A Staff Officer / Four Months in the Rear of the Enemy or Stray Scraps 1866

Description: "Four Months in the Rear of the Enemy; or, Stray Scraps of History Author: "A Staff Officer" [of Confederate General Dandridge McRae] Title: Four Months in the Rear of the Enemy; or, Stray Scraps of History Publication: 1866 Description: Unbound. Four chapters of an unpublished Confederate memoir. Four gatherings, each ribbon-bound at the top margin, measuring approximately 7½" x 12". 29pp. (i.e. [10, 7, 6, 6]ff.), written on rectos only, about 6,000 words in a legible hand. With later (1888) authorial ink edits and touch-ups (see below) and several pencil edits. Some staining and light edgewear, final leaf with some creasing and a tear causing a tiny bit of loss, very good.An extraordinary Confederate officer's account of the chaos in Northeastern Arkansas and Southern Missouri in the winter of 1863-64, with tales of banditry, extra-judicial execution, and a firsthand account of the Battle of Fitzhugh's Woods (here called the Fight at Golightly's Farm). An inked note added to the final leaf of the first gathering, dated December 4, 1888 (very likely when the edits and touch-ups were done), states: "The above was written in July, 1866, two years after the occurrences narrated. I got my facts from the firing party [see below]. Capt. Rutherford still lives at Batesville. I showed the sketch to Gen. McRae, a few years ago, to get his recollection of the matter. Herewith I send you his account. J.N.S." An additional short note on the first leaf, also in black ink and likely the same hand, states: "Written in 1866. Never published." The author, "J.N.S.," otherwise unidentified, was one of General McRae's Staff Officers, but we have not been able to decisively identify him (Crute's *Confederate Staff Officers, 1861-1865* does not list any of McRae's officers with similar initials).The fall of Little Rock to Union forces in September 1863 was devastating to the morale of Arkansas confederate soldiers, and desertion was rampant. As the main Confederate army headed southwest from the city, General Dandridge McRae was sent northeast to recruit new soldiers, see to the consolidation of the irregular forces roaming the land (many indistinguishable from bands of robbers), and to attempt to bring a measure of peace to a part of the state verging on anarchy. The soldiers under McRae's command included 46 commissioned officers who had been left without troops because of desertions, and many were irregulars. The author of this 29-page reminiscence, Staff Officer to General McRae during this chaotic time, figures into several of the stories. A synopsis of each chapter follows:Gathering One:"Introduction" / "Death of Lieut. Col. Brand and Capt. Edwards"The story of two formerly upstanding officers' descent into "jayhawking": robbery, torture, and murder, ending with their sanctioned wilderness executions. The author sets the scene in the introduction: "Anarchy and mob law reigned supreme in this distracted portion of the country at that time. Such protection as our irregular and disorganized body of raw troops could afford the citizens in the rear of an enemy, was extended to them, but it was so meager and unreliable as to afford by little relief." He cites both the daily incursions of Union troops, and "jayhawkers" ("lawless bands of desperadoes that infested the country"), as leaving the inhabitants little peace. "It is my intention to give a brief sketch in this series of letters, of some of the most important events of this period, and to delineate as nearly as possible the terrible condition into which this unhappy portion of the country was precipitated... ." According to the author, McRae's forces at the time varied from 200 to 600 men, but could reach up to 1,000. "It was a rather nominal command," he wrote, "as the enemy occupied Batesville, Jacksonport, Pocahontas-in fact all the principal points in the district, and it was a hard matter at any time to keep from being ‘gobbled up by the Yanks,' as the boys familiarly termed the process of capturing... ." Short backgrounds are given for Lieutenant Colonel [J. F.] Brand and Captain [John] Edwards, who, by the author's lights, were fine humans and Southern patriots, to boot. Brand, who was from an old Kentucky family and later moved to Missouri to practice law, had raised a company of sharpshooters for the Missouri State Guard, and fought honorably on the staff of "Fighting Joe" Shelby. Edwards, a merchant and a Missourian with "a fervor and zeal for the cause of the South seldom excelled," raised a company himself, which was eventually attached to Shelby's regiment, and Edwards served as his bodyguard after Shelby was promoted. That winter, Brand and Edwards were ordered to northeastern Arkansas to raise a regiment of cavalry, and General McRae sent them directly into the field to begin recruiting. However, things did not go as planned: "After collecting some fifteen men of the roughest and hardiest characters of the country, they concluded to engage in the heinous and unlawful crime of jayhawking and robbing the down-trodden yeomanry of the country under the guise of their officers' rank."Word reaches General McCrae that these men had murdered a farmer for his saddle, and the author of this document ("a staff officer," with the 1888 annotation added, "myself") is sent, demanding they report back, under arrest. They did so, and were sent along to Shreveport. Gruesome reports coming into the soldiers' camp show that the two men did not exactly comply:"An old man had been murdered and robbed of ten thousand dollars; another's feet had been roasted on the burning coals of a hot fire, until his toe nails dropped from the fleshless bones, to make him tell of the whereabouts of supposed treasure—and when his daughter interfered to protect her defenceless parent, she was ruthlessly stabbed to the heart." McRae sends Captain [George Wherry] Rutherford, "with his invincible scouts, to follow the assassin-robbers and, if caught, execute them on the spot."The two officers, with six companions, are found. The men are executed, Brand and Edwards with bravado and a touch of gallows humor that involves Brand requesting to give the order to fire, only to drop to the ground at the last second in an attempted escape (the six-man squad did not fire; Edwards requested the same and was scornful when he learned of Brand's antics). This was in February, 1864. (N. B. regarding the action that took place in the wilderness, the author states in his 1888 note: "I got the facts from the firing party.")Gathering Two"The Death of Lieut. Col. Scott"The extrajudicial execution of another once-patriotic Missourian who fell victim to the "vile passions of man." Like Brand and Edwards, Scott's crimes included robbery. Incredibly, they also included "an irregular trade with the enemy [in] cotton extorted and impressed from those who yet had a few bales left that had not been burned or otherwise disposed of." Scott is found and put under arrest by men led by Colonel M. (the rest of the name is finished in pencil, but only partially legible), and he is sent back to camp under guard. Or so he was led to believe. The author notes that the Colonel had secretly told his men that if Scott were "put out of the way at once it would be better for the country and the cause." Scott is taken a few miles down the road, stripped, and executed, his things being distributed among his "guards." The guards then reported back to camp as if nothing had happened. This was in March, 1864.The author makes a chilling observation: "However much we may regret the exercise of mob law or lynching at any time and under any circumstances, in justification of the parties who caused the death of this officer, the reader must remember the offense, the place, the condition of affairs, and the almost utter lawlessness that reigned in the Country." He notes, by way of explanation, that Edwards' escape or release on a technicality would have been almost inevitable. But the author, a fan of the poetic line, still cannot resist a short lament:"Unhappy and distracted Missouri, whose gallant sons lie bleaching on almost every battlefield of the South, here lies another one of thy unfortunate soldiers, whose misguided passions led him astray, and whose bones are now bleaching, ‘unhonored and unsung,' in the wild forests of Eastern Arkansas."To honor the one-time patriotism of the deceased, he goes on to tell a lengthy and rather incredible tale of how this same Lieutenant Colonel Scott had played an important role in preventing the capture of Little Rock by a vastly superior Union force in 1862. Confederate General Hindman, outnumbered almost 10 to 1, resorts to intrigue: He writes a 20-page letter to Adjutant General [Samuel] Cooper, wildly exaggerating his forces, provisions, and artillery. This letter is entrusted to Scott, with the explicit instructions that it must fall naturally into enemy hands, with them believing it an urgent dispatch to Richmond. With the aid of a Colonel A.(nderson; again, the name is filled in later), Scott dramatically succeeds in his mission, and the Union forces descending on Little Rock are immediately recalled. (Reportedly, Hindman later tried to take credit for saving Little Rock and was not believed; currently, historians seem to believe that it was a lack of supplies that turned the Union army back.)Gathering Three"Race After Transports"The account of an attack on two Union supply steamers in late March, 1864, by a ragged Confederate force of about 500 men (some hatless, some without shoes), in the area of Augusta, Arkansas. Each man was provisioned with eight rounds of ammunition and six days' rations.The author's group catches the ships unaware, with Union soldiers lounging on the deck, and is able to get out one volley in ambush. "The yells and groans of the wounded and dying is wafted over the placid waters to our ears, and we are satisfied of the effectiveness of discharge." They attempt a second ambush about 10 miles upriver, but the element of surprise was gone and they were unsuccessful.The Confederate soldiers' final goal is to raid the ship at the docking point at Jacksonport, but the author explains how this proved a strategic impossibility, and the soldiers withdraw. Gathering Four"Fight at Golightly's Farm" (now known as the Battle of Fitzhugh's Woods)A telling, from the Confederate viewpoint, of this battle (which has been analyzed by scholars), beginning with them rising in the morning, birds singing, believing it to be just another day. Our reading seems to indicate that history has decided the battle a Union victory, with forces withdrawing after they were eventually outnumbered. Our author, however, sees it as an unequivocal Confederate victory: "Col. Andrews, instead of making a fool of us on the 1st of April, as he thought, returned to Little Rock fully satisfied as to our fighting qualities, and always did complete justice to our little command ever afterwards." The author states his participation in a cavalry charge on Union troops. He also charges the Union soldiers with the burning of the Golightly farmhouse, with women and children inside.Here the author's narrative ends. Two days after this battle, General McRae turned over his command in order to rejoin the main group of forces in the southwestern part of the state. Although we have not been able to identify the name of the Staff Officer who penned this memoir two years after the events unfolded, his knowledge of the events involving General Dandridge McRae's troops in the northeast corner of Arkansas during the winter of 1863-64 is evident. More research would certainly prove fruitful; we surmise that he was a resident of either Missouri or Arkansas. A fascinating look, from a Confederate viewpoint, at the chaotic events in northern Arkansas after the Union occupation of Little Rock in the fall of 1863. Seller ID: 443819 Subject: Americana, Ephemera Between the Covers Between the Covers has been selling books for more than 30 years. Today we offer a wide ranging inventory, from Modern First Editions to General Used Books to Rare Archival Collections. We are active members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). Terms All orders ship within two business days. Standard mail is USPS Media Mail. Expedited and international shipping are also available. We offer combined shipping on multiple orders. All books are guaranteed to be as described or they may be returned within 30 days of receipt for a full refund. This listing was created by Bibliopolis.

Price: 6500 USD

Location: Gloucester City, New Jersey

End Time: 2024-11-27T17:57:36.000Z

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