Ohio History Journal

A CIVIL WAR LETTER                                             181

 

joined the army, being detailed as a scout on August 23, 1863. The records

show he performed his assignments with ability and zeal. His letter of

November 4, 1863, to "Dear Father" reveals some of his achievements.

About seven months after Pike wrote his letter of November 4 he was

again captured by Confederates, in the Edgefield district of South Caro-

lina. In time he was exchanged and paroled. He was mustered out on July

15, 1865, and returned home to write the story of his prewar and wartime

experiences under the title The Scout and Ranger: Being the Personal Ad-

ventures of Corporal Pike of the Fourth Ohio Cavalry (J. R. Hawley and

Co., Cincinnati and New York, 1865).1 The next year Corporal Pike re-

ceived a commission as second lieutenant in General William T. Sherman's

trans-Mississippi command. In October 1866 Pike received orders to re-

port for temporary duty with Company A, Eighth United States Cavalry,

near San Francisco, California. There Pike met his death during the

following year when Indians attacked the post where he was stationed.

During the noontime Indian attack, Pike's gun jammed and in a fit of

anger he smashed the barrel over a rock. The cartridge exploded, and the

adventuresome lieutenant received a wound from which he never re-

covered.

The letter of November 4, 1863, to "Dear Father" was published in the

November 26, 1863, issue of the Hillsboro Weekly Gazette, nearly three

months after "father" Sam Pike had retired as editor-publisher.² Soldier

James Pike did not think he was bragging of his achievements--he was

merely reporting on his activities to his father. Pike's exploits are veri-

fied by information in the Official Records and in Lucien Wulsin, The

Story of the Fourth Regiment Ohio Veteran Volunteer Cavalry (Cincin-

nati, 1912).

The letter follows:

 

Nov. 4th, 1863

MAYSVILLE, ALA.

DEAR FATHER:

You wonder, perhaps, at my long silence. I have not had an opportunity

to write sooner, although I have earnestly desired to do so.

You have, no doubt, been uneasy about me; but I assure you that I was

not culpable for this apparent neglect of duty. If you only knew how busy

I have been, and the hardships, and privations through which I have

passed, and the dangers, that I have encountered and escaped, you would

not blame me; especially, as I had no opportunity to mail a letter, even

had I written one. . . .

Let me recount some of the events of the past few months! I wrote you,

I believe, in August last--say about the 30th.--Since then, I have made

a lone SCOUT from Bridgeport to the mouth of the Hiawassee river.³ This

was before the advance on Chattanooga. I have had a single handed fight

with a whole company of rebels; killed one man, and escaped the rest;

returned to Bridgeport; fell in with the rear of our army there; pushed

on and joined the advance, under General NEGLEY,⁴ on Look-out river,

before Stevenson's Gap; scouted for him all through the Dug Gap raid:

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led the advance in both battles, and received the first shot in each of

them.5

Near Stevenson's Gap, I whipped six Texans in one fight, single handed.

From there, I joined the lamented General LYTLE;6 (a braver man never

lived) was with him in the battle of Chickamauga the first day, on the

right. The second day, I was with GEN. MCCOOK, a part of the time, and

residue, with Gen. THOMAS.7

I passed the whole time of the three days' fighting, in reconnoitering

the enemy's positions, and was on the right, when it gave way before

the withering fire and concentrated charge of two whole corps of rebels.

God deliver me from such another affair!

We suffered most terribly in the retreat; but the rebels suffered far

more, in their eager pursuit of our men; for they did not reckon

GRANGER8 in the fight. But he was there; and bitterly did the rebels rue

it. They lost eight thousand, in killed and wounded, and prisoners, in

one hour of time. This was HILLS' Corps9 of Virginia troops.

When WHEELER crossed the river, near Washington, I was on a scout

to Kingston, was cut off, and nearly captured at Washington.10 I am now

with Gen. CROOK, who commands our Division of Cavalry, and is now

acting Chief of Cavalry.11 I was with him in the fight near Washington,

the one at the foot of the Mountain, in Sequatchie Valley; the fight at

McMinville, the Shelbyville fight, the Farmington fight; (properly one

fight, two engagements,) and the skirmish at Sugar Creek. I got the

first shot in all these, except the river fight, near Washington.--Took

four prisoners at the foot of Cumberland Mountain, four at the river,

two at the Sugar Creek fight, and one in a charge along the road.12 . . .

We then come to this place--that is, after we put Wheeler across

again, at Lamb's Ferry.

From here, I made one scout down Flint river;13 got wrecked; come

back; started right off, down the Tennessee, in a canoe, with dispatches

from Gen. GRANT to Gen. SHERMAN;14 have just returned, and am im-

proving this my first opportunity to mail a letter home.

I have received several papers.--They come regularly, when the mails

come; but we are so constantly on the scout, that it seldom overtakes

us.

I have not had a letter from you for a long time. . . . Have not

had a chance to draw any money since I returned; but "the talk is,"

that we are to be paid soon. . . . I run over the Muscle Shoals the

other night, in the dark--the most dangerous service I have done since

I enlisted in this service.15 I am well, fat, and ragged. Write soon; and

believe me to be

Your affectionate Son,

JAMES PIKE