This is what Levi's great-granddaughter remembers hearing ....
"By wind one time I heard my Uncle say that Great Grandpa
Levi retreated and left the battle and was captured. A turn
coat they called it. I do not know if this is true but could
be since he was captured by himself at Spring Creek in
AK. I did not know this was in Lee County.
Thanks for that info."
Mary
She said that someone from Pulaski County saw him at Alton and brought the story back. It's possible that it could have been his brother-in-law, Walker Warford Christeson, also of Co G, who was captured in Fayetteville, in February of 1863, and after spending time at College Prison in Springfield, and Gratiot, was sent to Alton, just before Levi died. It would have been somewhat hypocritical for him to accuse Levi of being a turncoat, though, since Levi died in prison and Walker took the oath, posted bond and returned to Pulaski County, where he enrolled in the 48th Union militia.
The problem with Levi having been captured at Spring Creek is that according to his service records, he was on the prison boat to Memphis on July 4. Before the battle, the Union forces were supposed to have stayed in their defenses, and from what I could tell from the OR, Shelby's men controlled the area of Spring Creek by July 2. According to the Bull Diary, Parson's brigade didn't even reach their camp at the Allen Polk house until July 3rd, and after the battle the retreating Confederates were not pursued. Even if the Union soldiers were out patrolling in that area on the 4th, it seems almost physically impossible for him to have fought in the battle, and then to have been captured at Spring Creek and on that boat the same day. All of his muster cards say he was captured at Helena on the 4th, including the one that has him on a list of captured soldiers forwarded to Memphis on the "Tycoon" on that day. But how did the people way back in Pulaski even know about the tiny little town of Spring Creek, Arkansas, if there wasn't something to the story?
Below are two eyewitness reports of the capture of men from the 10th ...
This is from a letter from William Henry Wood, of Co G, 10th Infantry, published in the January 16, 1886 Missouri Republican ...
"We were called in line of battle that morning before daylight, near the enemy. Pindall's sharpshooters surprised and captured the picket. We were then ordered forward. Fagan's Arkansas troops on our right and Marmaduke on our left. Just as we got under a galling fire we were halted to wait for the men on our right to get up in line. We then charged and carried a line of rifle pits without much trouble, crowding the Feds back to town and to the very waters edge. We held on until the federals reinforced, had driven Fagan’s men back and concentrated against Marmaduke. Then Parsons, seeing the situation, ordered a retreat, but some of our regiment did not get the order and held place until surrounded and called on to surrender. Col. Moore then told us to direct our men to one place, cut a gap in their line and break through at point of bayonet, Only eighteen men obeyed the order. We did as directed, and after the third round made the break and went through. We then had one mile to run up as far as Graveyard ridge."
This is another version of the 10th's participation that is in the OR ...
Report of Lieut. Gol. William H. Heath, Thirty-third Missouri Infantry.
Helena Ark., July 6, 1863.
The first assault of the enemy in force was made at 4 a. m. upon
Batteries A, C, and ID simultaneously. In front of Batteries A and ID,
they were handsomely checked before any advantage had been gained;
but the entire Missouri brigade of Parsons (said to have been per-
sonally directed by Maj. Gen. Sterling Price), charging furiously upon
Battery C, drove the infantry support (four companies of the Thirty-
third Iowa) out of the rifle-pits in great confusion, and, after killing,
wounding, and capturing 30 men of the two companies on duty at the
guns, succeeded in driving them from the battery, but not before they
• had spiked one of the guns and brought away all the friction primers
and priming wires, thus rendering the pieces useless to the enemy. The
companies in Fort Curtis, with the siege guns, supported by the rem-
nants of Companies E and H, with numerous stragglers from other
commands, acting as sharpshooters, succeeded in checking the enemy’s
farther advance, and finally drove his main force back from Battery
C, compelling him, by their steady and increasing fire, to leave the guns
of the battery uninjured and beat a hasty and disastrous retreat, leav-
ing over 350 prisoners, with their officers and colors, and his dead and
wounded, in our hands. The prisoners were mainly of the Seventh and
Tenth Missouri Regiments, and had taken refuge from the fire of our
artillery in a deep ravine opening toward the river, but protected by
a ridge from the direct fire of Fort Curtis. Immediately the Thirty.
fifth Missouri was drawn up across the mouth of this ravine, part of
the Thirty-third Iowa moving to attack the enemy’s flank, and the siege
guns playing shell, grape, and canister upon the ridge above them,
preventing a retreat. They were surrendered by hoisting a white flag,
their own sharpshooters upon the ridge at their rear firing from cover
upon and cursing them as they marched out prisoners of war.
The unfortunate Levi could have been in either of these groups, but because the men were reported as being separated from their commands by the difficult terrain and horrific fire to which they were exposed, he just as easily could have been somewhere else.
So my question is ... does anyone know of any scenario under which Levi could have been captured at Spring Hill and still have been on the Tycoon?