MEMORIES OF ’62 RECALLED BY COL. W. L. CURRY OF OHIO REGIMENT
We print the from [sic] Col. Curry to Judge Kumpe. It will no doubt prove to be interesting to many of our readers.

Columbus, Ohio, January 24, 1916
Judge J.C. Kumpe,
Moulton Alabama.
My Dear Judge:
I have received your letter of the 19th, informing me that there was a Roll Book of Company E, 1st. O. V. C. in your office.
I remember well your courtesy in forwarding to me a morning report book of the same company a few years ago. Please forward the book to my address by Parcel Post and as soon as it is received, I will acsertain the postage, and will remit to you at once. It seems remarkable that after almost 54 year since that book was left in the Court House at Moulton that it would be found, which recalls vividly the date of the capture of a number of soldiers of my regiment at Courtland, being under guard at your court house. During the fight at Courtland, July 23th [sic], 1862 and when I was taken prisoner, a hole shot thru my hat and I will send you in this letter a little cut of the hat, which is still in my possession. It was a pretty close call and if any of Gen. Roddy’s men still reside in your vicinity, I will be pleased to have you exhibit the cut for them to see it and if any of them were in that fight, tell them I have forgiven them long ago for their attempt to take my life and the hairs breadth escape I had at that time. After I was taken prisoner at Courtland, one of the guards caught a fine gray horse on which I was allowed to ride from Courtland to Moulton. A few miles out from Courtland we were halted and a confederate sergant rode up to me and stated that the horse I was riding was his brother’s and that if he was killed I would get the contents of a revolver which he held in his hand. I understood afterwards that his brother was killed, that his name was Johnson and he was a Lieutenant in an Alabama regiment. I also recall our fight at Moulton May, 29th 1864 in which Roddy’s brigade was engaged. I will send you under separate cover a little pamphlet containing an account of the reunion of my regiment in 1914, in which is published a cut of your Court House of which you so kindly sent me a photograph. Also a little history which may be of interest to any of Roddy’s men who were in any of those fights.
Thanking you again for your courtesy and with kindest personal regards, I remain,
Very truly yours,
W. L. Curry.

The following sketch is taken from the pamphlet referred to in the above letter:
A LITTLE STORY OF FIGHT AND PRISONERS OF WAR,
The picture of the old Court House, located at Moulton, Ala., recalls the fight of Courtland, Ala., in which about twenty soldiers of Companies E and K were stationed at Courtland with two companies of the Tenth Kentucky Infantry.
On the morning of July 25th, this detachment was attacked by General Frank Armstrong’s brigade of Confederate Cavalry, numbering about 1799. The Confederates closed in on three sides of the camp and after holding the position for about one hour in which it was reported that seventeen were killed and twenty-seven wounded, the command surrendered. All the cavalry charged through the lines and escaped expecting [excepting] about twenty including Captain Eggleston, Captain Cutler and Lieutenant Alkire, captured, and with the infantry numbering one hundred and thirty-four prisoners. Of Company K the captured were Captain Cutler, Orderly Sergeant W. L. Curry, Sergeant A. S. Chesas, A. L. Sender, John Winters, S. P. Clark, John Johnson and Wm. Johnson, all deceased, except Chears and Curry. Of Company E I do not recall the names of any excepting Colonel Eggleston and Lieutenant Alkire, both dead.
In the skirmish the balls whistled around pretty lively and one passed through my hat, cutting the cross sabers in two, tearing the crown out, ruffling the hair, but not drawing blood. I still have the hat with cross sabers intact.
The first day we were mached [sic] to Moulton, some twenty miles, and in the first night slept in the yard and the next day quartered in the Court House, on a good soft bench, but no blankets. The slaves had not then been freed and on the march we were halted at a plantation house and the slaves would bring out large iron wash kettles, build a fire put the kettle on the fire, partially filled with water, and then pull off roasting ears from the field corn, which we would husk boil and eat. As we had neither salt, bread, crackers or meat, we did not eat the raw corn with much relish.
When we were quartered in the Court House the boys organized a congress and enacted some very radical laws. Among others I recall one law, passed by a unanimous vote, to require the Confederates to furnish salt for the green corn, but the important question was how to compel the execution of the law, and some very flowery speeches were made along that line. In the midst of this important session, in which the oratory would have brought the blush to Patrick Henry, we were interrupted by the bugles sounding “boot and saddles,” and on looking out of the windows there was a great commotion. The cavalrymen were saddling their horses; the teamsters were harnessing up their mules and everything indicated that the enemy—our friends—were going to attack, much to our joy. But our hope was soon blasted, as the guard rushed us to the streets and the order by General Armstrong was, “Move those prisoners out on the road to Tupelo, Miss., on double quick.” The fellows who did not get to deliver their prepared speeches, had to “ask leave to print,” but it is doubtful whether their addresses ever appeard in the “Congressional Record.” We moved out about sundown, surround by cavalry with drawn sabers, with orders to “whack” any Yank who attempted to escaped [sic]. I do not think any survivor can forget that march from sundown to midnight, without halt or drink of water on a sultry night after a day with the thermometer at about one hundred.
After marching us around over northern Alabama and finding that we could not be sent through the lines to their prisons in the East, we were paroled and in a few month exchanged and returned to the regiment.
After we had re-enlisted and returned from “Veteran Furlough” when on the march from Nashville in May, 1864, to join General Sherman’s army on nhe [sic] Atlanta campaign, we passed through both Courtland and Moulton and the Court House at Moulton was then used as a Confederate hosqital [sic]. The sick and wounded were sitting around under the shade of the trees looking very comfortable and we did not halt or disturb them. We marched east about three miles and went into camp and next morning, Sunday, May 29, General Roddy’s brigade of cavalry attacked our brigade at daybreak, but we defeated him after a sharp fight in which the artilery [sic] played an important part, taking a large number of prisoners. We took a good deal of glory in the defeat as Roddy’s command was part of Armstrong’s brigade when we were captured nearly two years before.
I secured a photograph of the old Court House under the following circumstances. When General A. L. Harris was governor of Ohio, he received a letter from Judge J.C. Kumpe, residing in Moulton, informing him that a “Morning Report Book of Company E, First Ohio Cavalry, was among other books on the shelves in the Court House and that he would be glad to send it to any member of the regiment, if the name and address was sent to him.” Governor Harris handed the letter to me and I immediately answered and sent the required postage. The book was forwarded to me and I delivered it to Captain John C.O. Harra, commander of Company E, and it is now in his possession. I then wrote Judge Kumpe, making inquiry whether the old Court House was still standing and that if it was I would be pleased [to] have a photograph of it, if he would inform me as to the expense, and through his courtesy, I received the photograph from which the cut was made. The picture will remind any of the comrades who may survive of the days of more than fifty-two years ago when we were prisoners of war within those walls. The following is an extract from one of Judge Kumpe’s letters:

Moulton, Ala., Aug. 19, 1912.
Col. W. L. Curry,
Columbus, Ohio.
Dear Sir:
“The trees in the yard during the war were tall Black Locust trees, but they were removed several years since, and the trees now in the yard are Water Oaks and Sugar Maple. Mt. Hope is 12 miles west of Moulton and Tuscumbia 30 miles northeast [sic] of Moulton. Colonel Roddy, afterwads [sic] Gen. Roddy, moved to New York after the war, went into the cotton business and died 20 years ago. Many of his men live around this place. This was his home until he went to New York.”
(Moulton Advertiser (Lawrence County, AL) 09 Feb 1916)