Part Two
In letter by D.S. Combs (another member of Terry's Texas Rangers) to Lee Giles, Combs wrote: "I was with you at Farmington and at Nolensville, where Ferg Kyle led his line of dismounted men, deployed as skirmishers, up against a solid line of blue, a regiment of infantry, who poured a galling fire into our ranks and caused us to reel and stagger like a drunken man."
From the journal of Sergeant W.H. Thompson of Company F, 17th Indiana, who was mortally wounded at Cleveland, Tennessee following a raid on 27 November and who died 4 December, derives a 12-page narrative of his cumulative service from 17 August 1863 ending on 8 October 1863, covering the period of the Chickamauga Campaign. On October 8 the journal cuts off abruptly with the final entry reading, "about 10 am had a fight. Our loss was 30 killed and wounded. The 17th charged a battery of 3 guns and captured them at Farmington." Here at Farmington, Wilder's brigade charged into the town and captured three guns, and 300 prisoners but lost 48 killed and wounded, including three commissioned officers.
Civil War Diary of Ambrose Remeley (1836-1917), entitled Battles, Skirmishes, Events and Scenes: The Letters and Memorandum of Ambrose Remeley, edited by Dale Edwards, Linvill (Crawfordville, Ind: The Montgomery County Historical Society, 1997) provides:
"When Wilder saw that the men could not effectively use bayonets, especially for camp chores, he had each man issued a hatchet with a two-foot long handle. This became a very handy camp tool and a good battlefield weapon. It earned the brigade the title of "The Hatchet Brigade" while fighting at Murfreesboro. Although officially known as the First Brigade of the Fourth Division of the XIV Corps, and since operated independently much of the time, the name of Wilder's Brigade was usually given to it.
In early February, Rosecrans finally gave Wilder permission to mount his brigade. Wilder did not wait long for government red tape to clear paperwork that would authorize purchase of horses. He immediately started on scouts through Dekalb and Wilson counties in the Cumberland Valley of Tennessee to "persuade" Confederate sympathizers to part with their horses. By the middle of March, Ambrose and the rest of the brigade had their horses.
With horses now on hand, one detail had yet to be completed. That was choosing more effective weapons for the men. Wilder's acquisition of the Spencer Repeating Rifle completed his transformation of the Brigade into a powerful fighting force. Obtaining this amazing new rifle, however, was not an easy task. Brig. Gen. James W. Ripley, the War Department?s Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, was in charge of all firearms purchases. Ripley was a West Point graduate and a veteran of the War of 1812. He preferred the smooth bore muzzle-loading musket to breechloaders arguing that they were a more reliable weapon and one less wasteful of ammunition. He would have nothing to do with repeating rifles calling them 'newfangled jimcrack.'
Having absolutely no success with the Washington Army bureaucracy, Spencer packed his gun and headed west to Grant's Army of Tennessee. Grant and his officers, including Wilder, recognized the merits of the repeater but doubted the Bureau of Ordnance would authorize purchase. This new repeating rifle was exactly what Wilder wanted for his men. He had sworn to arm them with the best weapons available. He called his men together and asked them if they wanted to carry the sensational rifle that they had just seen demonstrated. Of course they said yes. Wilder then took an unheard of chance. He wrote to his bankers in Greensburg, Indiana, asking for a loan to buy enough Spencer repeating rifles to arm his brigade. Each man offered to pay for his own weapon by signing a note for $35. Wilder co-signed the notes and sent them off to his bank. Funds were returned and an order for 2000 repeating rifles and ammunition was placed with the Spencer factory. This order, put through privately, was highly irregular but a brilliantly resourceful maneuver.
But before the Spencers would arrive, the men of Company E and the rest of the brigade had to learn new skills in order to operate as a mounted force. Saddles, bridles, and other leatherwork had to be maintained. Since horses were not as agile of men and horses had a mind of their own, close order drill and marching had to be practiced. Learning these new skills took a considerable amount of time.
Murfreesboro Tenn May the 22d/63
We have drawn new guns and they are the nicest and handiest gun I ever saw. They are called the spencer repeating rifle. They shoot seven times and can be loaded and fired in less than no time. We dont have to use any caps. The cap is on the end of the cartrige."
Although it appears that Sgt. Remeley was not able to keep up with his journal regularly after that time, writing at Mayesville, Alabama, October 30, 1863, he writes of the month's previous action of Chasing Wheeler. "Our advance run on to them before they knew they were near them, dismounted and drove them in good style killing a good many got them to running and the cavalry made a charge and took over a hundred prisoners. The rest run like towheads. The roads was lined with guns that they threw away.
We went on until we came to a little town by the name of Farmington. Here Wheelers whole force had stopped to give us a fight. Our brigade dismounted and went in to them. It was shot and shell. The grape shot fairly whistle all around me. But we drove them took four cannon and two waggons. There was I believe 68 killed wound and missing in our brigade. Among the killed was Capt. Monroe of the 123d Ill as brave and good a Col [soul] as ever lived.
It was a hard trip. We was 21 days on the trip and it rained 11 day and nights in the time. We had but 5 day rations for the whole time. The rest we foraged off the country. You had better believe we went in to the tater patches, fresh porkers, Chickens, &c. Our horses are pretty well run down. I am still riding my mule. It stands it better than any horse."
A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Vol. 1), of the battles, campaigns in Tennessee, only lists the one Federal unit being engaged at Farmington, that of the 4th Ohio Cavalry. But for the other 'action at Shelbyville,' the same day, cited as October 9, 1863, identifies only the 17th Indiana Mounted Infantry. For the most part, neither Remeley or any of the other journals written by members of Wilder's Brigade, seemed to know just who was opposing them on the other side, just as it seems that Lee Giles had also not known that the line of blue infantry that made Terry's Texas Rangers "reel and stagger like a drunken man," was Wilder's Lightning Brigade. But Remeley continued to narrate of the brigade's engagements for the remainder of the war, and wrote at "the Etowah near Cartersville"on October 13th, 1864: "Started out early in the morning and after going about five miles we run on to the rebels again, had a skirmish and drove them back about a mile where they stopped to give us fight. They took up a position in the edge of a woods and behind a deep little stream. Our brigade was formed in a line of battle, dismounted, we then advanced, waded the stream which was waist deep, broke the rebel lines and then our Cavalry which was on the road just in our rear charged them and captured a good many prisoners, two pieces of artillery, some horses a regimental flag that if I remember right belong to Terrels Texas Rangers."
Although there was a Terrell's Texas Rangers, the 37th Texas Cavalry, also known as the 34th Regiment Texas Cavalry, this unit organized in June 1863 by Alexander W. Terrell. However, Terrell's Rangers remained garrisoned in Texas during 1863 before participating in the Red River Campaign in April 1864, and so never fought east of the Mississippi. In a letter from J.J. Weiler, addressing himself as "Maj. Com. 17th Indiana Volunteer Infantry" to Terry's Texas Rangers Association, Austin, Texas, of May 18, 1898 (included in L.B. Giles (1911) Terry's Texas Rangers), he relates to having found a package (or roll of something) a day after the 17th's engagement at Rome, lying near a road near Coosaville, Alabama (20 miles southwest of Rome, Georgia) that on opening the package once he had returned to his headquarters, discovered it to be the flag of Terry's Texas Rangers. It had been furled and sheathed in an oilcloth, and had apparently just slipped off the staff and been lost that way.
Note: Hood's headquarters had been at Coosaville on the night of October 10, 1864 after he evacuated Atlanta. It would seem that Wilder's Brigade was pursuing Hood, who fled to Alabama, since Cartersville on the Etowah River lies some fifty miles to the east of Coosaville. It may be that with the Etowah River being an eastern tributary of the Coosa River and converges at Rome, Georgia, that Remeley just may not have known where he was on October 13, 1864. By October 28, Sherman then at Gaylesville, Alabama, decided to return to his headquarters at Kingston, Georgia, rather than pursuing Hood into Alabama, and upon reaching Cartersville on November 12, Sherman sends his last message to Thomas in Nashville, to say "he will be out of communication with the North until December 13", then begins his "March to the Sea," and within four days had destroyed Rome, Cartersville, and Marietta on his way south to "make Georgia howl."
In the Journal of the Indiana State Senate during the 61st Session of the General Assembly commencing January 5, 1899, appears a bill presented before that body: "Whereas, On October 13, 1864, during the War of the Rebellion the flag of the Texas Rangers at a battle near Coosaville, Alabama, was captured by the 17th Regiment of Indiana Infantry (Mounted) Volunteers in command of Major J.J. Weiler, and then belonging to General J.T. Wilder's Brigade, which brigade at the time was in command of General A.O. Miller, and subsequently by the proper authorities was deposited in the archives of the State of Indiana, and reposed in the custody of the State Geologist, to which is attached the following description: 'Battle Flag of the Texas Rangers, captured from the 8th Texas Cavalry near Galesville, Alabama, October 13, 1864, by two companies of the 17th Indiana Infantry, commanded by Major J.J. Weiler of Company E, Wilder's Brigade.'"
There is identified a committee, including H.W. Graber, George W. Littlefield, S.P. Christian, W.D. Cleveland, and R.Y. King, all of the State of Texas, duly appointed by and representing the Association of Survivors of Terry's Texas Rangers, by their petition had asked the Legislature of the State of Indiana to kindly return to that association said battle flag, that it may be kept and treasured by them, and in said memorial the said Major J.J. Weiler, of Dallas, then a Post Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic of the District of Texas, agreed to return the colors to the survivors association of Terry's Texas Rangers in 1898. Of course, there was no mention of returning any Spencer rifles, even had it been known who they were taken from but you would think if the State of Indiana was nice enough to return the battle flag of Terry's Texas Rangers, the survivors would have been nice enough to have returned those Spencer rifles they stole off those poor prisoners of Wilder's Brigade in 1863?
So be on the lookout for these fifty Spencer Rifles that belonged to the 8th Texas Cavalry and to Wilder's Brigade, as they are one-in-the-same genuine rifles. When Terry's Texas Rangers surrendered at war's end, there were just 30 men left of the 1,200 men who had formed the regiment in 1861. At least one other rifle was taken back to Texas by William Henry Cubine (1838-1924), of Montague County, Texas, who served in Wharton's command, and was at Lee's surrender, claims to have killed many buffalo and other wild game on the frontiers of Texas with his Spencer Rifle.