Dealing With General Sturgis

"Cahaba. A story of captive boys in blue:"

"...a gentleman from Northern Mississippi who informed me that upon his parents' plantation General Sturgis passed the night previous to the battle, making his headquarters in his father's house. He
assured me that Sturgis during his stay imbibed very freely of alcoholics and was stupidly drunk therefrom. This, in a measure, would account for his senseless order upon receiving the despatch from General Grierson. Upon receiving the report of Grierson's staff-officer, without heeding the suggestions it contained, Sturgis renewed his orders to Grierson to push forward, but soon afterward was aroused by a messenger from General Grierson, who brought substantially the following :

" I have not the force at my command to advance farther. It is evident that I have met the bulk of Forrest's forces, but I hold a good position, which I think I can hold until you come up with the infantry."

The message did not imply that Sturgis should use more than ordinary expedition, but upon receiving it the drunken, frenzied commander ordered his infantry to go upon the " double-quick " to the front, a distance of not less than five miles! It should be remembered that the weather was intensely hot, sultry, oppressive; that the road led through a heavy growth of timber; that the men were marching with heavy loads musket, cartridge-box, forty rounds of ammunition, canteen, haversack, and knapsack but they were men who had been seasoned by many a hard campaign, and had never received an order but to obey it. (Source)

Scattered From Natchez

"Somewhere along the way, probably whre the Natchez Trace turned more sharply north, the party (of revolt fugitives) divided. 

Scene In Alabama

One group, of which Colonel Hutchins was a member, went by Alabama and Georgia...finally arrved at Savanah, then in British control, in the later part of October, after traveling 131 days."  The other group...'had the bad luck of falling into the hands of American insurgents'." (Source: THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE The Story of the Natchez Trace...:)

Peyton Short And His Tour

Source

Peyton Short at Wikitree.

Mobile, Alabama, Area (Probably)

The Tour:

Rechristened Fort Rosalie

Source (Fort Rosalie And Vicinity)

"1763 rule of the Mississippi Valley passed from Louis XV to George III  By proclamation George III's government made the Natchez District...the only British area open to settlement west of the Appalachians."'

"...patriot James Willing circa 1777 ...was made a captain in the Navy...to make prize of all British Property on the Mississippi. However...when a party of  Americans did arrive, the Natchez settlers (many if not most of the Tory persuasion) gave it a violent reception.  Once more the British flag flew over Fort Panmure, as the British had rechristened Fort Rosalie.  It was not to stay there long.  Fort Panmure capitulated (to Spain) on October 5, 1779. 

General Rufus Putnam's Work In The South

Florida Panhandle

From the Journal of Gen. Rufus Putnam, a brief history of his work after the French-Indian War:

Bryce's Cross-Roads

Source

Narrative from Cahaba. A story of captive boys in blue:

"The leading regiment, the One Hundred and Fourteenth Illinois, reached the front almost breathless after its five-mile race, and was thrown at once into action without a solitary support, except the handful of Grierson's cavalry, already on the ground. These men had been hotly engaged for four hours, and their ammunition was about exhausted."

"The Ninety-third Indiana arrived on the scene some ten minutes later, having been delayed by the stragglers of the One Hundred and Fourteenth Illinois. Lest I should be misunderstood, let me say that these stragglers were falling behind, not on account of cowardice, but because overcome by heat and fatigue. Even in this breathless condition they were pressing on and doing the best they could to get to the front. A more gallant regiment was never enlisted."

"The Ninety-third Indiana reached the front with only a handful of men... . It was formed on the right of the One Hundred and Fourteenth Illinois, directly at the intersection of ' Brice's Cross-Roads,'... ."

Source

Beyond The Appalachians

Near Cumberland Gap

At the opening of the eighteenth century the image of the West beyond the Appalachian Mountains was very dim in the minds of those subjects of the British crown who inhabited the fringe of colonies along the Atlantic coast.  The unsettled forest no longer seemed, as it had to Michael Wigglesworth in 1662, a 'Devils den,'.....  Yet few English-speaking colonists had reliable knowledge of the interior of the continent.

Source - Routes Of Early French Explorations

In so far as the West had come under European control at all, it was French.  The English colonists had been engaged in war against this enemy as early as the 1690's, but not even the boldest prophet could imagine a day when the English power would extend over the unmeasured expanse of the Mississippi Valley.  The imperial development of Britain was moving in another direction, toward dominion over the seven seas rather than toward the blank and remote hinterland of North America. [Source - VIRGIN LAND] 

Booker T. Washington's Idea Of Teaching And Sacrificing

Booker T. Washington (Source)

Source

Also referenced was The Black man's burden, by Holtzclaw, William Henry...with an introduction by Booker T. Washington.

Source (William Henry Holtzclaw)

False Hopes

The Devil' Backbone, The Story of the Natchez Trace...(1962):

"He (Phineas Lyman) must have talked much in the tavern of his old wartime comrade, Israel Putnam, later to become a popular hero of the patriots in the American Revolution. 

*Source - Israel Putnam Drawing

At any rate, Israel and his brother Rufus were stirred by the 'false hopes' Phineas raised about the land. The Putnams left a journal* about their explorations (1772-73) but preferred to remain in New England. Lyman set out to establish his colony of Georgiana, named of course, after George III, but soon after his arrival at Natchez died, in 1774, leaving his wife and surviving children to continue his ill fortune."

Major George Farragut

Artifact Depicting George Farragut's Son* At The Farragut Museum

From the biography of Major George Farragut:

With those few of the present generation who have heard at all of Major George Farragut, the idea usually prevails that his only title to distinction lay in the fact that he became the father* of one of America's most noted naval commanders. Yet the services rendered by George Farragut himself, both as a soldier and sailor, were not unappreciated during his own lifetime. This gentleman, sometime a Captain of North Carolina Cavalry in the army of the Revolution, a pioneer in the trans-montane settlements of Tennessee and the Gulf States, and who was later engaged in the naval service of the United States, was a native of the Island of Minorca, one of the Balearic group, in the Mediterranean sea.

Old Creole Families Of New Orleans

In The New Orleans Gardens

Creole Families Of New Orleans:

All On the Natchez Trace

House In Natchez, Mississippi

THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE...:

"All (on the Natchez Trace) merged in the march of pioneers...doomed men and men of destiny moved along it."  "Their movement was not merely geographical along a north-south trail.  It was also chronological through a history which included Indian resistance, French speculation in settlement, Spanish domination, and finally American expansion."

Sanctfication, Graphic Scenes And Yazoo Stories

Source

Sanctification was a book written by Beverly Carradine, an ancestor of the Carradine family of actors.  There is a connection to the same Richmond family from whom I descend (we share John, the immigrant and John's son, Edward).

Other books include Graphic scenes and Yazoo Stories.

An Excerpt From One Of The Yazoo Stories (A Misunderstood Man)

Characters include Fred Stanley, Blanche Osmond and George Varley.

The Sturgis Raid Or Guntown Disaster

An excerpt of a chapter in "Cahaba. A story of captive boys in blue"..."....The Wretched Criminal Managment Of [Samuel D.] Sturgis Insures Defeat," below:

The Union leaders felt it necessary to inflict some chastisement to the Confederate forces to counteract the moral effect of our defeats in the West, and another expedition was started out June 2d, 1864, this time from Memphis, under the command of General S. D. Sturgis...afterward known as " The Sturgis Raid," or " Guntown Diaster... [called Bryce's Cross-Roads by the Confederates].

Source

This command moved leisurely along until June 9th, when, at Ripley, Miss., a small town about twenty miles northwest of Guntown, General Grierson, who was in advance, reported that a few prisoners had been taken, and that in his judgment the main body of the enemy would be found the next day at or near the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.

General Grierson's Photo At Fold3

General Grierson, I am informed, advised General Sturgis to keep his men well in hand, as the enemy was " near and in force." 

The infantry and artillery had gone but a part of the way when another courier from General Grierson reached Sturgis bearing the information that the Confederates were receiving re-enforcements from the South by rail. They came from Mobile, and had been sent to the aid of Forrest when it was known that Sturgis was seeking him. The whistling of the locomotives could be plainly heard by Grierson.

[General Grierson]...suggested that Sturgis halt his command about three miles back, where it then was, form his infantry on a ridge, covered with high sedge grass, which would command nearly a mile of corduroy road, over which any troops would be compelled to pass should they follow him. Grierson would gradually fall back, and on nearing the point would stampede his cavalry, as if routed. He believed that Forrest would be drawn into such a trap. 

Had Forrest followed Grierson, as he probably would under the circumstances, his forces would have been swept from the face of the earth, for they could not have turned back, and to have gotten off the corduroy would have been to sink in the mire beyond hope of succor.

But General Sturgis was not in a frame of mind to listen to suggestions from a subordinate officer, much less a volunteer, and so "West Point" and whiskey asserted themselves. 

An order [by Sturgis]...compelled the large train of more than two hundred wagons to be taken over the long corduroy road and a narrow bridge, over which but one wagon at a time could pass, close up to the front; and there, in plain sight of the Confederates, and in easy range of their artillery, the train was parked! Should Sturgis be forced to retreat, it would be simply impossible to get his wagons back over this narrow bridge, and at no other place could they cross. It would have been impossible for them to cross the bottom over the deep morass. The only road was the corduroy leading to the bridge.

No sane person could excuse any officer who would push his train forward so rapidly, and near where an uncertain battle was in progress, over a road which precluded even a possibility of saving it in case he was defeated. 

War Correspondent Junius Henri Brown

Four years in Secessia, by Junius Henri Browne:

Fort Sumter mentioned (it was fired upon on April 12, 1861).

Pike's Expedition In The Newly Acquired Territory

From The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Volume I (of 3) To Headwaters of the Mississippi River Through Louisiana Territory, and in New Spain, During the Years 1805-6-7:

"Pike's expeditions were the first military and the second governmental explorations which were pushed to any considerable extent in our then newly acquired territory of Louisiana. The name and fame of the brilliant young soldier who impersonated the authority of the United States over all the ground between British and Spanish possessions are thus inseparably linked with those of Lewis and Clark in the beginning of our history of the Great West... ."

Jim's Photo Of A Map Entitled, "The French In The Upper Mississippi Valley"

"In July, 1805, Pike was ordered by General Wilkinson to explore and report upon the Mississippi river from St. Louis to its source, select sites for military posts, treat with the Indians, make peace if possible between the Sioux and Ojibways, and find out what he could about the British traders who still occupied posts in our newly acquired territory."

Fort Chartres

From A Sword Of The Old Frontier (text version):

"We have but a small garrison here, a mere skeleton, and there is no officer at Fort Chartres who may be spared while this war cloud hovers so close about our gates."

Mr. Sill's Underground Railroad Records

William Sill

"This once slave [William Sill's father] but now freeman was Levin Steel--afterwards changed to Still the better to escape identity by Southern claimants and pursuers of his family. Being free he could not breathe an air tainted by slavery, nor brook the surroundings of bondage. So, severing the sacred ties of family, bidding good bye to his wife, Cidney, and the four children she had borne him--two boys and two girls--and trusting under God to a future which should be brighter for himself and loved ones than the past, he started North and located in the neighborhood of Greenwich, New Jersey."

William's mother escaped and joined her husband, but was captured and returned to slavery.  She escaped a second time, leaving the boys behind with her mother and taking the girls with her.  William, born 7 October 1821, was the youngest of 18 children.

Source

A Former Slave, William Webb, In Detroit

 Found on Documenting The American South website:

The History of William Webb Composed By Himself is a fascinating account of a person who was born a slave in 1836 and met his future wife in Detroit, published in 1873:

William Webb in the South:

    ... I was living in Georgia. The master I belonged to moved to Mississippi. My father said to his children, I am going to part from all of you, I have heard so much about Mississippi; I shall not go with you... .

Old master's son married a girl from Kentucky, and he took me with him to Kentucky. We moved with an ox team. We were five weeks on the road, from Mississippi to Kentucky, Warren County, between Bowling Green and Shaker Town.

  ...my master took a notion to move back to Mississippi. I was sorry to go back, for where I lived was better than where I came from.

Then I returned to my old master, who was waiting until my time was up to return to Kentucky. He told me he was very happy to see me, and made me a present of five dollars in silver, and told me to go around and see my friends, and bid them good-bye. He made preparations to start to Grey's County Kentucky. I went round and saw my mother, and my brothers and sisters.

William Webb in Michigan and beyond:

The next morning I went harvesting for another man, and I worked for him about two weeks. Then I went to a hotel to work, and I stayed there till fall, and I left there and came to Detroit, and I went out Fort street west, five miles, and chopped wood all winter. The cemetery* is on the spot where I chopped wood. While I was out there a riot occurred in the city, and a great many colored people were fleeing out in the country where I was... .  [*Note:  At one point in my 20's I lived near Woodmere cemetery which is on Fort Street]

I left and came back to Detroit. There was a man named Mr. Warsaw, who kept a boarding-house on Cass street, between Jefferson avenue and Larned street, and I went to board with him. I began to study what I had heard when I was at the Quaker's, about being born again and serving the Lord and wishing to do to others as I would be done by, and I studied the matter over very close.

I commenced whitewashing* around the city again. I whitewashed till harvest time. I started out among the farmers when harvest began, and it came into my mind to go back to that same Quaker again.  [*Note: I did not find John Brown mentioned in Mr. Webb's narrative; however, John Brown met at the house of a Mr. William Webb, "one of Detroit's more successful whitewashers", on Congress Street in Detroit to plan his raid on Harper's Ferry.  There was a William Webb, b. 1817 in Virginia (race not identified in the 1860 census) who also lived in Detroit who may have been the person who plotted with John Brown]

...being in her company a few more evenings, and we met from time to time, until finally we were engaged to be married. I took the notion to go out to the Eastern States and through Canada. I took the train to Toronto, and from there to Montreal, and took the train and went from there to Pond City, Vermont. When I was on the way to Vermont, I inquired whether there were any colored people living there. They told me that no colored people lived in the city.

Then I wrote back to Detroit to the lady I was engaged to marry, for I was anxious to hear from her, and received an answer in seven days from the time I had written.

I went from there to Albany in the State of New York, and took the train from there to Niagara Fall(s), and looked at all the things worth seeing there, and then took the cars for Detroit. I arrived here safe, without a day's sickness while I was gone, and went back to my old boarding-house on Cass street. I sat down and studied over all my travels, and I saw the lady I was engaged to marry, and we were much rejoiced to meet one another.

I was married on the 20th October, 1867, and lived on the corner of Cass and Larned streets.

I carried on my business in the city, and in the course of another year the Lord blessed us with a daughter. I thought my calculations about raising up a son were broken up, although I am very well pleased with my daughter. She is seven months old, and has hardly had a day's sickness. I recalled to my mind the time when my wife went down home to Toronto, Canada, to see her mother, and being a man that was in the habit of always coming home as soon as my work was done, both before and since I was married, my wife being gone, the evenings seemed so long and lonesome, and having heard so much about what good times the people were having at balls, tea parties and festivals, I thought I would go out and see for myself what was going on.

Ending on this religious note:

Many will ask the reason why I have not been to school, but I will leave that question and answer it at soms future day, if it is the Lord's will. I trust I have laid up riches in heaven, if I am only humble in the Lord's grace, though a man ought to do all the good he can in this world, and after he has done that, it is but a small thing in the sight of God. Then shall the dust return to the earth, and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it. For God shall bring every thing to judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.

General Phineas Lyman In The French-Indian War

The General Orders of 1757, issued by General Phineas Lyman, two years after Lyman was noted as a hero at the Battle of Lake George (New York), on September 8, 1755, logs the daily events undertaken by soldiers and their commanding officer.

First - The Battle of Lake George:

General Orders of 1757: issued by the Earl of Loudoun and Phineas Lyman In The Campaign Against The French, 1899, (250 copies printed):

From Luke Gridley's diary of 1757:

From The Plains of Abraham by Brian Connell:

He (William Johnson) was met by a tremendous fusillade [in the Battle of Lake George], which decimated the [French] men of the regiments of Languedoc and La Reine. Although his Canadians and Indians fanned out to right and left, they had little stomach for the fight. Johnson was early wounded in the leg and carried back to his tent, but his deputy, Phineas Lyman of Connecticut, darting everywhere unscathed in the heat of battle, animated and encouraged the motley force.

Also in the Battle of Lake George, Baron Dieskau was "shot in the leg, deserted by his men and captured."

In the prelude to the Battle of Lake George, "...(Dieskau) learnt by capturing tow of Johnson's messengers that the colonists had a large force on his flank. Changing the direction of his march, he made across country for the head of Lake George. Indian scouts brought the first news of Dieskau's approach to Johnson. He sent a thousand men out to meet them, but this vanguard was ambushed and the whole fled in panic back to Johnson's lines. In the skirmish Legardeur de St. Pierre, Washington's wary rival two years earlier at Fort Le Boeuf, was killed at the head of his Indians."

For his service in the French-Indian War, Phineas Lyman was awarded land interests in the Natchez, Mississippi, area.

Included in the Journal of Gen. Rufus Putnam is a short bio of Phineas Lyman: