December 8, 1864; McCulloch’s Brigade and Maury’s Cavalry were sent North to Leaksville and Buckatunna, Mississippi to protect telegraph lines and the Mobile and Ohio Railroad which was being threatened by Federal troops
[ OR series 1 Vol 45 ptII pages 632&634 ]
[ Southern Boots and Saddles: The Fifteenth Confederate Cavalry CSA by Arthur E.Green ]
BATTLE: ( December 10, 1864 ) [ SIFAKIS] Chickasawha Bridge
Action at Mobile Alabama / Mobile and Ohio river / Chickasawha River, Pascagoula River and Mississippi Sound.[ Official Records / Correspondence ]
..as the preparations were underway for the Federal advance movement against Mobile, a column of Cavalry was sent Northward from Baton Rouge....A detachment which crossed Chickasawha river to destroy the railroad was met and repulsed by the Second Missouri and Willis’ Battalion on December 10th [ Confederate Military History Volume XII - Alabama and Mississippi : Mississippi, page 209 By Colonel Charles E. Hooker ]
Official report of General Maury place Willis’ and McCulloch’s taking action in the Union’s Pascagoula Mississippi Raid on December 1864.
..... a column of enemy's cavalry (4,000 men, with eight guns) marched from Baton Rouge through East Louisiana and Mississippi to a point just beyond Pascagoula River. The avowed object of the expedition was to destroy the Mobile and Ohio Railroad and to surprise Mobile. Troops were in position in time to defeat these objects. On Saturday, the 10th instant,( Dec. 1864 ) McCulloch's (Second Missouri) regiment and Willis' (Texas) battalion met a detachment from the main body of the enemy which was sent across Chickasawha River to destroy the railroad. The enemy charged with spirit, but were repulsed with some loss. Their main force then crossed pascagoula river and was advancing on the direct road to Mobile, by during Sunday recrossed to west side of Pascagoula and marched rapidly down toward Mississippi Sound.
From the Book :
The Story of a Cavalry Regiment :
“Scott’s 900” - Eleventh New York Cavalry
by Thomas West Smith : Private Troop F
Chapter 16 page 199
It was a long hard ride before we overtook the column, which had about 15 hours’ start, but we came up to them about 9 o’clock at night. The country through which we passed was almost uninhabited, the plantations being nearly ten miles apart, but sufficiently near to furnish us with an abundance of sweet potatoes for ourselves and corn stalks for the horses. The column crossed the Black and Wolf Rivers, arriving at Enon, a small place on the Leaf River, on the 7th. There was plenty of food at this time for man and beast. The First Texas Cavalry composed mostly of Comanche Indians was detailed as foragers and kept the command well supplied with fresh beef; these indians all carried lassoes of horsehair and could catch any animal that came within reach of the rope.
Augusta, at the junction of the Tallahoma and Leaf Rivers, was reached on the afternoon of the 7th; we captured at this place several Jayhawkers, some horses and mules, and quite a large mail.
On the 8th it commenced to rain, and the men, who had terrible experiences in the swamp east of Augusta, were soon soaked with the water; the roads were covered with mud the depth of twelve inches and the progress of the march was slow. Food was plenty
and at every camp fire beef, sweet, potatoes and honey were in abundance.
When the column reached the Leaf River the Second New York veteran Cavalry, under Col. Gurney and a detachment of “Scott’s 900”, under Lieut. Littleworth, numbering in all 250 men, were sent to destroy a bridge on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at State Line on the border of Alabama. Two companies of the Second Veterans were supplied with canteens of turpentine to help in the work of destruction. This detachment had a fight at Leaf River but drove the enemy away and effected a crossing. On the night of the 9th they reached the Chickasawa River; the following morning the river was crossed and the march continued. In a few hours they met the advance guard of a rebel force sent to protect the bridge, consisting of about 1,500 men of the Second Missouri and Willis’ Texan Regiments, Confederate States Army of General Dick Taylor’s command.
The rebel advance guard was driven back on the main body, which was in turn charged three times by the Union Cavalry, when it was discovered that the rebel force far outnumbered the Unionists and the object of the expedition had to be abandoned.
In this engagement fourteen of the enemy were killed; our loss was three killed, all of the second veterans, one of whom was Lieut. westinghouse, a gallant officer who fell while leading the advance. Fortunately for this detachment the rebels did not immediately pursue them, and taking the body of the lieutenant with them and several prisoners they had captured, they began their return march towards the main column, burning the bridges behind them; they escaped from the force of confederates who did not show any desire of again meeting the “Yanks” and they narrowly escaped another rebel force which had crossed a road in advance of them; after innumerable hardships the detachment joined the main column several days later.
The main column continued its march along the left bank of the Leaf River. On the 9th of the month the storm increased, streams became swollen and were crossed with difficulty; the clothing of the men were saturated with the rain and the forlorn and weary column proceeded slowly on its way. From prisoners recently taken it was learned that a large force of confederate infantry, cavalry and artillery was in our front and that reinforcements were hourly arriving to oppose us; our column was many days behind the specified time we were all painfully aware of the impossibility of surprising anybody or anything. On the 10th the column crossed the west bank of the Pascagoula River and all attempts to destroy the railroad were abandoned and with good reason, as will appear from the following letter of the Confederate General, Dick Taylor, to the Governor of Mississippi:
“ The greater portion of Davidson’s ( Federal) cavalry which made the recent raid through Eastern Louisiana and Southern Mississippi, is near West Pascagoula. The threatening attitude assumed by the enemy renders it necessary that all the troops which can possibly be concentrated should be placed in position to enable them to co-operate with the forces in Mobile and protect the line of communication with that city, on which depends not only the safety of Mobile but the maintenance of Gen Hood’s army in Tennessee. I have therefore been compelled to withdraw the forces from Southern and Central Mississippi and Est Louisiana and the section of your state bordering on the Mississippi river will for the present be left with no adequate protection against raiding parties which the enemy may send into that section”
From the time of leaving Columbia the route of the march was through forests of lofty pine trees with occasional clearings where there ere plantations with rude buildings but usually with plenty of sweet potatoes; in fact when it was learned that we were to go no farther toward Mobile, many of the lads called the expedition the “Sweet Potato Raid” and said that the object of the expedition was to clear the country of that vegetable.
In these pine forests were manufactories of tar and turpentine, and thousands of trees had been stripped of their bark on one side, in places five or six feet feet long and one or two feet wide, where masses of resin were collected. Beneath the trees were great pine knots, remnants of trees of past ages; these when burned emitted a dense smoke which blackened the man and horses, and the thousand fires from these pine knots and fires of the resin of thousands of trees in this great turpentine orchard gave to the encampment or the marching column weird appearance. From the 10 to the 13th of the month the column moved down the west bank of the Pascagoula, crossing Black River and Red Creek and marching through the immense forest; provisions were gone habitations were few, and men and horses suffered for want of food and from the hardships of the march in the long, cold rain. On the 13th we came into sight of the Gulf of Mexico and camped in a marsh without shelter of any kind, and suffered intensely from the cold and the raw sea air.
The following is from the report of the Confederate Maj. Gen. Maury :
(NOTE : The report was dated December 15th, 1864 - See the complete report in the Book Exploits of Willis’ Battalion Texas Cavalry : Correspondence 1864- Ben )
”... a column of enemy's cavalry (4,000 men, with eight guns) marched from Baton Rouge through East Louisiana and Mississippi to a point just beyond Pascagoula River. The avowed object of the expedition was to destroy the Mobile and Ohio Railroad and to surprise Mobile. Troops were in position in time to defeat these objects. On Saturday, the 10th instant, McCulloch's (Second Missouri) regiment and Willis' (Texas) battalion met a detachment from the main body of the enemy which was sent across Chickasawha River to destroy the railroad. The enemy charged with spirit, but were repulsed with some loss. Their main force then crossed Pascagoula river and was advancing on the direct road to Mobile, by during Sunday recrossed to west side of Pascagoula and marched rapidly down toward Mississippi Sound.”
The following is from General Davidsons report:
“ The bad weather and horrible condition of the roads impeded our march. We had to lay our pontoons four times over the Amite, Pearl and Black Rivers and Red Creek; repaired and rebuilt fifteen bridges and laid miles of corduroy over the swamps of Louisiana and Mississippi through a country so poor as to render the transportation of subsistence a matter of necessity.” “ The day after my arrival at Augusta I found Mobile papers containing full accounts of strength and design and our daily progress and marches were telegraphed to Meridian where Gen. R. Taylor had his headquarters and to Mobile.” “ On the 9th of December the rain fell in such torrents as to render the roads almost impassable. The rear division ( Davis’) was unable to make any progress and the streams rose so between the head and rear of his column as to sweep out an ammunition wagon which could not be saved. I found from all information on the Pascagoula and Guerney’s reports ( who met the enemy cavalry at Leaksville) that the head of a force of 2,500 cavalry and artillery, consisting of McCulloch brigade of Forrest’s command and the fifteenth Confederate and Eighth Mississippi had been sent to watch and impede our progress to the road at the different crossings while they would have time to concentrate several thousand infantry from Meridian and Mobile. On account of the state of the roads and swollen conditions of the streams and their perfect knowledge of our movements, celebrity and surprise were impossibilities.” “ for the last seventy miles my rear had no forage.” “Our losses are one officer and two men killed, eight men wounded and thirteen men missing; stragglers captured by the enemy.”