Reminiscences of the Civil War, William and Adelia Lyon

Colonel Lyon’s Letters.

Huntsville, Ala., Sun., Feb. 12, 1865.—We have gotten settled and are very comfortable again. We live much better and I think cheaper since we got Mrs. Moulton. We discharged Minty, and by so doing stopped some leaks. She is a good, faithful woman, but has a lazy, good-for-nothing husband, who was a perfect nuisance to us; and we could not get rid of him without letting her go, too.

Companies C and G started for Claysville yesterday, but Moulton remains here on duty at our headquarters. The Adjutant has a brother here in business who lives with us. He served three years in an Illinois regiment as a private. I have taken a long ride today through the camps of the 4th Army Corps, visiting the 24th Wisconsin.

Colonel Lyon’s Letters.

Huntsville, Ala., Wed., Feb. 8, 1865.—The division of the 4th Army Corps that left here some days since has returned, and we found it necessary this morning to give up our headquarters, and it has taken us all day to find another place. Everything in the shape of a house here is full to overflowing, and I think we shall not be as comfortably situated hereafter. I have not seen the house assigned to us. Moulton and his wife are to live with us. She is to oversee the mess affairs and try to stop some leaks through which we are satisfied large amounts of rations are lost. Ultimately she will probably do our cooking and we will get rid of our negro help. Our expenses are so heavy that the Adjutant and I both thought on consultation that this experiment was worth trying.

Everything seems to indicate a radical change in our affairs here very soon, either of commanders or location, and perhaps both. I do not think we shall remain in Huntsville long, but where we shall go I have not the least idea. We received 98 new recruits from Wisconsin last evening. Captain Kingman is home on leave of absence and will probably call on you while there.

Colonel Lyon’s Letters.

Huntsville, Ala., Sun., Feb. 5, 1865.—I have not been more pleasantly situated since I have been in the army. I have just enough to do to prevent time from passing heavily, without being at all crowded. Then I have good quarters, a pleasant command, and business which suits me. The same doubt and uncertainty hang over our future movements that have kept me from sending for you. Colonel Doolittle, of the 18th Michigan, is making a strong effort to get his regiment in the 4th Army Corps. If he succeeds it may throw me in command of this post again, a position that is an unmitigated nuisance to any one, and which I am anxious to keep out of.

Colonel Lyon’s Letters.

Huntsville, Ala., Feb. 3, 1865.—I returned from Nashville last evening. Our stay here is uncertain. A good many movements and changes are taking place, and no one can tell how soon our turn will come to be sent to some other field of labor. One division of the 4th Corps has just gone from here to Eastport, and I learn that another division is ordered in the direction of Knoxville. It is possible and quite probable that the remaining division of that corps may be kept on duty here and in this vicinity, in which case we should be sent to some other place.

If I do not go out of the service next fall, I will try to get a leave of absence next summer and visit you. I can be mustered out September 26th next, but you know I made some promises to the regiment to remain with them.

When I got back I found that the Adjutant had moved headquarters. We have full as good a place as before. I wrote you from Nashville that Colonel Doolittle had returned and taken command of the post. I have my old railroad command, which gives me enough to do without crowding me. I am very pleasantly situated indeed, if it only lasts. The evidence that I have more leisure is the fact that I write longer letters. This soldiering is rather uncertain business.

I was handsomely entertained while in Nashville by Major Bigney, and had a pleasant time. Nashville and Edgefield look much as usual; about the same amount of army wagons, mud, mules and shoulder straps as there was last winter.

Colonel Lyon’s Letters.

Huntsville, Ala., Wed. Eve., Jan. 25, 1865.—I did not get ready to start for Nashville until this morning, and as the train was detained by the breaking down of a bridge near Brownsboro, I postponed until tomorrow morning. I leave at 6:30, and as the weather is now quite cold for this country I am not much delighted with the idea of turning out before daylight and then riding in a caboose or box car. There is no change in my command or in the situation of affairs here.

Colonel Lyon’s Letters.

Huntsville, Ala., Sun., Jan. 22, 1865.—I was up the railroad looking after matters there last week and returned here last evening. We are just commencing to build block houses for the defense of the road. We make them artillery proof and it requires a great deal of work to build them. I pay more attention to this part of my command than to any other.

A new order lets out all of our officers who have served three years consecutively in any one grade. Under it Blake, Hewitt, Randall, Balis and Wemple go out. They are all mustered out except Balis, who leaves tomorrow. Captain Kummel was here a few days ago and mustered in as Lieut.-Colonel.

I have just received an order to go to Nashville as a witness for the defense in the case of Colonel Anderson, of the 12th Indiana Cavalry, who is on trial for ordering a young man, who was probably a guerilla, to be shot last summer at Brownsboro. I shall probably start on Tuesday morning and shall be absent about six days. I will write you from there.

Everything moves quietly and comfortably here. The presence of an army gives a feeling of security to which I have been a stranger for many months.

Colonel Lyon’s Letters.

Huntsville, Ala., Sun. Eve., Jan. 15, 1865.—Sunday brings me but little respite from labor, and it is late in the evening before I can find time to write to you my usual Sunday letter.

I returned last evening from a trip of two days up the railroad. My principal business was to post and rearrange the troops along the line. I was on the cars all night Friday night, and of course I came home pretty well tired out. Captain Stevens of the 18th Michigan, Brigade Inspector, went with me. I went to Stevenson.

We have quite a family now, the Brigade Staff being with me, three officers and three or four clerks and orderlies. This will only last, however, until Colonel Doolittle’s return. We expect him every day.

I have just received the commissions for the new officers. They are Kummel, Lieut.-Colonel; Cobb, Captain; Auld, 1st Lieut, and Gibbs, 2d Lieut., Co. A. Hall, Captain, and Cheney, 1st Lieut., Co. B. Fish, Captain; Bardwell, 1st Lieut.; Loucks, 2d Lieut., Co. C. Patchin, 1st Lieut., Co. D. Briggs, 1st Lieut., Co. F. Pratt, 1st Lieut., and Beckwith, 2d Lieut., Co. H. Wemple, Captain, and Hollister, 1st Lieut., Co. K. The rest are the old officers. Captain Randall writes me that under a late order he is entitled to be mustered out of the service and is going out. He veteranized, you know. If there is such an order I think Captains Blake and Noyes, Lieutenant Balis, perhaps the Quartermaster and Dr. Evans, will go out, which will give a chance for more promotions. I intend to make Matson a Lieutenant in Company G, unless the Quartermaster goes out, in which case I shall probably give him that position.

Colonel Lyon’s Letters.

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The Fight with Lyon at Scottsboro—Bravery of the Colored Troops.

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(Letter from Colonel Lyon to the Nashville Union.)

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Huntsville, Ala., Jan. 14, 1865. “A fight took place at Scottsboro, twenty miles west of Stevenson, on the evening of the 8th inst., between the forces of the rebel General Lyon and the garrison at that place, consisting of detachments from Company E, 101st U. S. C. T., and from Company E, 110th U. S. C. T., the former commanded by Lieutenant John H. Hull, and the latter by Lieutenant David Smart, the whole under command of Lieutenant Hull. This affair deserves more publicity than it will get through the ordinary medium of an official report, as it helps settle the oft repeated question, ‘Will the negro fight?’

Lieutenant Hull’s command numbered fifty-three muskets in all, but eleven of his men were on outpost duty at the water tanks over one mile west of the depot, in which the balance of the command, forty-two strong, was stationed. Here the little garrison was attacked by the whole force of the rebel General, reinforced by several guerrilla companies that infest that region, and numbering from 800 to 1,000 men, with two twelve-pounder howitzers.

After skirmishing with the enemy and holding him in check for some time, the garrison was driven into the depot, upon which three determined charges were made, each one of which was repulsed with severe loss to the enemy. The rebels then withdrew beyond musket range and opened upon the depot with their artillery; but the garrison remained in it until it had been struck with four shells, three of which exploded in the building. Lieutenant Hull then withdrew his command to a mountain four hundred and fifty yards distant, cutting his way through the ranks of the rebels, who attempted to intercept his progress, in a hand-to-hand fight. One rebel seized the Lieutenant by the collar, but was instantly killed by him. The pursuit was short. The rebels had been too severely handled to approach within reach of the muskets of these dusky warriors; and, after firing a few random shots with their artillery into the mountain, they left for the Tennessee river. Their loss was one Colonel and seventeen men killed, and forty or fifty wounded. Ours was six wounded.

The men on duty at the water tank were captured, but before reaching the river they stampeded, at great personal peril, and all of them escaped and are now with their commands.

There were some interesting incidents that took place during the engagement, worthy to be mentioned.

After the men had been driven into the depot, Lieutenant Hull went out upon the platform to reconnoitre. The enemy’s bullets were flying thickly around him when he discovered his orderly sergeant, a colored man, approaching him. The Lieutenant ordered him back into the building. ‘I wish to speak to you,’ said the sergeant. ‘Very well,’ replied the Lieutenant, ‘speak quickly’. ‘The men don’t want to surrender,’ continued the sergeant. The response from the Lieutenant was, ‘Go back and tell them that while a man of us lives there will be no surrender’.

The sergeant delivered this message, and a wild shout of joy went up from the beleaguered garrison—a shout that assured their gallant commander that there would be no faltering on the part of his men in the deadly conflict which was rapidly thickening around them.

Another incident. A colored sergeant named Anderson had his leg torn off by the explosion of one of the shells—and afterwards loaded and fired his musket three times! This brave soldier has since died of his wounds.

It is worthy of mention that these soldiers were mostly new recruits, and had never before been in action, and a majority of them had not even been mustered.

The whole affair lasted some three hours, and to give an idea of the desperate character of the fighting I will mention that in one at least of the assaults the rebels came so close to the building that they seized the guns of our men as they were projected through the loopholes in the brick walls of the depot and attempted to wrench them from the grasp of those inside.

Lieutenant Hull, a resident of Ripley County, Indiana, was formerly an enlisted man of the 83d Indiana, and is a brother, I am informed, of the gallant Colonel Hull, of the 37th Indiana, whose name is so familiar in the Army of the Cumberland.

I am not acquainted with the history of Lieutenant Smart, but it is just to add that Lieutenant Hull speaks in terms of the highest praise of his courage and efficiency in the contest.

Respectfully yours,

Wm. P. Lyon,
“Col. 13th Wis. V. I., Comd’g.”

Colonel Lyon’s Letters.

Huntsville, Ala., 11 o’clock p. m., Jan. 11, 1865—I write at this late hour because I have had no time to do so before. I am constantly occupied, early and late, and it is with difficulty that I get time to write at all. In addition to my other duties, the command of our brigade is thrown upon me again. Colonel Doolittle is commanding a brigade in the 23d Army Corps. This is Colonel Doolittle of the 18th Michigan.

Everything moves along nicely with me. Our town is full of Generals. Wood, Kemble, Beatty, Elliott, Granger, and others are here. My relations with them are very pleasant indeed. Granger and Elliott called upon me tonight. I knew the latter as Colonel of the 2d Iowa Cavalry, and went up the Tennessee river with him in April, 1862, to Pittsburg Landing.

I am about making an entire change of force on the railroad, and shall probably go to Stevenson in a day or two to superintend the necessary movements. I have received a reinforcement of two regiments, the 84th Illinois and the 18th Michigan, to enable me to increase the strength of garrisons here and on the railroad. When Colonel Doolittle returns I shall be relieved of the command of the brigade, and I hope of the post, so that I can devote my whole time to the railroad and river defenses.