Existing comment:
"(Clarksvillians) have been following the savage and disgraceful system of guerrilla warfare, the effect of which is to breed robbers and murderers and to carry war and desolation into peaceful communities."
-- General William S. Rosecrans letter to CSA General Braxton Bragg, December 4, 1862
in early 1863 to ambush Union ships on the river. After a Confederate attack on a convoy in March 1863, a Union naval squadron under Lt. Commander LeRoy Fitch arrived in April and shelled Palmyra. Fitch landed troops who burned the town. Several days later, Union troops under Colonel Abel Streight arrived to secure mules for their Alabama raid and noted that all that remained were chimneys.
The typical Confederate cavalryman in the west was more "rough and tumble" than he eastern counterpart.
Lt. Commander LeRoy Fitch, a veteran gunboat officer, moved his ships on the rivers, protecting supply convoys and fighting raiders and guerrillas. |