“The Fighting 59th in the Summer of ‘64”:
The Combat Record of the 59th U.S. Colored Infantry, 1863-1866
By Graham L. Osborne
Figure 1: Image from a recruiting poster urging black troops to enlist
“The regiment marched two miles south of the city (Memphis) and camped at sunset in a beautiful grove of hard-maples to the right…the left of the regiment resting on Rayburn (Street) as it fronted toward the south. Here, with slight exception, it held its permanent camp two years, and until its final muster-out.”(1)
With the words “slight exception” Robert Cowden, the former commander of the 59th Regiment U.S. Colored Infantry (USCI), truly buried the monumental story of courage, valor and sacrifice about to unfold in the subsequent pages of his 1883 book; A Brief Sketch of the Organization and Services of the Fifty-Ninth Regiment of United States Colored Infantry and Biographical Sketches.
It is true the 59th USCI would arrive in Memphis, Tennessee in late January 1864 and establish their camp just south of the city. It is also true that for the better part of the following twenty-two months the regiment would perform mostly garrison, fatigue and guard duty relatively close to their encampment near old Rayburn Avenue (now Street).
However, during that same span of time the 59th would also take part in two substantial Federal expeditions into north Mississippi, participate in two major battles, be under hostile fire for a total of seven days in three separate actions, and be in the field on campaign for a total of forty-one days. A few of those days would include some of the most harrowing experiences for any Union soldier in any engagement during the entire course of the Civil War.
While the whole story of a Civil War regiment is important, this article primarily focuses on the combat history of the 59th USCI. Cowden’s book is as close to a primary source any regimental history can get and is well worth the effort to explore for the serious researcher or the general Civil War enthusiast. Unlike many full-length reminiscences written by Civil War veterans Cowden wrote the account while still only in his forties and less than twenty years after the events described had happened.
Figure 2: Wartime image of Lt. Col. Robert Cowden who, like most of the other white volunteers for the 59th USCI, was already a battle-hardened veteran by the time the unit was forming. Image from Find-A-Grave.
Forming the Regiment
In the late Spring of 1863, the 16th U.S. Army Corps was tasked with raising distinct units only recently authorized which consisted of black enlisted soldiers officered by white veterans. Each of the six divisions in the Corps would be responsible for raising a Colored Troop regiment. The 16th U.S. Army Corps was headquartered in Memphis, but the divisions which made up the Corps were spread throughout the region. Appointed to lead the new “Colored” unit formed by the 16th Corps’ 5th Division was Edward Bouton, formerly of Company I, 1st Illinois Light Artillery.(2)
Originally, white volunteers made up all the commissioned and non-commissioned officers of the field and staff, all line officers, and all the first sergeants of the companies of the regiment. Musicians, privates, and non-commissioned officers (except first sergeants and the sergeant major) were black men.(3) Every unit (infantry, cavalry, and artillery – 13 total units) within the 5th Division of the 16th U.S. Army Corps each had at least one man join the new regiment, but nearly half of the forty white men who volunteered came from only three units: Company I, 1st Illinois Artillery (5 volunteers), the 40th Illinois Infantry (6 volunteers), and the 53rd Ohio Infantry (8 volunteers). Additional white men outside the 5th Division were sought to fill the remaining eleven vacancies to give the forming regiment its full complement of fifty-one officers, staff, and senior non-commissioned officers.(4) Most, if not all, of the white men of the regiment had seen significant combat action prior to joining the newly formed unit with many being veterans of the brutal Battle of Shiloh in 1862 amongst other notable engagements.
The regiment was mustered-in on June 27, 1863, at La Grange, Tennessee, being designated the 1st West Tennessee Infantry of African Descent. This was only one month to the day after the first significant combat action of the Civil War fought by Federal black troops occurred at Port Hudson, Louisiana, and nearly three weeks prior to the most celebrated fight of the War to include black soldiers was to take place at Fort Wagner, South Carolina in July 1863. Black recruits rushed in to enlist in the newly formed regiment while others were “helped” in the process through vigorous mounted recruiting patrols by the cavalry units of the 5th Division. The vast majority, but not all, of the black men who signed on were former plantation field hands and the transformation from enslaved to soldier began.(5)
Figure 3: Image of the Corinth Contraband Camp site administered by the National Park Service in Corinth, MS. The 59th would spend the entire fall of 1863 in Corinth.
From June to September 1863 the regiment trained and performed garrison duty at La Grange before moving to Corinth, Mississippi to serve in a similar capacity. In late January 1864 the regiment was ordered to Memphis and set up their camp just south of the city near Rayburn Avenue. The soldiers continued to train for war, though it was uncertain if they would ever get their chance to see any action, which would unfortunately be the fate of many USCT units during the War. Mainly, they spent time doing timber work to harvest enough wood to build barracks at their camp and at the camps of other units stationed throughout the city. Probably the worst duty they were assigned was burying the rotting carcasses of nearly 200 horses from a dumping area used by the U.S. Army for weeks prior to the regiment’s arrival in the city.(7)
In March 1864 the 1st West Tennessee Infantry of African Descent was redesignated the 59th Regiment United States Colored Infantry (USCI). (8) Around the same time the commander of the unit, Colonel Bouton, was elevated to lead a newly formed black brigade consisting of the 59th, the 55th USCI and Company F, 2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery. By May 1864 the 59th still had not campaigned nor been under enemy fire, but that was about to change. Also in May, a handful of the top performing black soldiers in the regiment had been promoted to open first sergeant positions to fill the vacancies left by recently promoted or discharged white men. (9)
The Battle of Brice’s Crossroads: June 10, 1864
The last day of May 1864 saw the 59th USCI in motion as part of Union Brigadier General Samuel Sturgis’ expedition into north Mississippi to find, fight, and destroy, if possible, elements of Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Cavalry Corps operating in the region. The expedition was part of the critical Atlanta Campaign and had been ordered by the Union commander, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, who led the colossal undertaking in Georgia. Sherman was correctly worried about the Confederates launching a raid from north Mississippi on his supply lines coming from Alabama and Tennessee which sustained his huge army in the field in Georgia. The Union expedition which formed in west Tennessee was impressive, consisting of 8,500 soldiers, and made up of a cavalry division consisting of two brigades, an infantry division consisting of three brigades, at least 20 pieces of field artillery, and over 200 supply wagons. (10)
Figure 4: NPS signage at the Brice’s Crossroads National Battlefield Site
The 59th was part of the 3rd Brigade during the expedition:
3rd Brigade, Colonel Edward Bouton (approximately 1,300 soldiers)(11)
55th U.S. Colored Infantry, Major E.M. Lowe
59th U.S. Colored Infantry, Lt. Colonel Robert Cowden (604 soldiers)
2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery, Company F (section of 2 guns) Captain C.A. Lamberg
Upon entering Mississippi, the expedition slowly moved further southeast into the state until settling in for the night of June 9th at Stubbs Plantation between the town of Ripley and Brice’s Crossroads. Besides struggling with the mud after nearly two weeks of constant rain the initial phases of the march were uneventful for the 59th. Late in the morning on June 10th the regiment would be the very last Federal unit to leave the encampment at Stubbs and continue the march. Around 1:00pm they could hear the artillery booming near Brice’s Crossroads. Ordered to move up as quickly as possible the men of the regiment ran for nearly three miles. The regiment then formed a battle line north of Brice’s Crossroads and the Tishomingo Creek on the western side of the Ripley Road in an area known as Holland Ridge. Here the 59th would experience their baptism of fire.
The 59th was the last Federal unit engaged in the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads, but the regiment would fight exceptionally well. The men, however, would suffer greatly for their efforts during the last daylight hours of June 10th and the days that immediately followed. After engaging the oncoming Confederates at Holland Ridge, the regiment was engaged in a fierce fighting retreat “in every ditch, ridge, or skirt of timber of which (they) could take advantage of” as the 59th served as part of the rearguard for the entire fleeing Federal Army.(12) Lt. Colonel Cowden, who was commanding the 59th as Bouton had taken command of the 3rd Brigade, was severely wounded in the fighting.
Figure 5: American Battlefield Trust map. Note the upper left corner to see the area where the 59th USCI would see their first combat.
The 59th then formed part of another defensive stand made up of both white and black units at the White House Ridge area of the battlefield. At a critical point in the action the 59th fixed bayonets to their Enfield rifles and charged into the on-rushing Confederates. After briefly checking the Confederate pursuit with the aggressive bayonet charge, the men of the 59th realized they were alone and retreated with the rest of the Federal troops toward Ripley. They were the last Federal infantry unit, and possibly the last overall Federal unit altogether, to leave the main Brice’s Crossroads battlefield area on June 10. (13)
The ordeal of Sturgis’ Expedition did not end on June 10th. The 59th would take part in a substantial rearguard action early in the morning of June 11th outside of Ripley. The exhausted Federal soldiers from the expedition were harassed, captured and killed by the relentless and victorious Confederates all the way back into Tennessee. Pockets of resistance and fighting occurred throughout the pursuit. Many units including the 59th, splintered and took multiple paths back to Tennessee during the retreat. Many men from the 59th would take part in one of the most significant firefights of the retreat when gunfire erupted near Davis Mills, Mississippi on June 12th. It was not until nightfall on June 13th that the largest remaining elements of the 59th reached Collierville, Tennessee and relative safety. (14)
The Battle of Brice’s Crossroads and Sturgis’ Expedition was costly for the 59th USCI. Of the 604 men engaged 146 would be killed, wounded, or captured. Bouton’s 3rd Brigade (U.S. Colored Troops) suffered over 400 casualties, and the entire Federal expedition had between 2,400 and 2,600 casualties. The 59th returned to Memphis in mid-June as combat veterans who had campaigned for two weeks in the field. Moreover, the soldiers of the 59th proved themselves in three of those days under intense Confederate fire and pursuit. The officers of the 59th were proud of the conduct displayed by the men of the regiment during the expedition and knew their brave actions had probably saved hundreds, if not thousands, of more Union soldiers from being killed or captured.(15)
The Battle of Tupelo/Harrisburg: July 13-15, 1864
Sherman was furious with the disastrous result of Sturgis’s Expedition. Only two weeks after the debacle another, larger Federal expeditionary force was ordered to leave Memphis. The 59th USCI was to make its second foray into Mississippi as part of this column. This time the expedition was led by Major General A.J. “Whiskey” Smith and the force totaled more than 14,000 blue clad Federals intent on getting even with the Confederates following Union failures in the Red River Campaign in Louisiana and at Brice’s Crossroads. Smith was a hard-drinking and hard-fighting man, and he held no fondness for black Union troops.(16) However, he wanted to add to his formidable fighting force entering north Mississippi anyway he could and despite his negative feelings at the time towards black soldiers he asked for the “Colored Brigade” to join the expedition.
Figure 6: A.J. ‘Whiskey’ Smith
Colored Brigade, Colonel Edward Bouton(17)
59th U.S. Colored Infantry, Major James C. Foster
61st U.S. Colored Infantry, Colonel Frank A. Kendrick
68th U.S. Colored Infantry, Colonel J. Blackburn Jones
2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery, Battery I, Captain Louis B. Smith
On June 27, 1864, the 59th set off from Memphis with a new commander, Major James C. Foster, at the head of the regiment because Cowden remained hospitalized from his June 10th wounds. By July 5th they had crossed back into Mississippi, and for a time stayed very close to the same ground they had previously traversed during the retreat from Brice’s Crossroads. On July 8th they reached Ripley, and on July 11th the 59th camped in the vicinity of Pontotoc, Mississippi.(18) The march was mostly uneventful until the afternoon of July 12th when some members of the 59th who were detailed to forage for animals and pick berries for the regiment were surprised by a squadron of Confederates.(19) Though the situation was quickly resolved, it is probable the incident resulted in the capture of 3 men from the 59th listed as “Missing” during Smith’s expedition.
On July 13th the 59th would experience their most intense combat of the expedition. As the Federal column made its way to the Harrisburg area from Pontotoc, the 59th would constitute part of the rearguard action. The Confederates, caught flat-footed and surprised by the easternly march of the Union troops, frantically attempted to crash into the blue column from the west and from the south to no avail. The 59th USCI would take part in ensuring the Confederate attacks from the west caused no substantial harm to the rest of the Federal troops.(20)
On July 14th the main fighting of the Battle of Tupelo/Harrisburg occurred during the daylight hours. The 59th USCI did not take a direct part in the principal clashes of the engagement but would skirmish with Confederates on the evening of the 14th. On July 15th at the action near Old Town Creek the 59th would again not be under direct fire of the Confederate forces during the day as the regiment guarded the wagon train for the entire Federal expedition.(21)
By July 20th, the 59th had crossed back into Tennessee and on July 23rd they were back at their home encampment in Memphis. History could rightly claim a serious Union victory at the Battle of Tupelo/Harrisburg. The Federals, including the 59th, stymied the Confederates on July 13th as they aggressively attacked the moving Union expedition. Additionally, the piecemeal attacks of the Confederates on July 14th were soundly thrashed by the main Union force. Finally, the aggressive pursuit by Forrest and his Confederate troopers of the Federal column as it left the battlefield on July 15th was decisively squashed.
The Union veterans in Memphis knew they had soundly beaten the Confederates at every place battle was offered during Smith’s Expedition, but that did not mean the job as Sherman saw it was fully accomplished. The 59th USCI spent 27 days on campaign during the expedition, 3 of those days they were under fire. The regiment would suffer a total of 15 men dead, wounded, or missing on the expedition and yet the “battle summer” of the 59th USCI was not quite over.(22)
Forrest’s Raid on Memphis: August 21, 1864
As Sherman continued to have notable successes around Atlanta in late July and throughout August, he still wanted to keep the pressure on Forrest and his Confederates remaining in north Mississippi. Though Smith’s first expedition had inflicted unrecoverable losses to the Confederate forces, Sherman and his subordinates still felt the need to send another substantial Federal force out of Memphis and into Mississippi once again.(23)
Smith’s August expedition was the largest of any that had left Memphis in 1864 to conduct combat operations in Mississippi, but the 59th USCI was not part of it. The Union command left the 59th in Memphis as the regiment had been in the field 41 of the previous 53 days despite its excellent performance on the previous two expeditions. Though there was skirmishing throughout Smith’s expedition no pitched battle resembling Brice’s Crossroads or Tupelo/Harrisburg occurred. The two most memorable events of the August expedition was the burning of Oxford, Mississippi by Smith’s troops and the daring raid into Memphis by Forrest while the city was only lightly defended.
Despite the majority of Federal troops in the area being with Smith on his August expedition there were still nearly 5,000 Union troops, including the 59th, in Memphis.(24) On the morning of August 21st Forrest with about 2,000 Confederates created quite a stir by riding into town and causing chaos, taking prisoners and claiming livestock. Not many details are known about the participation of the 59th in the fighting during the raid. In his book Cowden only states that at some point shots were exchanged and Forrest’s men made a “single dash through our lines.”(25) Though the 59th participated in the actions and commotion surrounding Forrest’s Memphis Raid research has yet to locate any of the regimental casualty figures for August 21st. In the days following the raid, the entire garrison at Memphis was anxious and most expected the Confederates to return at any moment. It was not until the bulk of Smith’s men returned to the city on August 31st that calm was once again the prevailing theme in occupied Memphis.
Figure 7: Harper’s Weekly depiction of Forrest’s Memphis Raid in August 1864.
Conclusion
Although the calendar marks the official start of summer as June 21st, the “battle summer” of 1864 for the 59th USCI began when they took their first steps as real campaigners on June 1st as part of Sturgis’ Expedition into Mississippi. It would not truly end until August 31st when Memphis was re-garrisoned by the men who had taken part in Smith’s second expedition into Mississippi and the imminent threat of another Confederate raid into the city had subsided.
All told, the 59th USCI campaigned for 41 days during the Summer of ’64. They were under fire at least 7 of those days (three during Sturgis’ Expedition/Battle of Brice’s Crossroads, three during Smith’s First Expedition/Battle of Tupelo/Harrisburg and on August 21st during Forrest’s Memphis Raid). The regiment suffered at least 161 casualties that summer (146 during Sturgis’ Expedition and 15 during Smith’s First Expedition).
The American Battlefield Trust (ABT) website lists 41 major engagements black Union troops took part in during the Civil War. Two of those engagements occurred in Mississippi; the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads and the Battle of Tupelo/Harrisburg.(26) The 59th USCI were veterans of both.
Additionally, the ABT lists “Memphis I” in Tennessee as another one of the engagements. However, what is traditionally known as “Memphis I” was a purely naval engagement in June 1862, well before any organized United States Colored Troops existed. Thus, the listing most likely refers to “Memphis II” which was Forrest’s Raid on the city, primarily garrisoned at the time by USCT soldiers. Thus, the 59th USCI took part in 3 major engagements acknowledged by the premier historical preservation organization in the country. Although their combat record would look brief and abrupt compared to many of the white Union regiments formed from 1861-1863, the 59th was certainly one of most experienced black combat units in the Union Army in the Western Theater by the end of the Civil War.
The 59th would remain on garrison duty at their Rayburn Avenue encampment in Memphis from September 1864 until November 1865. They then jumped from fort to fort in the Memphis area until the 59th USCI was mustered-out of service on the last day of January 1866.(27)
Cowden took great pride in writing the regimental history of the 59th and he was extremely delighted to have led the regiment. For years after the War the white officers of the regiment would gather in either Ohio or Illinois on the anniversary of the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads and hold reunions.(28) It is unknown if the black veterans held their own reunions. Not all of the USCT troops who enlisted in the Union Army were given the chance to prove themselves in battle during the Civil War. The 59th USCI soldiers, however, made the most of their opportunities. They earned the respect of their officers and of many of the other white soldiers they campaigned with as Cowden illustrated as he closed his history with an observation of his men as he saw them at the end of the conflict:
“Having now demonstrated to the satisfaction of all his prowess in battle and his powers of endurance under great trial and long forced marching, and having gained experience in defeat as well as victory, the “sun-burnt Yankee,” as he called himself, could now feel that he was indeed a soldier, knowing how to take and how to deal blows.”(29)
Figure 8: Image of Robert Cowder post-war. Image found on Find-A-Grave
about the author
Graham L. Osborne
BCF President
Graham is a lifelong Civil War enthusiast with a strong track record of collaboration within the “Civil War Community.” A proud Marine Corps veteran from Pittsburgh, PA, he earned his B.A. in History from Dartmouth College. He has lived near key Civil War sites, including the Union siege lines at Vicksburg and the heart of the Brice’s Crossroads Battlefield.
Graham has lectured at the Vicksburg National Military Park Winter Lecture Series, spoken on Civil War topics for various organizations, and volunteers as a tour guide at Brice’s Crossroads. Now residing in North Mississippi, he enjoys sharing the region’s rich Civil War history with his young daughters, Hattie and Bonnie.
Sources:
1 Robert Cowden, Organization and Services of the Fifty-Ninth Regiment of United States Colored Infantryand Biographical Sketches (Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1883), p.53.
2 Cowden, pp.34-35.
3 Ibid, p.36.
4 Ibid, pp.37-43.
5 Ibid, pp.45-48.
6 Ibid, pp.48-51.
7 Ibid, pp.55-61.
8 Ibid, p.56.
9 Ibid, p.58.
10 As of the writing of this article the most comprehensive account regarding Sturgis’ Expedition and the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads is still Forrest at Brice’s Cross Roads and in North Mississippi in 1864 by one of the very best Civil War historians of the 20 th century, Edwin C. Bearss. Instead of citing nearly every sentence in the following paragraphs I will point the reader specifically to pages 100-123 in Forrest at Brice’s Cross Roads if they wish to read further about the actions of the 59 th USCI at the engagement.
11 Edwin C. Bearss, Forrest at Brice’s Cross Roads and in North Mississippi in 1864 (Dayton, Ohio: Press of Morningside Bookshop, 2001), p.348.
12 Cowden, pp.90-91.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid, pp.80-82 and p.100.
15 Ibid, p.92 and pp.100-101.
16 Thomas E. Parson, Work for Giants: The Campaign and Battle of Tupelo/Harrisburg, Mississippi, June-July 1864 (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2014), p.55.
17 Parson, p.306.
18 Cowden, pp.125-128.
19 Parson, pp.121-122.
20 Cowden, p.129 and Parson, pp.130-133.
21 Cowden, p.130.
22 Ibid, pp.131-133.
23 Bearss, pp.237-238.
24 Ibid, p.284.
25 Cowden, p.132.
26 “United States Colored Troops (USCT) Civil War Sites,” American Battlefield Trust, accessed October 2,2024, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/maps/united-states-colored-troops-usct-civil-war-sites.
27 Cowden, p.138.
28 Ibid, pp.140-141.
29 Ibid, p.134.