Alan J. Pitts
"mr. roddy's shebang"
Wed May 16 23:13:49 2001


More interesting information! Without the assistance of a diary like the one you have, it's not likely the movements of any Confederate regiment can be traced from day to day. It's obvious your ancestor was unaware of any contact between Roddey and Federal forces as he passed between Huntsville and New Market. S. D. Lee's report mentions that a substanial part of Roddey's command arrived at his headquarters west of Tuscumbia on the morning of October 27th. It's quite likely his men participated in the fighting that day, as well as the skirmish on Oct. 29th. A notation exists for another skirmish on Oct. 31st, but that appears to be an error.

With regard to Forrest's capture of Sulphur Springs Trestle, here's a brief note from Confederate Veteran Magazine, vol. VIII, p. 149:

Rufe Adams, Corinth, Miss.: “Gen. Roddy’s Cavalry operated in North Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, and the boys used to get off some good jokes at their expense, claiming they acted on the principle that “he who fights and runs away will live to fight another day.” At the battle of Sulphur Trestle, Tenn., Forrest captured, after a hard fight, several hundred prisoners. While they were stacking arms an Irish Yankee wanted to know, “Bejasus, who do we surrender to?” One of the boys answered: “Gen. Forrest.” Well, why in the divil didn’t you let us know? We would have surrendered an hour ago. Bad luck to us, we tho’t it was Mr. Roddy’s shebang.”