[Former Chapter 16:] Just a teaser from Uncle Hiram R A McCorkle's journals, this part written during the Civil War --An excerpt from Uncle Hiram R A McCorkle's Journal during the Civil War. I haven't corrected his spelling or grammar. He usually spelled "stopped" as "stoped" and "until" as "untill."
March the 14th We left for Paducah Nothing of importance transpiring on the route I got to Trenton Tenn the 22nd and staid at William Goodloes until the 23rd about dark after we left Trenton we traveled day and night except a few hours just before day to feed and rest little until we got to Paducah
25th Attacked the Yanks in Paducah by surprise drove them into the fort and kept them there all day The Rebs got a great many goods and some horses We camped a few miles of the town All quiet
26th We moved back towards Trenton nothing of note happening untill I arrived at home which I did on the 29th day of March I staid at home until the 7th of April when I went to camp at Eaton [the earliest settlement in Gibson County, Tennessee; on the Forked (forky) Deer river] The brigade left Eaton the 10th for Ft. Pillow
I and Lewis Ridley were sent to Trenton with William [Cowan?] and Abner [Cowan?]. [illegible word ] [Abner?] got away from us
Fort Pillow was taken the 12th. I and Ridley arrived there in a short time after the fort was taken camped near the fort until the 13th when we left. Camped at Brownsville the 14th.
15th I and Capt Hibbits staid all night with Mr Taylor between Brownsville and Somerville [Tennessee]
16th We camped at Somerville La
grainge [LaGrange in southern Tennessee, east of Memphis]
17 At Lagrange Holly Springs
[Mississippi]
18th At Holly Springs Lagrange
I staid a [sentence not finished, but I would bet he stayed with William
Scott's family in Hardeman County near Saulsbury near LaGrange; after the
war, Hiram's brother John
Edwin McCorkle was to marry Tennie, a dau. of William Scott & Nancy Edwards
Wellborn Scott. William Scott had removed from the Yorkville-Newbern area down
to Hardeman county circa 1835. William Scott's parents, James Scott
(1777-1853) & Sarah Dickey Scott (1777-1838) had removed from York District, SC,
to the area of Yorkville-Newbern, living out their final days on the Dyer County
side of the Gibson-Dyer County Line.]
19th At Lagrange Somerville
20th At Somerville or near Mr. W.
Ballards
21st near Ballards at Lanefield
22nd at Dyersburg, staid at Dyersburg until the 29th the brigade moved up near Trenton the 29th
[In civil war times the basic unit was a regiment, composed of 500 to 1000 men and commanded by a colonel. Generally 4 or 5 regiments combined to form a brigade, commanded by a brigadier general (one-star). A brigade, the basic attack unit in Civil War times, comprised anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 men. Putting about 5 brigades together made a Division, commanded by a major general (a two-star officer). Two or three divisions combined to make a corps. The Army of Northern Virginia at the height of the war had 3 corps.] [The CSA just didn't have the capability of keeping its soldiers fed. So, the men scattered out, foraging as they could.]
30th I left home and followed on to Spring Creek and stopped at Edgar Johnson Rained considerably in the evening.
May 1st I caught up with the Brigade near Jackson We went through Jackson and took up our line of march for Dixie We camped in Corinth [Mississippi] the 3rd of May in {?Rienza? Brenza?}
the 4th Baldwin
the 5th & Tupelo
the 6th cornfield near Harrisburg 4 miles west of Tupelo untill the 16th of May
16th Left Tupelo for Corinth arrived there the 17th and camped there until the 23rd the day the Infantry soldiers were mounted we then started south again and camped at Brownsville
24th We arrived at Tupelo and camped in town one night and then moved out to [?]Mathises[?] (about 3 miles) and staid there untill the 1st of June
[June] 1st We started to Middle Tennessee and moved up into Alabama between Big and Little Bear Creeks when we countermarched and arrived at Tupelo the 4th and staid there until the 7th
7th We started out to hunt Yanks again camped near Baldwin
8th Camped part of the night near Burrville [Bunnville?
Gunville? perchance Guntown, Mississippi?] and part of the night
near at Black country H C McCorkle and
J T Everett killed
[Uncle Hiram does not even record that Clay McCorkle,
a son of Jehiel Morrison McCorkle & Elizabeth Smith McCorkle, was his first
cousin.]
9th Moved up to Rivnza [?Rivnza? Tyronza? Tironza?]
10th Battle at Brice's Cross Roads [a.k.a. Battle of Guntown, Mississippi]
11th Run [ran] the Feds all day I was in sight of Salem when we met Col. [Tyree Harris] Bell coming back
12th We returned to camp on the battle field and meandered the the [sic.] 13th.
14th We moved to Guntown on M & O R.R.
19th Moved to Saltillo Station
21st To Tupelo and remained there until the 8th of July. We then moved to Ellistown. We left Ellistown the 9th about dark & traveled all night in the direction of Pontotoc Stoped [sic] about day light on the 10th in two miles of Pontotoc Slept 11/2 hours and started towards Ocolona [Okolona?] warm day
10th Traveled all day and untill midnight and stoped in Ocolona
11th Moved two miles south of Ocolona
12th Left camp about 4 o'clock PM and traveled nearly all night stoped awhile in an old field and slept a little
13th We started on and got in a few miles of Pontotoc and then turned towards Tupelo met with and fought the enemy in 5 miles of Tupelo We fell back and camped untill morning.
14th Battle at Harrisburg Rebs repulsed and with heavy loss
15th Still skirmishing with the enemy untill noon when it was ascertained with certainly that the enemy was retreating They retreated 4 miles and ambushed our command and drove them back in confusion
16th The enemy still falling back towards Memphis Our Brigade went into camp near Tupelo and remained there until the 18th
18th We moved to [Sharon? Sherman? Shanon?] Station
19th Moved to Pikeville
20th We moved 4 miles west of Pikeville to McIntosh and Bowens farms
28th We moved up to Shanon Station and stoped there untill the 7th of August, about two weeks or more than that and then we went over to Oxford. Battle of Hurricane Creek was fought the 13th of August. Rebs repulsed. We staid around Oxford until the 18th of August
August 18th We left for Memphis in the evening and traveled nearly all night It rained all night stoped near Panola
19th Still raining crossed the river and stoped at Senatobia late in the night
24th We started to Springdale
25th Arrived do + do [could he mean "duty officer?"] Staid there two days and 3 nights --the 28th--and moved up to Oxford camped there a few days and moved over to Varona [?Verona?] Station on the M&O R.R. and remained there untill the 16th of September. We camped one night at Lafayett[e] Springs and one at Pontotoc
Sept 16th We started for Middle Tennessee passed through north Alabama and struck the M&O R.R. at Cherokee Station Left Cherokee the 21st forded Tennessee river at Colbert Shoals the same day and camped near Florence Alabama
Sept 23rd ... ... ... ...
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