry brigade halted the Confederate advance. Brig. Gen. Philip Sheridan's division in the Union center threw back the Confederate assault under Maj. Gen. John C. Breckenridge with devastating losses to the Confederates. Skirmishing filled January 1st, and the Confederates were unable to dislodge Rosecrans' army the next day despite another infantry assault.

Wheeler's men, however, were fighting their own battles. On December 27th Alva Hardie's 51st Alabama under John T. Morgan and James Hardie's 8th Confederate under W.B. Wade fought on the Union right where they encountered Union cavalry on the Jefferson Pike at Stewart's creek. The next day the 51st formed a line of battle to the east of the Nashville pike about 8 miles from Murfreesboro with only slight skirmishing.

On December 29th Wheeler's cavalry was on the extreme right of the line of battle, and at midnight the men started out for the Union rear. At daylight on the 30th they reached Jefferson, about ten miles north of Murfreesboro, where they attacked a brigade wagon train which they destroyed. About five miles to the northwest at LaVergne they again attacked and destroyed a large wagon train, and at Rock Springs they attacked and destroyed still a third wagon train. The next morning they proceeded to the left flank of their own army which was already engaged in the first day of the main battle. On January 1st they again embarked on a circuit of the Union lines attacking another wagon train at LaVergne. On January 3rd the troop circled behind the Union lines for a third time, attacking a large ammunition train at Cox's hill. This train, which Union reports identify as 95 "ammunition and hospital" wagons, was upset, but an infantry brigade drove off Wheeler's men before the wagons could be destroyed.

With Rosecrans still in the field, Bragg ordered his army to withdraw on January 3rd. Wheeler's cavalry took up rear guard positions about three miles south of Murfreesboro. Both sides suffered heavy losses, and Bragg's decision to withdraw has been much debated. Rosecrans' lack of enthusiasm for pursuit is generally attributed to the destruction of his supplies by Wheeler's cavalry. Nevertheless, Wheeler has come in for criticism because his intelligence gathering abilities did not meet his capability for destruction. Cozzens suggests that Bragg's willingness to order a disastrous second infantry assault on January 2nd may have been the result of Wheeler's incorrect report that Rosecrans planned to retreat, while Bragg's eagerness to withdraw the next day may have been the result of equally incorrect reports that Rosecrans was being reinforced.

Bragg took his army to the Duck river valley twenty miles to the south, near Shelbyville, Tennessee, and it spent the rest of the winter there. But Wheeler's cavalry did not abandon its harassment of the Union force. In mid-January his troops continued to burn bridges in the Union rear and attack river traffic on the Cumberland river. They captured the steamer Hastings with sick and wounded Union soldiers, and the surgeon in charge claimed the Confederates were "intoxicated and getting more so." The steamer Charter, with mostly commissary stores, was burned, and the Union reports say that "at least four more freight boats" were destroyed. Rosecrans complained of the "barbarism" of the Wheeler raid, but the Confederate Congress passed a resolution of thanks to Wheeler.

Return to Table of Contents

Chapter VIII: 1862, The Fall of New Orleans

John T. Hardie Joins Hughes Mississippi Cavalry Battalion

John Timmons Hardie moved to New Orleans in the Spring of 1853. On November 8, 1854 he married Ann Eliza Gary in Tuskegee, Alabama. Four of their children were born before the war began; two in Tuskegee and two in New Orleans. John T. Hardie & Co. prospered in the cotton trading business, but John T. Hardie was willing to sacrifice that prosperity in the interest of Confederate success by supporting an embargo of cotton. It was one of the South's strategies to stop all shipments of cotton from the South to English mills until the British recognized the new Confederacy. John T. Hardie joined this cause with nearly one hundred other cotton factors in New Orleans despite the obvious individual sacrifice. When it appeared that the planters might not follow this plan, these factors petitioned the governor on September 23, 1861, to take steps to bar cotton shipments to the port of New Orleans.

On April 29, 1862, New Orleans was captured by David G. Farragut at the head of the Union fleet. Baton Rouge fell next. Soon planters on the Confederate side of the lines were trading cotton with Union officials in New Orleans. Although cotton prices increased to six times their prewar levels, the strategy never induced any European recognition for the South.

John T. Hardie's effort to cut off the cotton trade earned him an assessment by the occupying Union governor. According to General Order No. 55 dated August 4, 1862, there was a need to relieve the "destitute poor" of the city, and General Butler decided that the cost of relief should be borne by "those who have endeavored to destroy the commercial prosperity of the city, upon which the welfare of its inhabitants depends." He was referring to the

cotton brokers who, claiming to control that great interest in New Orleans, to which she is so much indebted for her wealth, published in the newspapers, in October, 1861, a manifesto, deliberately advising the planters not to bring their produce to the city; a measure which brought ruin at the same time upon the producer and the city. This act sufficiently testifies to the malignity of these traitors, as well to the Government as their neighbors, and it is to be regretted that their ability to relieve their fellow-citizens is not equal to their facilities for injuring them.

John T. Hardie & Co. was placed in the category which was assessed the highest amount, $500. Perhaps the high assessment is evidence of John T. Hardie's relative prosperity, or perhaps it reflects that he had already left the city to join the Confederate army.

In any event, John T. Hardie closed his business soon after the fall of New Orleans and enlisted in Company D of Hughes Battalion of Mississippi cavalry. According to Military History of Mississippi: 1803-1898 by Dunbar Rowland, Hughes battalion was organized by Henry Hughes as a partisan ranger corps in late spring and early summer 1862 with both infantry and cavalry elements. The cavalry part remained permanently in service under the command of Colonel Christopher C. Wilbourn. As New Orleans was in Union hands John T. Hardie had to slip through Union lines to join a Mississippi regiment. It is also probable that this is the time he took his family to Macon County, Alabama, where his wife Ann Eliza Gary gave birth to their daughter Ann Eliza on October 5, 1862. He left his wife there with her mother; her father had died before their marriage.

Official reports indicate that on October 22, 1862, the Hughes battalion was at Camp Ashley in Port Hudson, Louisiana, a fortified encampment in East Feliciana parish, about 25 miles north of Baton Rouge. On December 15, 1862, John T. Hardie was elected junior second lieutenant of Company D at Camp Ashley. He received notice of his election by mail because he was on furlough in Macon County from December 10, 1862, until January 10, 1863.

Chickasaw Bayou

During late 1862 one of the Union objectives was to open the Mississippi river from Memphis to New Orleans. The chief obstacles were the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg and the fort 240 river miles to the south at Port Hudson, Louisiana. With 40,000 men U.S. Grant moved down from Tennessee along the Mississippi Central Railroad and W.T. Sherman moved down the Mississippi river in a two-pronged drive. Grant was stopped at Oxford, Mississippi, by Confederate cavalry who cut his supply lines.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis had visited Murfreesboro on December 12, 1862, and in consultation with his generals decided that Rosecrans' intentions were defensive. So, on December 16, 1862, Carter L. Stevenson's division, with Robert Hardie in the 31st Alabama infantry and Taul Bradford in the 30th Alabama infantry, was transferred to Mississippi. The direct railroad line from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Corinth, Mississippi, remained in Union control, so Stevenson's division reversed the route taken by Bragg's army the previous July: by rail from Chattanooga to Atlanta, then to Mobile, Alabama, by way of Montgomery, and then to Jackson by way of Meridian, Mississippi. It took three weeks. From Jackson they marched twelve miles north of Vicksburg to Chickasaw Bayou to meet Sherman's attack.

Sherman abandoned his attack after an unsuccessful assault on the Confederate defenses at Chickasaw Bayou. Both the 30th and 31st Alabama with Taul Bradford and Robert Hardie saw action against Sherman's invasion at Chickasaw Bayou in December 1862. Moreover, the 31st Alabama was credited with "a strong desire to meet the enemy" according to its brigade commander.

Return to Table of Contents

Chapter IX: 1862, Virginia

The Peninsular Campaign

April 1862 also saw resumption of activity back in Virginia where William was the only Hardie who remained. The Union army made another try to take Richmond with a landing by approximately 100,000 men under the command of George B. McClellan on the peninsula formed by the James and the York rivers.

The twenty guns of the Washington Artillery were part of a reserve brigade of artillery under Brig. Gen. William N. Pendleton, Chief of Artillery on the staff of the commanding general, Joseph E. Johnston. The Washington Artillery remained under General Pendleton until June when Walton was ordered to report to General Longstreet where he became the general's chief of artillery. The battalion was then assigned as reserve under General Longstreet, and batteries were assigned as needed to various elements of his army during the campaign. For example, Captain Rosser's battery was at the siege of Yorktown; two were at the battle at Mechanicsville bridge where they were identified in Union dispatches.

Johnston retreated from Yorktown back up the peninsula to within six miles of Richmond when he was wounded on May 31, 1862, in the battle of Seven Pines. The army was then placed under the command of General Robert E. Lee who had been serving on the personal staff of Jefferson Davis.

Relying on information gathered by J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry, Lee attacked McClellan's army on June 26, 1862, to begin the Seven Days' battles, a series of encounters on both sides of the Chickahominy river.

On July 1, 1862, at the close of the Seven Days, the two armies fought an artillery battle at Malvern Hill. McClellan placed 350 guns on a plateau where they overlooked the 160 guns of the Confederates. From their elevated position the Union guns, including enormous siege guns, destroyed the lighter Confederate guns below. Despite the destruction of his artillery, Lee ordered an infantry assault which was decimated by the Union guns then freed from opposing artillery. The battle ended at dark as the assault was abandoned.

The Washington Artillery was spared the destruction at Malvern Hill; it had been held in reserve and never brought up. Pendleton complained in his report that "not one-half of the division batteries were brought into action." Indeed, Pendleton argued that throughout the Seven Days "too little was thrown into action at once," but he did acknowledge that a main cause of this was the "prevalence of woods and swamps."

Malvern Hill was a defensive position which had been taken by McClellan in retreat. Therefore, his victory did not divert the Union army from its retreat to Harrison's Landing, its original embarkation. In order to block Union efforts to refit its army, on July 5, 1862, Captain Squires and the 1st Company of Washington Artillery joined Col. Stephen D. Lee in an effort to prevent McClellan's resupply. Squires placed his battery on a bluff overlooking the James river, and from there they shelled Union gunboats, transports and tugs. For three days William T. Hardie joined a game of cat and mouse, firing and then moving when the 1st Company's position was discovered by the gunboats.

In July 1862 R.E. Lee reorganized the Army of Northern Virginia into two corps, one under Maj. Gen. James Longstreet and the other under Jackson. Col. Walton's battalion remained in the corps commanded by Longstreet. Also in July 1862, William T. Hardie was promoted to Sergeant.

Second Manassas

In August 1862 Union and Confederate forces met again at Manassas. The 1st Company of Washington Artillery was engaged in reconnaissance on the Rappahannock river on August 22, 1862, as Union forces were working their way towards Richmond. On the morning of the 23rd, William T. Hardie's battery was at Rappahannock station across the river from a Union battery with which it held an artillery duel as the early morning fog lifted. The Union troops were driven back after a furious battle with the loss of four killed and five wounded from the 1st Company. This was one of several encounters which slowed the Union advance to Manassas.

On August 25th Jackson took his army corps on a semi-circular march; first to the northwest along the Rappahannock and then east on August 26th along the Manassas Gap Railroad to Manassas junction which was the main Union supply base. After taking everything they could carry, the Confederate troops destroyed the base and moved off to the northwest where Jackson took position along an unfinished railroad line. Jackson withstood the first Union efforts to drive him out, but as the Union forces closed in on him on August 29th, Longstreet's corps joined Jackson on his right. The 1st and 3rd companies of Washington Artillery entered the battle at Groveton. The 1st with William T. Hardie was on the left and the 3rd was on the right facing the Union left flank where both companies "poured destructive fire into their affrighted ranks," according to Walton. The next day Longstreet wheeled the artillery around the Union left and crushed them back from Groveton to Henry house hill. On the 31st the Union army retreated, while William T. Hardie's company pursued it as far as Germantown.

Longstreet's corps did not see the same action as Jackson's did, and the Washington Artillery was not as hard pressed at the second battle of Manassas as they had been during the artillery duel a week earlier at Rappahannock station. Yet, as Walton exulted, the battle was "fought almost on the same ground and in sight of the field where our guns first pealed forth a little more than a year before."

Antietam

Although Lee's army was poorly supplied, it was flush with victory at second Manassas. Instead of returning to Richmond, Lee urged Jefferson Davis to authorize an invasion of Maryland; it might attract support from a slave state, it might cut the capital's railroad links to the West, and it might force a Union peace initiative. So, on September 4, 1862, Lee's army of 50,000 men crossed the Potomac into Maryland thirty-five miles above Washington. The Union army with 80,000 men under McClellan moved ponderously to Sharpsburg, Maryland, where the two armies met across Antietam creek.

Longstreet's corps was on the Confederate right, and it opposed Ambrose E. Burnside's Union corps. The Washington Artillery took its place on September 15th in this right wing. William T. Hardie's 1st Company with four guns was in front of Sharpsburg on the right of the turnpike running through the center of the town. Although fired upon by the Union batteries, the shorter range of the Washington Artillery's guns did not permit a reply. The next day saw the 1st Company in an artillery duel that General Longstreet silenced after forty minutes because there was no ammunition to spare.

On September 17th the heavy fighting began on the left as Jackson's corps absorbed attacks from the front and left. On Longstreet's front Walton's battalion and a battalion under Col. Stephen D. Lee provided artillery support for a brigade of infantry commanded by Brig. Gen. Robert A. Toombs. The early action was limited to preventing the union infantry from crossing the creek on "Burnside Bridge," and the artillerymen received damaging fire from Union sharpshooters on the other side of the creek. The bridge was a pivotal part of the battle on Longstreet's front, and two regiments of Union infantry finally crossed it by early afternoon. Once the bridge had been taken, the remaining units of Burnside's three divisions combined to face Toombs' single brigade. The artillery fire repelled charging Union infantry again and again until dark. William T. Hardie's battery exhausted its ammunition in mid-afternoon, so it left a single gun in place to help its relief and retired to refill its ammunition wagon. On its return it joined S.D. Lee's battalion in driving back Union infantry that reached within 150 yards of the batteries. At dusk, just as Longstreet's front was about to collapse, A.P. Hill's division arrived from Harper's Ferry to drive Burnside's divisions back across the creek.

When the slaughter ended at Sharpsburg the Union claimed a great success, and R.E. Lee escaped with an army that had suffered substantial casualties. The Washington Artillery returned south to Culpeper, Virginia, where it set about building a camp for its winter quarters and entertaining its men with amateur theatricals.

The Attempt to Reorganize the Washington Artillery

The Washington Artillery had lost men, horses and guns to a disabling degree. As a result, Walton was confronted with a demand for complete reorganization of his battalion.

The army bureaucracy was a formidable foe, but the Washington Artillery faced it as fearlessly as it had the Union army. Pendleton, by then Chief of Artillery for the entire Army of Northern Virginia, complained that the army was burdened with too many artillery companies which were a financial drain in every way, but "especially in its enormous consumption of horses." Four batteries required a constant supply of 310 horses. Each company, or battery, of the Washington Artillery consisted of four guns, and each gun required men to load, aim and fire the gun as well as men to handle the horses which had to remain in the thick of battle to move the guns at a moment's notice. Under normal circumstances, the Washington Artillery would consist of 16 caissons, 16 gun carriages, a forge and other equipment, 200 horses and 300 men. Immediately after the battle at Sharpsburg, the Washington Artillery could report only 212 men present, or about two-thirds of its service standard. State jealousies within the Confederacy prohibited the mingling of citizens of different states in the same unit, and recruits from Louisiana were a remote prospect in Virginia. This caused Pendleton to recommend to Lee that the four companies be consolidated into two.

Walton objected strenuously that the proposed reduction was prohibited by the terms of the original organization of the battalion and the conditions of its acceptance into Confederate service. Lee relented only so much as to recommend to the Secretary of War that the four companies be reduced to three provided it could be done "without violating plighted faith."

Fredericksburg

While its reorganization remained unresolved, all four companies of the Washington Artillery participated in the battle at Fredericksburg, Virginia, where the Confederacy inflicted one of the worst defeats of the war on the Union army. It was also the battle in which William T. Hardie was wounded.

On November 7, 1862, Burnside assumed command of the entire U.S. Army of the Potomac as it moved south toward Richmond with 110,000 men. The army paused on the Rappahannock opposite Fredericksburg to await pontoons needed to bridge the river. By the time the pontoons arrived, R.E. Lee, in command of 75,000 men, had placed Longstreet's corps, including the four companies of the Washington Artillery, on the left on Marye's hill above the town and Jackson's corps on the right on Prospect hill. The 1st Company's battery, still under the command of Squires, consisted of two 3-inch rifled cannon and one 10-pounder Parrot gun. The Parrot gun was also a 3-inch rifled cannon, but it required special shells to accomplish muzzle loading. These rifled guns had about twice the range of the smooth bored Napoleons. The other companies had four 12-pound light guns (Napoleons) and two 12-pound howitzers.

The battle covered three days from December 11th to the 13th with most of the fighting on the final day. Fog shrouded the Rappahannock valley on the first day, but the Union artillery bombarded the town all day without any response from Walton's batteries. The men spent the night beside their guns. The fog lifted late the next afternoon, and Walton's batteries fired on a heavy column below the town. After the column dispersed, Walton's batteries ceased firing and received the Union bombardment without replying. When night fell the men slept again beside their guns. Under cover of the fog the Union troops had crossed the river and massed in the town. Shortly after noon on the 13th they began their advance in front of Marye's hill. Wave after wave of Union infantry were gunned down by the constant fire of Walton's artillery while they themselves took heavy fire from the Union artillery and sharpshooters. After four and a half hours of constant firing, the Washington Artillery had exhausted its ammunition and lost 3 killed and 23 wounded, among whom was William T. Hardie. With these losses the battalion relinquished its position to fresh batteries from Alexander's Battalion. The Union army loses were so appalling that Burnside withdrew his forces, and the march on Richmond was abandoned.

After the battle at Fredericksburg, and perhaps as a result of the battalion's performance, it was decided that Walton would keep his full four companies. In February 1863 Pendleton submitted a new plan of reorganization in which the Washington Artillery remained as before, and he noted laconically: "Colonel Walton, of course, remains as long as he wishes in command of this. He is known to be from Louisiana." Evidently Walton's origin was all the explanation necessary for these Virginians.

The artillery reorganization also removed artillery batteries from the usual brigade command and organized them into battalions of four batteries each under division command. Moreover, all the new battalions of each corps were to report to, and be supervised by Pendleton himself as Chief of Artillery. The reorganization also put the Washington Artillery in a reserve status in Longstreet's corps. So, Walton won his battle with the bureaucracy, but Pendleton remained in control.

The Washington Artillery Recruits in Mobile

With the size of his command assured, Walton turned south to recruit replacements from Louisiana while the men returned to their winter quarters at Culpeper. These quarters were far less comfortable than the previous winter's camp. They had no huts, and the men had to dig holes in the ground which they covered with canvas. Fireplaces dug in the hole provided warmth, and straw on the bottom kept out the damp. The officers, of course, had large heated tents.

The recruiters could not actually go to New Orleans because it was under Union control, so Walton, his adjutant, and a commissioned officer and non-commissioned officer from each company went to Mobile. Walton and his adjutant put up at the old Battle House hotel in Mobile while the officers went to recruiting stations as near as possible to New Orleans. Relying on assistance within the city, enough new recruits were added to the battalion roster to man the full complement of guns. The last of the recruiters returned to Virginia at the end of April 1863.

After recovering from his wounds William T. Hardie returned to duty in February 1863. One source says he visited Talladega while recovering from his wounds. As a non-commissioned officer, he would have been eligible for the recruiting trip to Mobile, and it makes sense that he would have visited Talladega as part of the recruiting trip. Confederate veteran's records say that he was detached for recruiting, but the time he is said to have been recruiting is during the Gettysburg campaign. Since this is the only recruiting detail discussed in William M. Owen's book, it is likely that William T. Hardie did join this trip to Mobile.

Return to Table of Contents

Chapter X: 1863, The West

As 1863 began, William T. Hardie was in his winter camp in Virginia. Alva Hardie and James Hardie were providing cavalry support for Braxton Bragg's army on the Duck river near Shelbyville, Tennessee. Robert Hardie and Taul Bradford were at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and John T. Hardie was returning from his furlough to Camp Ashley near Port Hudson, Louisiana. Joseph Hardie was in Talladega in command of a battalion of reserve cavalry.

The Confederates in Mississippi enjoyed the security of the "Gibraltar of the West" from January 1863 until April 1863 when Grant unleashed his second two-pronged attack on Vicksburg.

Robert Hardie and Taul Bradford and their infantry regiments faced the first of these two forces while John T. Hardie's cavalry regiment faced the second.

Port Gibson

Grant's river landing consisted of a fleet of gunboats and troop transports which slipped by the Vicksburg batteries on April 16, 1863. Despite heavy fire only one of the three transports and none of the eight gunboats were sunk. On April 22nd six steamers and twelve more barges ran the batteries around midnight after the moon had set. Houses on the Louisiana side of the river were set on fire to provide light for the gunners, heavy bombardment from the batteries sank only one of the steamers while the remainder passed despite substantial damage.

The flotilla disembarked on the west side of the river and assembled north of Hard Times, Louisiana, opposite Grand Gulf, Mississippi. On April 30th the Union forces embarked again and were taken in the late afternoon across the river to Bruinsburg, Mississippi. Marching at night, the Union troops first encountered the Confederate defenders at 1:00 a.m. on the road to Port Gibson.

Over 20,000 Union soldiers were landed at Bruinsburg, but the Confederate commander at Vicksburg, Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, did not fully appreciate the threat presented by the force which had passed his batteries. Moreover, the attack was expected at Grand Gulf which was bombarded by the Union gunboats on April 29th. Therefore, Brig. Gen. John S. Bowen, who commanded the brigade at Grand Gulf, sent out only 750 men under Brig. Gen. E.M. Green early on April 30th to cover the two roads from Bruinsburg to Port Gibson.

A brigade from C.L. Stevenson's division, consisting of a battery of artillery and the 20th, 23rd, 30th and 31st Alabama infantry regiments under Brig. Gen. Edward D. Tracy, was also sent to Port Gibson from Warrenton late in the evening of April 29th. They marched over forty miles in under 27 hours with little food to reach Port Gibson on the night of April 30th. They were immediately formed into battle lines and allowed to sleep at their positions until they were aroused by the attacks on Green's pickets at about 1:00 a.m. Robert Hardie was with the 31st Alabama and Taul Bradford was with the 30th Alabama. Green and Tracy's brigades, only 2300 men, met the first Union attack early on May 1st.

A brigade under Brig. Gen. W.E. Baldwin and another under Col. F.M. Cockerell arrived late in the morning of May 1st from Grand Gulf to bring to approximately 5200 the total number of Confederate forces who faced the five divisions under Grant's command. Maj. Gen. William W. Loring's division from Jackson, Mississippi, and Brig. Gen. A.W. Reynold's brigade from Stevenson's division left too late on May 1st to reach Port Gibson to provide additional reinforcements.

Tracy's Brigade began the battle about five miles down Bayou Pierre from Port Gibson towards Bruinsburg. The artillery battery of two howitzers was on a ridge with the 30th Alabama under Col. C.M. Shelley on either side of the battery. The 20th Alabama was on the far right only 800 yards from Bayou Pierre, and the 31st Alabama was on the left of the 30th. The 23rd Alabama and the other two howitzers supported Green even further on the left. There was nearly a mile between the left flank of the 31st Alabama and Green's forces to the south. The nine companies of the 31st were placed in line in a gully or ravine. The terrain seems to have been dominated by several of these ravines formed by the washes running north to Bayou Pierre. They were more or less perpendicular to the Union line of advance, and nearly all the Union reports of the battle complain bitterly about the vines, canebrake and trees which impeded their ability to cross these ravines.

Tracy's battery was opposed by the 7th Michigan Artillery Battery about 1¼ miles distant. It opened fire at 7:30 a.m. and traded artillery fire for 2½ hours when the effectiveness of the Confederate guns forced the Union guns to move to a more protected place and accept relief from the 1st Wisconsin Battery. The first infantry regiment to attack Tracy's force was the 49th Indiana which encountered the 31st Alabama in the ravine. After an hour of exchanging small-arms fire with the 31st, the 49th Indiana was relieved by the 42nd Ohio and given an hours rest. The 42nd Ohio received "severe fire" from the 30th and 31st Alabama when it advanced to the edge of the ravine with two other regiments. Soon the 42nd Ohio was relieved by the 120th Ohio which also found that the ravine gave the 31st Alabama effective cover. In turn the 120th Ohio was relieved by the 69th Indiana supported by the 49th Indiana.

Tracy's brigade, of course, had no relief. General Tracy was killed early in the morning, and Col. I.W. Garrott assumed command. The two artillery pieces were disabled in midmorning, and two other pieces were rushed in from Green's brigade to a more protected position. By 11 o'clock the 30th Alabama's ammunition was dangerously low, but it could not resupply because its ammunition train had not yet caught up with it. Nevertheless, at 2 o'clock they were told to hold their position "at all hazards." Col. D.R. Hundley, commander of the 31st Alabama was severely wounded about noon, and his command fell to Lt. Col. T.M. Arrington.

The 6th Missouri (C.S.A.) infantry, which had arrived with Cockerell's brigade, helped to recapture a section of Tracy's artillery before it became necessary to withdraw. In order to cover their withdrawal, Col. Eugene Erwin loudly instructed his company commanders to "fix bayonets" in hopes the nearby 49th Indiana would expect a charge. As the 49th Indiana braced for the charge, the 6th Missouri fired a volley and moved off across Bayou Pierre. The 49th Indiana proudly reported breaking this charge from "the advantage" of a hill, but did not follow the retreating Missourians. By 5 o'clock in the evening all of the Confederate defenders of Port Gibson had retired back across Bayou Pierre. Their losses were 68 killed, 380 wounded and 384 missing and presumed captured. The Union army occupied Port Gibson after losses of 131 killed, 719 wounded and 25 captured or missing.

Although the four Confederate brigades at Port Gibson held off five divisions from 1:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., James M. McPherson says in Battle Cry of Freedom that Grant's army merely "brushed them aside." Instead, no matter how unsuccessful, it was a determined stand by vastly outnumbered and poorly supplied defenders. Strategically, Port Gibson was the best location, of several opportunities, for the Confederate defenders to stop Grant's invasion because a Union defeat would have pushed Grant's army back into the river. The opportunity was lost when Pemberton delayed in ordering troops in sufficient strength to meet Grant.

Grierson's Raid into Mississippi

Part of Pemberton's reluctance to commit troops to the defense of Port Gibson was his uncertainty about the purpose of the second prong of Grant's offensive, a cavalry raid from La Grange, Tennessee, by Col. Benjamin H. Grierson. John T. Hardie's cavalry troop was one of the many Confederate units which the raiders evaded before slipping through the lines at Baton Rouge.

Colonel Grierson left La Grange on April 17, 1863, with approximately 1700 men of the 6th and 7th Illinois cavalry and the 2nd Iowa cavalry. They headed south through the lightly defended towns of eastern Mississippi. Along the way they cut telegraph lines, destroyed bridges, and generally performed an interdiction role assumed by aircraft a few wars later. The real damage was reserved for Newton station on the Southern Railroad, twenty miles west of Meridian. There they destroyed two locomotives and 38 freight cars loaded with railroad ties, machinery, commissary stores, and ammunition including several thousand loaded artillery shells. With their objective achieved, however, their return was barred by Confederate cavalry gathering in their rear. So they pressed on to the south.

On April 26th the Union raiders headed west across the Leaf river through Raleigh, across the Pearl river at Georgetown, and on to the railroad at Hazelhurst where they destroyed artillery shells and a large quantity of commissary and quartermaster stores bound for Grand Gulf and Port Gibson.

Early on April 28th they headed west toward Union Church where they encountered part of the Mississippi cavalry under Col. Wirt Adams who had been sent to meet the Union invaders with two companies of cavalry from Port Gibson and three from Natchez. Problems of communication can only be imagined; many of the command telegraph lines had been cut, and dispatch riders were subject to capture by roaming detachments from the main force of Union marauders. Under orders from Pemberton on April 28th, John T. Hardie's battalion and two other cavalry companies under Colonel Wilbourn were sent out from Port Hudson, Louisiana, to intercept the raiders at Tangipahoa. When this force reached nearby Osyka, Mississippi, Wilbourn reported that he had just learned that the Union raiders were at Hazelhurst, and he headed for them. By then reports came in that the raiders were at Brookhaven. Late on April 28th one of Adams' company commanders reported to everyone that the raiders were heading to Natchez. All of this information was either wrong or so late as to be misleading.

Early on April 29th, as if in confirmation of the mistaken report, Grierson's raiders made a feint towards Fayette, which is half way between Natchez and Port Gibson and then returned to Brookhaven. By 8 o'clock that morning Adams figured out that the earlier report was wrong and signaled Pemberton that he was taking his small force to intercept Grierson's movement toward Baton Rouge. Meanwhile Grierson captured and destroyed a Confederate training camp at Brookhaven.

The next day the raiders moved south along the railroad through Bogue Chitto arriving at noon in Summit, Mississippi, where they reported finding "much Union sentiment." At Summit they destroyed 25 freight cars of supplies. Meanwhile, Colonel Wilbourn received dispatches that the raiders were simultaneously heading west for Natchez and east for Brookhaven. The attack on Summit was not reported until late that night.

On May 1st, as the battle at Port Gibson raged, Grierson threatened Magnolia and Osyka and then moved south along the Tickfaw river across into Louisiana. Wilbourn and the other Confederate cavalry commanders learned of Grant's landing at Port Gibson and assumed that the raiders would join that force. After moving in response to this incorrect assumption they learned of the feint towards Osyka and again took up defensive positions in the wrong location. Meanwhile, Grierson's force encountered 90 men of the 9th Louisiana partisan rangers at a bridge across the Tickfaw. Although they were outnumbered, the rangers held the bridge until the raiders opened up with artillery. After the rangers retreated, the raiders moved further south and then west to cross the Amite river after midnight.

At dawn the next day the Union raiders found the nearly empty camp of the Hughes battalion near Clinton, Louisiana. After destroying this camp they moved on to surprise the pickets of Stuart's cavalry. The commanding officer's only excuse was the fact that the advance guard had approached in civilian clothes, a tactic reported by other Confederate commanders and acknowledged by Colonel Grierson to have been used at other locations.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon of May 2nd the raiders crossed the Union lines into Baton Rouge. Colonel Grierson claimed to have marched 600 miles in less than 16 days, captured and paroled 500 prisoners, killed or wounded 100 Confederate soldiers and destroyed immense amounts of stores and equipment. He also complained about how little food there was for his foragers:

Much of the country through which we passed was almost entirely destitute of forage and provisions, and it was but seldom that we obtained over one meal per day. Many of the inhabitants must undoubtedly suffer for want of the necessities of life, which have reached most fabulous prices.

In Battle Cry of Freedom James M. McPherson calls Grierson's raid "the most spectacular cavalry adventure of the war." This is surely an extravagant judgment for a war dominated by many cavalry actions. Still, the raid did have important strategic significance; it not only destroyed a large amount of the stores and supplies which might have helped repel Grant's invading army, it also drew off defenders from Port Gibson. The raiders moved largely unopposed through most of eastern Mississippi. When they arrived in the more heavily defended area of western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana they slipped by the defenders or overwhelmed small units. John T. Hardie's cavalry unit must have been especially embarrassed after the raiders reached Baton Rouge; Colonel Wilbourn's men never found their enemy but returned to find their own camp largely destroyed. However, John T. Hardie must have distinguished himself because he was promoted to second lieutenant on April 30, 1863.

The Cavalier

General Grant's invasion and Colonel Grierson's cavalry raid in April 1863 were apparently the events which inspired the 1901 Civil War novel, The Cavalier. A year earlier, George W. Cable, author of The Cavalier, was still a civilian, standing on the levee watching the Union ships steam up the Mississippi to capture New Orleans. It wasn't until October 9, 1863, that he was enlisted as a private, probably surreptitiously in New Orleans, by Captain C. Hoover, commander of Company I of the 4th Mississippi Cavalry. Cable reported to the regiment on November 15, 1863, so he had no first hand knowledge of the raid. Cable remained on the company rolls throughout the war, but he was on special detached service in the lower counties of Mississippi, and he may have served as a messenger. He was paroled at Meridian, Mississippi, on May 10, 1865, and then again with his regiment at Gainesville, Alabama. There were several hundred men, at most, in a cavalry regiment, so it is more than likely that George Cable knew John T. Hardie, but there is little to support the Hardie family tradition that the hero of The Cavalier, Edgard Ferry-Durand, was based on John T. Hardie.

Much of The Cavalier's action revolves around a woman serving as a spy for the Confederate army. Spies could be expected to form an important part of a war in which both sides were of the same nationality and in which each side harbored many secret sympathizers of the enemy. For example, in the month before Grant's invasion of Bruinsburg, General Loring reported to his superior on the basis of "a perfectly reliable spy." For its intelligence along the Mississippi, the Confederacy relied on two companies of Scouts, under the command of Thomas and Samuel Henderson, which combined legitimate scouting in uniform with true espionage in disguise. Unfortunately very few records have survived of these units. According to John Bakeless' Spies of the Confederacy, there were about fifty men in Samuel Henderson's Scouts whose duties included hanging around the Union camps and reporting information to Pemberton in Vicksburg. Possibly Henderson's exploits served as a model for Cable's story. In any event the use of cavalrymen in civilian clothes was not limited to Grierson's Union raiders.

The Fall of Vicksburg

After defeating the rebels at Port Gibson, Grant's army marched to Jackson, Mississippi, not directly to Vicksburg. On May 12, 1863, at Raymond, about 15 miles west of Jackson, Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson's 17th U.S. Army Corps encountered a force of approximately 4000 Confederate infantry and artillery. Unable to stop the larger Union force, the Confederates withdrew leaving Union casualties of 69 dead, 341 wounded and 30 missing compared to their own casualties of 103 killed and 720 wounded and taken prisoner.

Two days later, with an infantry charge in heavy rain, the Union invaders overwhelmed a Confederate force defending Jackson. Jackson wa