THE BATTLE OF TUPELO, OR HARRISBURG
JULY 14th, 1863

By Stephen D. Lee

[AUTHOR'S NOTE:  General Lee made no report of the battle of Tupelo, or Harrisburg, during the war. It is therefore deemed pertinent to add to this account the following in way of explanation at this late day:

“It is a duty which we surviving Confederates owe our families and posterity to prepare and have in accessible form as many facts as possible in regard to the war, that historians in the future may not be in doubt or in the dark. It is not too late yet to correct some errors of record or omission. As a people at large we were not in a humor or favorable condition to write much about the great struggle until its memories began to fade, and the participants still living were greatly scattered and reduced in numbers.” As for myself, the busy demands of an active and exacting life have given me no time until the last three years to examine or study the exciting scenes of the great struggle of the sixties.

“The time has come when -undue loyalty, sentiment and partisanship must give way before the cold facts of history as recorded in official reports and justice must be done to the American soldier without partiality or favor, and facts ought not to be suppressed because they affect the reputation of a dead man. The United States government has done what no other government ever did. It has prepared in 130 volumes the reports, correspondence, telegrams, maps and official material of the great struggle, giving equal credence to the papers on both sides. From this material history will be written, and while survivors may give their memories of events, these can only color or bring light on doubtful records. The facts are potent in official record, and will have right of way. ‘Memory after a long lapse of time is not always reliable.’ It is easy to criticise and attack in the light of circumstances that were not known at the time.

“The facts are, that Gen. Forrest never rendered a report to me during or after the war. I never had access to these reports, till they appeared in 1892, in the official record of the war by the United States government. I left the battlefield of Harrisburg to go to the great battles around Atlanta, and amid those scenes I had no time to dwell on my campaign in Mississippi. Gen. Forrest, too, was actively engaged. The great struggle was pressing everywhere to a speedy ending. Events followed events rapidly. I reported the battle in three brief teigrams to the War Department, awaiting an opportunity to make a full official report, which opportunity never came, but Gen. Forrest received all subordinate reports and made his official report direct to department headquarters, and not through me.

“I assert that the reports of Gen. Forrest, Gen. Chalmers and Gen. Buford, and the letter of Gen. Roddey, and the other reports, will bear out my version of the battle of Harrisburg, and that no other version will bear the test of military scrutiny.  I have given only the statements, or stated facts, as reported by Forrest, Chalmers, Roddey, Buford, A. J. Smith, and others, as given in their respective official reports, except, that Roddey wrote a letter, and made no official report. I make no inferences, deductions or statements of my own.”]

     As might have been supposed, the disastrous defeat of Gen. Sturgis at Brice’s Cross Roads June 10th, 1863, nettled the Federal commanders, Generals Grant, Sherman, and Washburn and, taken in connection with Gen. Forrest’s previous successes in West Tennessee and elsewhere, led them to determine to organize a suficiently large force to destroy or get rid of him. The right wing of the 16th army corps, commanded by Gen. A. J. Smith, had arrived in Memphis from Louisiana (on its way to reinforce Gen. Sherman in Georgia). Two thousand men of this force had been sent to LaFayette to meet the routed army of Gen. Sturgis and save it.

     It was decided that the two divisions of the 16th army corps at Memphis should form the nucleus of a new army to defeat and destroy Gen. Forrest. To the two veteran divisions of infantry, under Gen. Mower and Col. Moore was added a large negro brigade of infantry under Col. Bouton, making an infantry force of 1 1,000 men. A division of cavalry under Gen. Grierson, numbering 3,200 men, was to accompany the expedition and also eight batteries of artillery.

     This force was organized under careful orders with every available resource, so that it was one of the most complete armies of its size sent into the field during the war.

     Gen. Sherman (Serial No. 98, Rebellion Records, p. 121, line 15) telegraphing the Union Secretary of War, says: “I will order Smith and Mower to make up a force and go out and follow Forrest to the death if it cost 10,000 lives and breaks the treasury. There never will be peace in Tennessee till Forrest is dead.” The same general, in a telegram to Washburn, says: “It was Gen. Grant’s order, that Smith was required, after his fight, to pursue and continue to follow Forrest. He must keep after him till recalled by me or Gen. Grant.”

     All the resources of Gen. Sherman’s department, including the garrisons on the Mississippi river and in the State of Tennessee, and in Gen. Canby’s department, whose headquarters were at New Orleans, were ordered to co-operate with the great expedition intended to crush Forrest, and under the command of Gen. Andrew J. Smith, Gen. Slocurn at Vicksburg made two expeditions into the interior of Mississippi (July 2—July 9). As a further diversion Canby was ordered to move a large infantry force from his department and co-operate with Admiral Farragut in taking Mobile. He was also ordered to send a cavalry raid from Baton Rogue to cut the M. & 0. Railroad south of Meridian. Gen. Rossean concentrated a force of 3,000 cavalry at Decatur, Ala., and ordered to strike the railroad at Opelika, Ala., and go towards Montgomery and Selma, Ala. Gen. Rosseau was informed by Gen. Sherman that Gen. Canby would take care of the garrison at Mobile. The cavalry in the vicinity of Memphis was so numerous that Gen. Washburn, in addition to the 3,200 cavalry with Gen. Smith, sent 1,000 more to Vicksburg by boat, to assist in drawing attention from Gen. Smith’s expedition, intended to crush Forrest. Gen. Smith started with his well organized expedition from Lagrange, Tenn., on July 5th, 1864. His orders were to find and “follow Forrest to the death if it cost 10,000 lives and breaks the treasury.”

     On the Confederate side, Gen. Lee, as stated, had been relieved of the personal command of his troops in the field. His cavalry division had been sent to reinforce Gen. Johnston, when Gen. Polk went from Mississippi with his (Polk’s) two divisions of infantry, and Lee was now in command of the department succeeding Gen. Polk. On June 22nd, Gen. Lee reported that the formidable expedition organizing under Gen. Smith was more than a raid, and that it was a well organized army to invade Mississippi, from the West Tennessee border. President. Davis was now thoroughly aroused as to the danger from Memphis, Tenn. He ordered Gen. Lee to concentrate his cavalry for the protection of his own department, saying that drafts to help Gen. Johnston had already been too great from Gen. Lee’s command; and that only the infantry force under Gen. Polk was authorized to aid Gen. Johnston (Serial No. 78, Rebellion Records, page 658). At the same time Gen. Lee (June 23) was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General. On June 28th Gen. Lee reported that Gen. Smith was ready to move from Saulsbury, Tenn., into Mississippi. On the same date Gen. Forrest, at Tupelo, Miss., telegraphed Gen. Lee: 

“I am suffering from boils. If enemy should move out I desire you to take command of the forces. Our force is insufficient to meet this command. Can’t you get help ?“ 

     The Confederacy was at this time pressed, as it always was during the war, by the great numbers and resources of the Union armies. Mobile, which was now in Gen. Lee’s department, had only an infantry force of 2,500 men to meet any land attack. Farragut’s fleet of 17 vessels was off the harbor, and Gen. Canby was ready to attack the city with a large army reported by the spies at 20,000 men, organized at New Orleans to attack Mobile for the purpose of co-operating with Farragut’s fleet. This was reported by Gen. Lee July 7th, to the authorities at Richmond. Mobile was the most important point in the department, holding the entrance of the rivers leading into Alabama from the south. From the small garrison at Mobile only 6oo men could be drawn temporary to reinforce the cavalry force to meet Gen. Smith—( See Maury’s Telegram Serial No. 78). The enemy was making a second raid to Jackson, July 6th, to distract attention from Smith. The raid of Gen. Rosseau from Decatur, Ala., southward into Alabama, was reported ready to move also, and did move about that time.

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