Got Badly Scooped: A Federal Gunner at Brice’s Crossroads

As his two-gun section of the 7th Wisconsin Battery rolled towards Brice’s Crossroads, Mississippi on the afternoon of June 10, 1864, Private Isaac Denny grew perplexed at General Sturgis’s troop deployments.

“Sturgis evidently was unaware of the presence in great force for he kept his trains moving to the front, even after the battle opened,” Denny noted in a letter to his brother back home in Wisconsin. “The wagons and ambulances were jammed right in among us and it looked to me as if he intended to charge the enemy with his supply train. After we had fought five hours and the retreat was ordered, upon going a few rods we found that the damned supply train was still there. A regular stampede ensued. The roads were so blockaded that we were obliged to take to the fields. We started with both of our guns but got stuck in the mud and abandoned one of them.”

Federal artillery accounts of Brice’s Crossroads are rare as hens’ teeth, so it is with pleasure that I share Private Denny’s account which resides in Volume 10 of the Quiner Scrapbooks of the Wisconsin Historical Society.   

      
Private Denny and the 7th Wisconsin Battery escaped the logjam at the Tishomingo Creek bridge during the retreat phase of the Battle of Brice's Crossroads but eventually had to abandon their guns in the swamps on the road to Ripley. 

Memphis, Tennessee

June 14, 1864

          The right wing of the battery had another whack at old Forrest but we got badly scooped this time. We started in the direction of Corinth on the 1st instant under Generals Sturgis and Grierson. As we understood it, the object of the expedition was to engage the attention of the Rebels and prevent them from interfering with Sherman’s communications and Sturgis was under positive orders to avoid, if possible, a general engagement. This order he seems to have disregarded.

          On the seventh day about sundown, we reached Ripley. As we entered the town our advance was having a lively skirmish but as no artillery was used we were merely spectators. The Rebs fell back and we resumed our march the next day and for four successive days we followed a brigade of Rebs until finally we were piloted into the main Rebel camp and got badly scooped. The battle commenced on the 10th at 10 a.m. and the retreat was ordered at 5 p.m.

Sturgis evidently was unaware of the presence in great force for he kept his trains moving to the front, even after the battle opened. The wagons and ambulances were jammed right in among us and it looked to me as if he intended to charge the enemy with his supply train. After we had fought five hours and the retreat was ordered, upon going a few rods we found that the damned supply train was still there. A regular stampede ensued. The roads were so blockaded that we were obliged to take to the fields. We started with both of our guns but got stuck in the mud and abandoned one of them.

We kept moving all night and in the morning were at Ripley again, 26 miles from the battleground. We remained there half an hour when the Rebs charged into and we out of it. They hung upon our rear with a heavy force. When within 50 miles of Memphis, our infantry and cavalry were out of ammunition. We halted half an hour with heavy firing in front; started again, and continued the retreat all night through fields and swamps dark as tar.

 “The men in their desperation broke their guns over stumps and trees, throwing away their empty cartridge boxes, coats, and even shoes, anything that would impede them in their flight. Not a mouthful of provision in the whole army, the country a barren and desolate waste and the cavalry of the enemy harassing them on every side. Worn down and broken in spirit, they trudged on all night through the mud and mire. The horses of the batteries were killed but every piece of artillery was brought off the field by hand. They could not be saved. One captain took an axe and cut down the wheels, spiking his guns, throwing the ammunition in the swamp. Words cannot picture the horrors of the retreat.” ~ A Federal eyewitness

Johnny Davis, Ed Topliff, and myself traveled until our horse played out. Then we slept awhile and awoke just in time to save ourselves from capture and did not halt again until we reached Memphis making 110 miles in 48 hours. During the battle, we were frequently under deadly fire, but no member of the 7th sustained any injury though men were killed from the guns adjoining us. Six of our own men are missing: Sergeant John Warren, James Burton, Andrew and Joseph Wright, and two new recruits whose names I do not remember.

Sources:

Letter from Private Isaac C. Denny, 7th Wisconsin Battery, Quiner Scrapbooks of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Volume 10

Letter from J.G., Evansville Daily Journal (Indiana), July 18, 1864, pg. 1

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