The Brigade
Many ties bind Illinois and Mississippi. Some of the railroads developed in the Magnolia State in the 1850s were chartered in Illinois with plans to connect them with northern lines to facilitate travel and transportation of goods easily between the states and their respective regions. Decades later Illinoisans would be interested in proposed national parks, especially Vicksburg in Mississippi. One of Illinois’s favored sons, Abraham Lincoln, visited Mississippi earlier in life while traveling down the river bearing its name, and the presidential library of another one of Illinois’s favorite sons, Ulysses S. Grant, resides at Mississippi State University.1
The Civil War connection between the two states was even stronger. More Illinois troops fought in the Union Army of the Tennessee at Vicksburg than troops from any other state. Grant, who was living in Galena, Illinois, and working in his father’s store when the war began, became a colonel in the 21st Illinois before rising to command all the Union armies. And, of course, there was the Mississippi River. Despite the southern state being its namesake, it could just as well have been named the Illinois River, because the entire western boundary of the northern state bordered the waterway from Galena in the north to Cairo in the south. Illinoisans had just as much at stake when Mississippi and Louisiana seceded as Mississippi did, and they were not about to let the pathway to so much prosperity be controlled by the seceding states. They volunteered in droves, following the call of a favorite son who was now president of the United States.2
As fate would have it, the main commands tasked with performing one of the most daring and lively feats of the war were Illinois units: the 6th and 7th Cavalry regiments and Battery K of the 1st Illinois Artillery. The raiding column would be joined briefly by an Iowa cavalry regiment (the 2nd), with the entire brigade under the command of Illinois resident Benjamin Grierson, whose superior was Illinois corps commander Stephen Hurlbut in an army led by Illinois native Grant. The rather unique situation was not lost on one Illinois trooper who concluded, “I doubt not that it will be conceded that the history of this Mississippi campaign may properly enough be called a legitimate part of the history of this State.”3
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Given its fast-paced nature, the planned raid had to be carried out by horse soldiers. As noted earlier, cavalry usage was undergoing rapid change during the Civil War, moving away from European-style operations and taking on a unique American twist. Economics played a major role in this change because cavalry was expensive, and thus much harder to raise, organize, train, and maintain than infantry or artillery, and money in the Union army was at a premium.4
The expense came from the extra cost of horses and their equipment, and the federal government was picky about what it wanted in a good horse. One advertisement called for animals “not less than fifteen hands high, between five and nine years of age, of dark colors, well broken to the saddle, compactly built, and free from all defects. No mares will be received.” Early in the war, noted Grierson, General Sherman “was somewhat inclined to undervalue the service of the cavalry and, in a general way, looked upon it as more expensive than useful.” In the infantry or even the artillery, the tools of war primarily included inanimate objects that cost much less than a horse. One historian quipped that a horse cost “ten times the monthly pay of a private soldier and five times the price of a rifle musket.” Infantry officers and their staff required horses, and the artillery needed horses to haul the guns and ammunition. The transportation system of every branch required draft animals to function. Cavalry, however, was more demanding. Every soldier needed a mount, and at $100 to $150 each, horses were very expensive. One historian estimated there were approximately 825,000 horses in federal service during the war, at a cost of more than $124,000,000.5
Caring for the animals was also costly. Each horse also consumed a lot of food, which had to be provided daily. Supplying the oats and grain needed to keep horses healthy was a huge undertaking. Medical care was also demanding. Their vulnerable hooves were susceptible to cracking, infections, inflammations, and other maladies. Improper shoeing created a host of problems, including lameness. Making sure hooves were kept in excellent shape was of utmost importance to a cavalryman.6
Recruits, particularly those not intimately familiar with horses, were in for a rude awakening when they entered service. Caring for horses required an unusual amount of equipment, from brushes to combs and blankets, to feed bags carried by each soldier—as well as the large anvils and specialized tools needed by blacksmiths and farriers that had to be carried in wagons. To ensure comfort for both horse and trooper, saddles had to fit well. The Union army utilized the famed McClellan saddle, developed by George B. McClellan after observing cavalry operations during the Crimean War in the 1850s. In addition to all this equipment, soldiers had to carry their own gear, including a gun, saber, eating utensils, canteen, and any other items the trooper needed. Horses carried a heavy load, and they made quite a sound doing it. The “rattling, jingling, jerking, scrabbling, cursing, I never heard before,” exclaimed one observer in reference to a passing cavalry column.7
A cavalryman soon learned to put his main effort into what was most needed when it was needed. Simple things like combing the horse or making sure blankets were properly laid under the saddle were important. So was walking a horse at certain times instead of running them mercilessly. Watering was always necessary, especially when the animal was heavily used. These things and more were learned as the troopers gained experience in the field.8
In addition to the expense of equipping and maintaining cavalry, it also required significant training to be effective. Most recruits joined the army woefully lacking in the basic ideas of horse care, cavalry theory, or tactics. It took much longer to train a cavalry regiment for effective frontline service than an infantry unit, and it took longer for a cavalry regiment to achieve veteran status than it did infantry or artillery. Training raw soldiers to be cavalrymen was analogous to producing capable naval aviators in World War II; both required more time and work than was needed to train regular seamen or infantrymen.9
The organization of a cavalry regiment exemplified the need for more men, material, and supporting cast. A mounted regiment was larger than a corresponding infantry regiment by two companies (cavalry units had 12 companies while infantry had only 10). Prewar cavalry doctrine called for splitting companies or troops into two troop organizations. During the Civil War, cavalry regiments could be easily subdivided into three equal four-company battalions. Four companies of cavalry was a substantial body.10
The desire to have battalions operate independently also required more officers. Cavalry and infantry regiments each had a commanding colonel and a lieutenant colonel as second in command, but the former had three majors while the latter had only one. In theory this was so a major could command each of the three battalions while the two higher officers commanded the whole, even if separated. In practice, the colonel or lieutenant colonel usually commanded one of the battalions himself or he would command a combination of two of the three battalions. The need to care for the horses also required more support positions beyond the standard adjutants, quartermasters, and similar positions in an infantry command. A cavalry regiment, for example, required its own blacksmith, saddler, and farrier, complete with a traveling forge, so any problems with the horses, particularly with horseshoes, could be alleviated quickly and without returning to a garrison.11
A Union Cavalryman. Sergeant James Carnes in 1862, a typical Union cavalryman during the early years of the Civil War. Carnes died in August 1862 and thus did not participate in the raid. Randy Beck
Some historians have found fault with army commanders who did not use such an expensive arm in the way the Europeans did—to attack the enemy at the critical moment in a battle. While there may be some merit in their position, American commanders learned to use cavalry more efficiently as the war progressed. By 1864 both sides operated large corps of cavalry. The Union’s success with cavalr
y helped turn the tide of several battles. Philip Sheridan’s operations late in the war against the Confederate left flank at Petersburg, for example, are prime examples. In the western theater, large late-war raids such as those conducted by James Harrison Wilson and Benjamin Grierson were also very effective.12
Mounted units normally traveled in columns similar to infantry, in fours if the roads could handle it, but in twos if the roads were not yet standardized or modernized, which was often the case in the more frontier-oriented west. A cavalry unit could cover as much as thirty miles a day without severely taxing the men or their mounts through a combination of walking, trotting, and, if necessary in the midst of a crisis or need, galloping.13
A cavalry column on the move was quite impressive. A regiment in a column of fours, for instance (not including the large number of support vehicles hauling the forge and quartermaster wagons), stretched out as far as a mile. A regiment moving in a column of twos was significantly longer. The clanking of metal on metal, the cacophony of voices, the rumbling of hooves, and the drifting smell of leather and horse sweat added to the splendid display. Finally, a cavalry column, even in a slow trot, much less at a gallop, suggested both the power and the great potential of cavalry at war.14
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Benjamin Grierson led a brigade of three cavalry regiments in April 1863. “I found it much pleasanter to have command of a brigade than only a regiment,” he later explained, “as it removed me from the everlasting noise and confusion of horses, mules, and soldiers.” He also quipped that “‘there is no rest for the wicked,’ and I often wondered if the cavalryman did not belong to that class.” The only drawback, at least as he saw it, was that, “although exercising a brigadier general’s command, I was not a general, yet [I was] obliged to perform the work without being able to draw the pay of that grade.”15
The key unit in the brigade was Grierson’s own 6th Illinois Cavalry. General Hurlbut, while organizing the raid, explained that “the force sent down on the long dash will be selected without reference to regiments, unless Grierson returns, when he had best take his own.” Grierson, of course, returned in time to lead the raid, and his regiment was naturally a main staple of his attention. The 6th Illinois was a well-organized and veteran outfit, having been in service nearly a year and a half by that time, and about a year of it under Grierson’s watchful eye. The 6th Illinois began as individual companies created by Lincoln’s call for troops. Most of the members of the regiment hailed from the extreme southern portion of the state, the same vicinity from which many Illinoisans left to join the Confederacy. In fact, Lincoln worried about the southern counties of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio and how they might behave because they were more economically tied to the economy of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers than to the railroad network of northern Illinois. As a result, Lincoln appointed numerous so-called political generals from the southern counties of Illinois (a region dubbed as Little Egypt), most notably politicians John A. McClernand and John A. Logan.16
A full 10 counties in Little Egypt, including four Ohio River counties and two bordering the Mississippi River, sent men to serve in the 6th Illinois Cavalry. These included Massac, Gallatin, and Pope Counties along the Ohio River; Alexander County (which included the river town of Cairo) at the tip of the state, where the Ohio joined the Mississippi River; Union County farther north on the Mississippi; and farther inland but still in the southern cone of the state, Johnson, Saline, Hamilton, Edwards, and Richland Counties. The regiment was so heavily populated with men from southern Illinois that the warm-under-the-collar Republican Grierson once referred to it as “my Egyptian Democratic regiment.”17
Only three other counties across the rest of the state—Cass, Morgan, and LaSalle—provided men for the unit. Cass and Morgan were in the west-central portion of the state, the latter boasting Grierson’s home at Jacksonville. Men from both counties comprised Company C, which was thus tied more closely to Grierson. LaSalle was in northern Illinois and sent part of Company B.18
In terms of raw numbers, most of the men hailed from Pope County on the Ohio River (parts of Companies A, B, and G) and Hamilton County (Companies D, H, and part of K). Saline and Gallatin Counties each sent parts of Companies F, K, and L while the other counties split a company, as in the case of Alexander and Union splitting Company M, Edwards and Richland Company E, and Morgan and Cass Company C. Perry County fully recruited Company I.19
The companies came together at Camp Butler in Springfield in November 1861, where they were given their numerical designation. The governor appointed Thomas H. Cavanaugh as its original colonel, John Olney as lieutenant colonel, and Grierson as one of the majors. The regiment moved to Shawneetown on the Ohio River near the Illinois-Indiana border a few days later and stayed there until the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862. The need for more mounted troops to cover the newly acquired portions of the Confederacy pulled the Illinois troopers south, first to Paducah and then to Columbus, Kentucky, the main bastion on the Mississippi River that was finally in Union hands. A good illustration of the need to defend this territory was the fact that the regiment was split so it could garrison several places at once.20
Garrisoning needs increased as the Federals occupied more land. Five of the 6th Illinois companies were sent to the Memphis area, five to the vicinity around Trenton, Tennessee, and two remained in the rear to garrison and operate out of Paducah. Few Confederate regulars were that far north, but the Illinois troopers were kept busy combating guerrillas who were harassing the Federals’ transportation and logistical network. Casualties were light, with only two killed, six wounded, and one captured during this period.21
More important to the regiment was the change in command in the spring of 1862. Grierson jumped from major to colonel when the incompetent Cavanaugh resigned on March 28. Captain Reuben Loomis, who had earlier wanted Grierson’s position as major, became the regiment’s lieutenant colonel. He remained one of Grierson’s solid supporters and often commanded the regiment when Grierson had to command the brigade. The regiment also went through numerous majors after Grierson left that position.22
After what Grierson described as “repeated applications to General Grant and Sherman,” the regiment’s companies were once again combined in the fall of 1862 at Memphis. The Illinois troopers were destined for a new kind of service because a new kind of commander was now in charge of the Army of the Tennessee. Henry Halleck (quite the Jominian in that he was more inclined to disperse, garrison, and protect conquered territory rather than unite his forces to move forward and conquer more objectives) had been called to Washington. His transfer left Grant in charge in West Tennessee. By that October, Grant had been elevated to departmental level and given more flexibility in how he conducted operations. Unlike Halleck, Grant was more Clausewitzian in matters of war and favored moving forward and attacking the enemy rather than holding large amounts of territory and key places. He used his new command opportunities to begin an advance against the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg that November. That offensive would come to be known as the Mississippi Central campaign, named after the rail line running south toward Grenada. Grant established a forward base at Holly Springs as he moved south along the railroad with about 40,000 men, hoping Confederate Gen. John Pemberton would move out of Vicksburg and meet him around Grenada. General Sherman, before being detached and sent down the river to what would become known as Chickasaw Bayou, moved south from Memphis with more divisions along the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad to join Grant. Grierson’s 6th Illinois Cavalry led Sherman’s move out of Memphis, confronting the enemy at the Tallahatchie River before moving south to College Hill and Oxford to unite with Grant. Grierson enjoyed serving under Sherman and noted wryly that the Ohioan “did not intend to permit the grass to grow under the feet of the cavalry horses, or to let their riders suffer for want of suitable exercise.”23
Twin Confederate cavalry raids that December under Nathan Bedford Forrest and Earl Van Dorn
, however, shook up the entire department and ended Grant’s first attempt to take Vicksburg. On December 11, Forrest led a raid into West Tennessee, disrupting Union communications while skillfully eluding Union pursuers. Van Dorn, meanwhile, left Grenada on December 17, rode around Grant’s command, and sacked Holly Springs behind the Union lines, destroying tons of supplies and capturing 1,500 men. Grierson’s position in north Mississippi precluded any viable attempt to catch Forrest in northwest Tennessee, but Grant sent the 6th Illinois after Van Dorn. For seven days Grierson led his troopers on the chase, but they were never able to catch the elusive Southerner. Nevertheless, Grierson displayed great skill in the pursuit as well as true leadership qualities. Unfortunately, other cavalry commanders, such as John K. Mizner and Albert Lee, did not.24
By January 1863 the enemy raids ended and Grant began to plan another way to get to Vicksburg. His attempts to take the bastion along roundabout routes through the maze of creeks, bayous, and swamps in the delta on both sides of the Mississippi River also proved unsuccessful. Cavalry played only a small role in those operations, the waterlogged terrain precluding much mounted effort. Instead, most of the Federal cavalry was held in West Tennessee and used to either raid into Mississippi or repulse enemy probes. The main objects of importance were the Memphis and Charleston Railroad and the other major lines running through the region. Grierson and company saw plenty of action during the first months of 1863 while based at the cavalry depot at La Grange, Tennessee, where Grierson commanded the brigade and Lieutenant Colonel Loomis led the 6th Illinois.25
Reuben Loomis. Lieutenant Colonel Reuben Loomis commanded the 6th Illinois Cavalry, Grierson’s own regiment, on the raid because Grierson led the brigade. Loomis performed steadily despite a bad case of hemorrhoids. Martyrs and Heroes
By the eve of the April 1863 raid, the 6th Illinois regiment numbered around 500 effectives, which 37-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Loomis kept under his careful eye. Like many others, Loomis arrived in Illinois from points farther east—in his case via Ohio after leaving his birth state of Massachusetts. In Perry County, Illinois, he became a prosperous farmer and recruited a cavalry company when the war broke out. Loomis rose through the ranks to major and then lieutenant colonel, often commanding the regiment, as he was in April 1863 when Grierson commanded the brigade.26
The Real Horse Soldiers Page 8
