A Brief History of the Tenth Michigan Cavalry

A Brief History of the Tenth Michigan Cavalry

A Brief History of the Tenth Michigan Cavalry is Colonel Luther S. Trowbridge's official regimental chronicle, prepared in 1905 for the Michigan Adjutant General and narrating the unit's Civil War service from its organization at Grand Rapids in 1863 through muster-out in late 1865. The book opens with Trowbridge's brief preface explaining the space limitations imposed on the history and his commissioning of a custom map from a former German army officer to depict the regiment's campaigns, since no adequate published map existed. The narrative proper begins with the regiment's full roster of field officers and company commanders, most of whom brought experience from earlier Michigan units, then traces the Tenth's grueling winter organization and equipping at Lexington and Camp Nelson, Kentucky, marked by severe cold, sickness, and inadequate hospitals. Ordered into East Tennessee in early 1864, the regiment endured a punishing mountain march through ice and snow to reach Knoxville, then entered a long period of outpost, courier, and reconnaissance duty under various commanders, including General Thomas J. Wood. The regiment's baptism under fire came at Carter's Station in April 1864, a costly assault on a fortified bridgehead that, though tactically inconclusive, cemented the unit's aggressive fighting reputation—at the price of Captain Weatherwax's death. Trowbridge recounts the Tenth's subsequent role as the sole cavalry force left in East Tennessee after Sherman's campaign drew off other troops, detailing constant scouting, skirmishing, and the construction of fortifications at Strawberry Plains, including an anecdote about correcting a flawed fort design that later proved decisive in repelling Confederate attacks. Extended set-piece episodes follow: a running fight at Bean's Station and Kingsport; the ambush and stand at Wilsonville, where a small detachment's Spencer carbines routed a larger guerrilla band; a raid toward the Wautauga and Holston bridges; and the dramatic approach of General Joe Wheeler's Confederate cavalry corps, including a colorful account of a false panic on the march to New Market. The book gives substantial attention to the September 1864 surprise attack on Greenville that killed Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, crediting a loyal local woman's warning and praising Major Newell's handling of the Tenth's role, and to the heroic delaying action of Sergeant Drew's seven-man picket at McMillan's Ford against Wheeler's entire corps, including a widely repeated dialogue between General Wheeler and a wounded Union farrier. November 1864 brings the chaotic rout of General Gillem's command before General Breckenridge's advance, salvaged largely by Major Smith's disciplined stand with a small Tenth Michigan detachment whose Spencer-carbine volleys broke a Confederate charge, followed by a successful defense of the Strawberry Plains fortifications Trowbridge had earlier redesigned. The history criticizes Gillem's leadership but notes his political protection prevented formal investigation. The book's climax is the regiment's participation in Stoneman's 1865 raid into Virginia and North Carolina, a deep cavalry expedition to sever Confederate rail lines feeding Lee's retreat routes. Trowbridge details the destruction of Roanoke River bridges, a night fight at Henry Court House, the capture and destruction of Confederate stores at High Point, a tense withdrawal from a numerically superior force near Lexington, North Carolina executed with parade-ground precision under fire, and the flanking action that broke Confederate defenses at Salisbury. The regiment learned of Lee's surrender during this campaign and later took part in fruitless efforts to intercept fleeing Confederate forces and, subsequently, in the search for Jefferson Davis, whose eventual capture near Irwinsville the author credits partly to the Tenth's scouting screen even though another unit made the actual arrest. The history closes with garrison duty in East Tennessee and West Tennessee, final muster-out at Jackson, Michigan, a chronological list of nearly fifty engagements involving regimental detachments, Trowbridge's tribute to the regiment's discipline and courage, and a statistical summary: 1,886 total enrollment, 13 killed in action, 12 died of wounds, 11 died in Confederate prisons, 121 died of disease, and 80 discharged for disability. A roster of officers with photographic portraits concludes the volume. Written by the regiment's own wartime commander decades after the fact, the work combines official record-keeping with personal reminiscence—first-person anecdotes, verbatim dialogue, and candid assessments of fellow officers (both praise and implicit criticism of Gillem)—giving it the character of both a formal unit history and a veteran's memoir of a cavalry command that saw extensive, often unglamorous but consistently effective service across the Appalachian theater's final campaigns.

By L. S. Trowbridge · First published 1905 · Genre: Military History, American Civil War History, Regimental History · 13,827 words

First lines

I think a word of explanation is due. In consenting to prepare this history for the Adjutant General, I did not fully appreciate the limitations that were imposed. The space to which I was limited necessarily prevented giving to many matters the importance which they really deserved, while much of the details and many of the minor matters had to be omitted altogether.

Similar titles

Genres

Tags

American Civil War · Military history · Cavalry · Michigan · Regimental history · 1860s · Union Army · Battles · Military campaigns · Soldiers · War history · American history

What this Textopian page supports

A Brief History of the Tenth Michigan Cavalry is listed on Textopian as a historical account by L. S. Trowbridge, dated 1905 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Good citation fit

More by L. S. Trowbridge