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Class. 
 Book 
 
 

 REPORT 
 
 ^ OF THE 
 
 MILITARY SERYICES 
 
 0!'''br'lNDREWS,* 
 
 Brigadier General and Brevet Major General U. S. Volunteers, 
 
 IN the War of the Rebellion, Furnished in Compliance 
 
 WITH the Request from the Adjutant General's 
 
 Office, U. S. Army, Dated April 10, 1872. 
 
 1861. 
 
 Christopher C. Andrews having recruited part of a com- 
 pany was, on the eleventh of October, 1861, at Fort Snell- 
 ing, Minn., mustered into the service as a private, and 
 on the filling up of his company he — on the fourth of No- 
 vember, '61 — was commissioned as captain of Company I, 
 Third Regiment Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. Same 
 month moved with regiment by steamer and rail to Louis- 
 ville, Ky., being in command of his company and camped 
 with the regiment till regimental teams were provided, four 
 miles out from the city; thence moved to Shepardsville, 
 
 *Born at Hillsboro, N. H., 1829; lawyer; elected to senate of Minnesota 
 1859; received full vote of (Douglas) Democratic party for presidential elector 
 1860; subscribed as United States volunteer, St. Cloud, April, 1861, and re- 
 cruited some men who were mustered into the First Minnesota Volunteers. 
 Gen. Andrews had, as a correspondent, in 1854, spent six months at Ft. Leav- 
 enworth, where he witnessed drills and inspections in all arms of the service, 
 and thus acquired some knowledge of military discipline. 
 
i^ Co / 
 
 Ky., where the colonel of the regiment, H. C. Lester, joined 
 and took command of it. Thence moved to Belmont, Ky., 
 and continued during the winter to guard the Louisville & 
 Nashville Railway from Bardstown to Lebanon Junction 
 and Colesburg and part of the time to Elizabethtown. 
 During this time two hours daily were spent in company 
 drill and two hours in battalion drill. Companies took their 
 turns on detached duty guarding the railway. 
 
 1862. 
 Early in March, 1862, moved with regiment to Nash- 
 ville, where guard duty in the city was done for some 
 weeks; thence to Murfreesboro. May 17th moved with 
 regiment to Columbia, Tenn., for a few days, then returned 
 to Murfreesboro. 
 
 CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS. 
 
 June 11th moved with expedition (column of 3,000 with 
 about 800 cavalry) under Gen. Dumont to Pikeville. 
 Marched afoot the first forty miles to McMinnville in 
 twenty-four hours. Here he was detailed as provost mar- 
 shal of the command, and at the principal camping place 
 was visited by many Union men wishing to "take the 
 oath." Pikeville was reached the fourteenth of June and 
 the column got back to Murfreesboro the eighteenth. The 
 Cumberland Mountains were thus twice rapidly crossed 
 amid intense heat and dust. The regiment first resumed 
 its former camp, but soon moved to the level ground on the 
 southeast suburbs of the town, near the Ninth Michigan 
 Volunteer Infantry, yet on account of its overflow during 
 heavy rains it moved out near the Nashville pike, nearly 
 two miles distant, on the opposite side of Murfreesboro. 
 Forrest, as well as Morgan, had frequently threatened the 
 
place, for it had valuable supplies ; and sometimes a couple 
 of companies, sometimes the whole regiment, had moved 
 out on certain of the pikes and lain on their arms through 
 the night ready for an attack. 
 
 f- 
 
 FIRST BATTLEE OF MURFREESBORO. 
 
 At daybreak Sunday morning, July 13, 1862, the rebel 
 general, Forrest, having come on a forced march of forty miles 
 from McMinnville, turned our outposts on the Woodbury 
 pike and dashed into Murfreesboro with an entirely mounted 
 force of less than 2,000 men. He charged first into the 
 nearly vacant camp of the Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry, 
 the most of that regiment being absent on a scout, and the 
 charging force coming against the ropes stretched for tying 
 horses it had to fall back and reform. This enabled the 
 Ninth Michigan Infantry, the main part of which regiment 
 was present, to spring up and get into line to receive the 
 charge which was immediately made upon it, and in which 
 it lost nearly one hundred in killed and wounded. The Ninth 
 afterward formed a cover of some bales of hay and other 
 obstacles and returned the fire made on it, but surrendered 
 at 11 A. M. The enemy suffered a severe loss, including a 
 colonel killed, in repeated assaults on the court house and 
 in finally capturing a company of the Ninth Michigan which 
 occupied it as provost guards. Simultaneously with the 
 first attack several hundred of the enemy moved toward 
 the Third Minnesota, which had, however, hurried up at 
 the first sound of the firing, formed into line and with two 
 sections — four guns of Hewitt's Kentucky battery on 
 either flank — marched out to the open field for the en- 
 counter. After going a few hundred yards, and while 
 advancing in line in front of Murfree's house, the enemy 
 appeared in sight on open ground to the left. One or two 
 
of the guns of the Kentucky battery opened on him with 
 effect and in a few minutes no more was seen of him. Nine 
 companies of the Third Minnesota (Company C being absent 
 on outpost duty) soon moved forward some hundred yards 
 further to descending ground at the edge of the brush tim- 
 ber, and there remained with skirmishers delpoyed in frof/c 
 till between 7 and 8 a. m., at which time the enemy 
 made a charge on it which was repulsed. Meantime a force 
 of about three hundred of the enemy had made three charges 
 in the camp of the Third Minnesota, three-eighths of a mile 
 distant in the rear. There were no defensive works what- 
 ever and the only protectors of the camp was the ordinary 
 camp guard, the convalescents and teamsters, who acted 
 under the command of the corporal of the guard, Charles 
 H. Green, of Capt. Andrews' company. They made a cool 
 and stubborn defense and were only overpowered on a third 
 charge, which was led by Gen. Forrest in person after he 
 had made a speech to his men, as appears in his memoirs. 
 The corporal fell with several wounds, from which he died 
 in a few hours; one other man was killed and a few wound- 
 ed. The enemy's loss was estimated in the three charges 
 at ten killed and some wounded. He burned the officers' 
 tents, their baggage and clothing, the spare ammunition, and 
 quickly abandoned the ground. Gen. T. T. Crittenden, 
 who had recently come to Murfreesboro, had been captured 
 in the morning at his quarters in the town. During the 
 forenoon Capt. Andrews with his company was posted to 
 sustain a section of the Kentucky battery near the Nash- 
 ville railway. At noon the Third Minnesota Regiment and 
 the two sections of Kentucky battery retired to Murfree's 
 house. Nothing more of the enemy had been seen except 
 a party which had begun to tear up the railroad track in 
 the direction of Nashville, but who were driven off by 
 the artillery. Half a dozen wounded Confederate prisoners 
 
were being cared for under the shade of some trees near 
 the river, in front of the site of the camp, by medical offi- 
 cers of the Third Regiment, and there were one or two 
 other prisoners. Communication had about eight o'clock 
 been effected with the Ninth Michigan. Capt. Andrews' 
 '^mpany sent to its camp kitchen and got materials for its 
 ainner, including coffee and a supply of fresh blackberries 
 which it had on hand. Probably the other companies were 
 as well furnished; there was no remark about lack of ra- 
 tions. Also some boxes of hard bread had been distributed 
 to the regiment in the forenoon when holding its advance 
 position. The command had Stone river immediately on 
 their right flank and had easy access to water all of the 
 time. The effective force of the Third Regiment present 
 was five hundred and seventy-five men well armed with 
 rifle muskets with sixty rounds of cartridges to each man. 
 It was an uncommonly well disciplined and drilled regi- 
 ment, being even well practiced in street firing. It had the 
 highest admiration for its very intelligent colonel whose 
 exertions had brought it to so high a condition of efficiency, 
 and officers and men alike regarded him with sentiments of 
 affection. Up to this time the only cause of grumbling 
 that had occurred in the regiment was that it had not had 
 a chance to fight. The weather was pleasant. The regi- 
 ment had hardly fired a shot during the day. The men 
 hardly felt any fatigue ; were in the best of spirits, full of 
 confident ardor and really anxious for a fight. With them 
 were the four guns of the First Kentucky Battery with 
 three commissioned officers and forty effective men and at 
 least thirty-four rounds of ammunition to each gun, all in an 
 efficient condition. While in this condition in the inclosure 
 at Murfree's house (situated on a rise of ground and hav- 
 ing trees and shrubbery) the command was amazed to see 
 a white flag appear over the brow of the hill, about six 
 
6 
 
 hundred yards in their front, and thought it must be one 
 of Forrest's tricks to ascertain their position. It was ac- 
 companied, however, by the adjutant of the Ninth Michi- 
 gan Infantry, and bore a request to have the colonel of the 
 Third Minnesota go down into the town to Forrest's head- 
 quarters. This was complied with and on the colone^'-ft 
 return, at about 2 p. m., he immediately called the lieuten- 
 ant colonel, the captain of the battery and the company 
 commanders together, informed them that Forrest had de- 
 manded the surrender of the force, and requested them to 
 take a vote on the matter. A somewhat animated discus- 
 sion ensued. The colonel stated his estimate of the enemy's 
 force at from 2,000 to 3,000, and that Forrest proposed 
 dismounting his men and using the muskets he had cap- 
 tured from the Ninth Michigan. [It is shown by the au- 
 thorized history of Forrest's campaigns that he had scarcely 
 2,000 men.] Capt. Andrews argued that Forrest doubtless 
 had a number of his men out on some of the eleven roads 
 leading out of Murfreesboro on picket duty; that it had 
 taken a considerable part of his force to guard the two or 
 three detachments of prisoners he took and sent off early 
 in the morning, to guard the Ninth Michigan, the captured 
 teams he had sent off, and that the Third Regiment 
 and battery could probably defeat any force he would bring 
 against them if he even ventured on an attack. Finally 
 Capt. Andrews argued that they should at least retreat 
 toward Nashville. To this appeal the captain of the First 
 Kentucky Battery replied that he "hadn't forage for his 
 horses." On a final show of hands the only officers who 
 voted to fight were the lieutenant colonel (Griggs), Capt. 
 Andrews, commanding Company I, and Capt. Hoit, com- 
 manding Company B; and the regiment was surrendered. 
 In the next twenty-four hours it was marched forty miles 
 to just beyond McMinnville, where the enlisted men were 
 
paroled. Capt. Andrews was taken with the other com- 
 missioned officers to the Confederate prison at Madison, 
 Ga., where he remained till October, when with the other 
 prisoners he was taken to Libby Prison, Richmond, and 
 paroled, and was exchanged in November. 
 •Xff. On the reorganization of his regiment ( the enlisted men 
 and a few officers of which had in the meantime served in 
 the Indian War in Minnesota) he was, Dec. 10, 1862, ap- 
 pointed its lieutenant colonel vice C. W. Griggs, promoted 
 colonel; was in command of a detachment of the regiment 
 at Winona about a week, and conducted the same to La 
 Crosse; then, January 24th, accompanied the regiment by 
 rail South, reaching Cairo January 26th, and Columbus, 
 Ky., February 3d. The regiment there reported to Brig. 
 Gen. Asboth. 
 
 1863. 
 
 Early in March, 1863, was detailed as president of a 
 military commission at Columbus, which tried many per- 
 sons charged with disloyal practices; the cases being re- 
 viewed at corps headquarters, Memphis, Maj. Gen. Hulburt 
 commanding. During this time (March 11th) he obtained 
 permission to accompany his regiment on an expedition up 
 the Tennessee river to Fort Heiman. On his own appli- 
 cation he was relieved by Gen. Asboth of duty on the 
 military commission, to accompany his regiment to 
 
 VICKSBURG. 
 
 Embarked on steamer Izetta May 5th. May 8th bivou- 
 acked at Haines's Bluff and the regiment was attached to 
 Nathan Kimball's provisional division (C. C. Washburn's 
 detachment Sixteenth Corps forming a part of the covering 
 army). He was detailed to take charge of constructing 
 
8 
 
 field works; June 16th moved to Snyder's Bluff; July 6th 
 marched to Oak Ridge (Miss.); July 16th assumed com- 
 mand of the regiment on the resignation of its colonel; 
 June 21st returned to Snyder's Bluff. Having breathed 
 the malaria of the Yazoo valley for six weeks his regiment 
 on the twenty-fourth of July embarked on steamer Autoci^'t 
 for Helena and arrived there the twenty-sixth. Effective 
 strength of the regiment, 400 men. When it had reached 
 Cairo, February 2d, its effective strength had been 525 
 men. While at Helena he was mustered as colonel, rank to 
 date from July 16th. 
 
 CAMPAIGN OF LITTLE ROCK. 
 
 Marched from Helena in command of his regiment after- 
 noon thirteenth of August with 380 effective men in the 
 column under Maj. Gen. Fred Steele, making 8 miles; next 
 day 12 miles to Big Creek; next day, fifteenth, 12 miles to 
 Cypress Swamp; Sunday, sixteenth, 12 miles to Cypress 
 Creek, arriving at 9:30 a. m.; seventeenth, at Clarendon; 
 reached Devall's Bluff twenty-fourth of August and Browns- 
 ville September 2d. September 10th, Col. Andrews was 
 with his regiment before daylight in the advance (Engle- 
 mann's Brigade), when the column left its camp 2? miles 
 from north bank of Arkansas river, at a point about 10 miles 
 below Little Rock, to attack the rebel forces under Gen. 
 Price. He took position to protect the laying of a pontoon 
 bridge and was under fire of enemy's artillery from opposite 
 bank of river for an hour. The cavalry crossed at that 
 point and approached Little Rock on the south side of the 
 Arkansas river encountering some resistance at a stream, 
 while Steele with his infantry and batteries continued on 
 the north side, meeting with but little opposition, and before 
 dark took possession of the rebel fortified camp which had 
 been hastily abandoned. The enemy in his flight was un- 
 
9 
 
 able to destroy the pontoon bridge over which he had 
 crossed on his way to Arkadelphia. The next day, Sep- 
 tember 11th, Col. Andrews entered Little Rock with his 
 regiment and was placed by Gen. Steele in command of 
 the post, on which duty he remained the next eight months, 
 %ving during the time a brigade command for guard duty 
 comprising the Third Minnesota and Forty-third Illinois 
 Regiments of Infantry and the Seventh Regiment Missouri 
 Cavalry. During the winter, in favorable weather, he exer- 
 cised the two infantry regiments as three battalions in bri- 
 gade drill. Col. Andrews as commander of the post of 
 Little Rock exerted his influence in favor of the organiza- 
 tion of colored troops. He also sought to develop the Union 
 sentiment of Arkansas, and inspire public opinion with con- 
 fidence in the government. The general order which he 
 wrote and issued on taking command of the post was read 
 by Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele, commander of the army, to 
 a delegation of Union men who called on him, as expressive 
 of his sentiments. The following is an extract from that 
 order. " Our presence in arms gives life and execution to 
 the orders and proclamations of the president of the United 
 States for the suppression of the Rebellion. The true interest 
 of the government at this time, so far as it is represented 
 by troops here, is by all means to abstain from unnecessarily 
 irritating the citizens ; to abstain from all conduct that will 
 tend to tarnish the good name of the Federal army ; and by 
 courtesy and good conduct to command the respect and 
 encourage the loyalty of the people. At all events, every 
 true soldier well knows that the conduct of a manly victor 
 will always be characterized by kindness and courtesy. 
 The order that is preserved at this capital, and the behavior 
 of the troops stationed here, will exert a great influence 
 for good or evil throughout the state. Every private sol- 
 dier represents to some extent the honor, the dignity 
 
10 
 
 and majesty of our government. A soldier who descends 
 to base conduct dishonors his profession and lessens the 
 respect which his comrades are entitled to." 
 
 At the invitation, in writing, of a number of the leading 
 Union men of the state, he, on the fourteenth of November 
 (1863), delivered an address before the Union Club. Thfi 
 speech was published and extensively read. The secretary 
 of war, Edwin M. Stanton, wrote a letter to Col. Andrews 
 thanking him for a copy of the speech. He gave support 
 from the start to the loyal movement which resulted in 
 putting into operation a free state government in the 
 spring of 1861, and received a vote of thanks from the con- 
 stitutional convention. 
 
 1864. 
 
 His regiment re-enlisted as veterans January, 1864. His 
 nomination for brigadier general was sent to the senate the 
 same date. 
 
 BATTLE OF AUGUSTA (OR FITZIIUGH'S WOODS), ARKANSAS. 
 
 Gen. Steele having marched with his main army in sup- 
 port of the Red River expedition and Gen. Nathan Kimball 
 being left at Little Rock in command of the line of the 
 Arkansas, the latter commander, March 30, '64, sent Col. 
 Andrews, in charge of a scout consisting of one hundred 
 and seventy men of the Third Minnesota Infantry under 
 Maj. E. W. Foster, and forty-five men of the Eighth Mis- 
 souri Cavalry under Capt. L. I. Mathews, a gunboat accom- 
 panying from Devalls Bluif; the object being to develop a 
 supposed small force of the enemy who were recruiting and 
 foraging in the fertile region back of Augusta. The morn- 
 ing of April 1st, leaving a guard to protect the transport 
 ("Dove"), he landed a force at Augusta of not exceeding 
 
 y% 
 
11 
 
 two hundred men and marched north, soon meeting a 
 small mounted party of the enemy and capturing a few 
 prisoners ; proceeded about twelve miles on the road 
 above Augusta and halted for rest at a church where the 
 ground was hilly and timbered. He there obtained informa- 
 tOjDn from a citizen which caused him to apprehend an attack 
 from a superior force on his return march, and which led 
 him to keep his command well in hand. Returning in the 
 afternoon and when about half way back to Augusta, being 
 at a point a few hundred yards before coming to a stream 
 that was flanked by swampy ground covered by felled 
 trees, he was sharply attacked by a Confederate force 
 under Brig. Gen. Danbridge McRae, consisting of a regi- 
 ment of four hundred men under Col. Thomas Freeman of 
 Missouri; three companies under Maj. Geo. Rutherford, and 
 and an independent company (McCoy's?), in all about six 
 hundred men. First a resolute charge was made on his 
 command from the rear in the road and at the same time 
 a long and well formed line of mounted men advanced from 
 open timber through a field on his left. His infantry im- 
 mediately sprang over the fence on the right in somewhat 
 open timber, instantly formed a square and commenced 
 firing, and the attack was repulsed with scarcely any loss. 
 He and his command were, however, impressed that they 
 were contending with a superior and confident force. Short- 
 ly another charge of great determination and clamor was 
 made from an opposite direction, namely, the direction of the 
 White river, through thick timber. Col. Andrews met and 
 repulsed this with a counter-charge led by himself during 
 which his horse was killed under him. About this time 
 (so a Confederate field ofiicer who was captured a few weeks 
 later stated) some two hundred of Gen. McRae's "conscrip- 
 ted" men then quit the field. The combat continued, with 
 alternate lulls and struggles, for two and a half hours, and till 
 
12 
 
 both sides, as was afterwards ascertained, had exhausted 
 their ammunitioii and Col. Andrews' force continued its 
 march without further difficulty back to Augusta and quick- 
 ly embarked on the steamer. His loss was about thirty 
 killed and wounded, there being six killed and twenty-one 
 wounded in the detachment of the Third Minnesota, ^i 
 the Confederate loss in killed were one or two notorious 
 scouting leaders. Confederate sympathizers in Augusta 
 had counted the Union force as it marched through the vil- 
 lage in the morning and its defeat and capture was confi- 
 dently expected by them. The moral effect of the combat 
 was unquestionably on the Union side. 
 
 SECOND EXPEDITION UP WHITE RIVER. 
 
 April 19th, Col. Andrews repeated his expedition up the 
 White river with a larger force, comprising the Third Min- 
 nesota and Sixty-first Illinois Regiments of Infantry and a 
 company of the Eighth Missouri Cavalry. A march was 
 made on two roads from Augusta. The enemy could not be 
 brought to make a stand ; but a Confederate field officer and 
 a few men were captured. A steam mill where the Con- 
 federate troops ground their corn was disabled. A junction 
 was also formed at Augusta with the forces stationed at 
 Jacksonport. The only casualty occurring in Col. An- 
 drews' command was the drowning of a man who walked 
 off a transport in his sleep. While this movement took 
 place a detachment of the Eighth Missouri Cavalry under 
 its lieutenant colonel marched up the east side of Cache 
 river to prevent the enemy escaping in that direction. It 
 was, however, attacked by a superior force, and though it 
 fought a spirited combat it was prevented from accomplish- 
 ing the object it had in view. (This detail was made by 
 the commanding officer of the regiment who had for a con- 
 siderable period been stationed at Devalls Bluff.) 
 
13 
 
 APPOINTED BRIGADIER GENERAL. 
 
 April 26, 1864, he received a commission, dated April 
 10th, as brigadier general United States Volunteers, to rank 
 as such from Jan. 5, 1864, and by orders from headquar- 
 Wrs,, Department of Arkansas, relieved Gen. J. R. West in 
 command of a column of 3,000 men and supply train destined 
 for Gen. Steele at Camden via Pine Bluff. The intended route 
 was by Marks Mills, where a Confederate force under Gen. 
 Fagan was hovering, and which had just captured a large 
 empty supply train and escort on its way from Camden; 
 and hot resistance was expected. On this account Gen. 
 Andrews' old regiment, the Third Minnesota, was, at his 
 request, relieved from guard duty in the city of Little Rock 
 and taken with the column in place of a younger regiment. 
 [Hence this regiment came afterward to be at Pine Bluff 
 several months and to suffer severe mortality from mala- 
 ria.] The column being organized, the advance, under Col. 
 Powell Clayton (who at Gen. Andrews' request undertook 
 to accompany the expedition), reached the Big Cypress 
 April 29th. About the same time the surprising news was 
 received of Gen. Steele's retreat from Camden and 
 
 BATTLE AT JENKINS FERRY, SALINE RIVER, 
 
 with the Confederate forces under Gen. Kirby Smith. The 
 advance of the expedition in question therefore returned to 
 Pine Bluff, where also Gen. Andrews remained ten days 
 assisting in fortifying that place against an expected attack. 
 He then, by orders from department headquarters, returned 
 to Little Rock and for a few days served as a member of 
 a general court martial. May 19th assigned to and assumed 
 command of the Second Brigade, Second Division, Seventh 
 Army Corps, headquarters at Little Rock. June 16th sue- 
 
14 
 
 ceeded Gen. J. R. West in command of Second Division, 
 Seventh Corps, headquarters at Little Rock. The most of 
 the division about that time was detached in field service 
 under Gen. E. A. Carr. July 7th he was assigned to and 
 assumed command at 
 
 devall's bluff, ™ 
 
 on White river, the base of supplies for Maj. Gen. Fred 
 Steele's army and Department of Arkansas, and division 
 headquarters were moved there the same day. The sur- 
 face there is undulating and was covered with a heavy 
 growth of oak timber, in the midst of which were camped 
 about 7,000 troops without fortifications. Typhus fever 
 prevailed and the mortality was serious. Nearly 2,000 of 
 the men were dismounted cavalry. Among the regiments 
 then there, or which shortly came, were the Third Michi- 
 gan Cavalry, the Eighth and Eleventh Missouri Cavalry, 
 and the Ninth Iowa Cavalry. He continued in command 
 at Devall's Bluff till December 27th, when he was relieved 
 by Gen. Shaler. During all that time Gen. Steele's army, 
 comprising the Seventh Corps, was organized in two divi- 
 sions, the first under command of Gen. Solomon, at Little 
 Rock, the second under Gen. Andrews. This latter divi- 
 sion, composed of all arms of the service, aggregated on the 
 rolls 12,000 men, and the labor and responsibility of mili- 
 tary courts and correspondence fell upon the division head- 
 quarters. The greater part of Gen. Andrews' division was 
 on detached duty in diff'erent parts of Arkansas. Also the 
 most of the force at Devall's Bluff were frequently detailed 
 on expeditions. For example. Gen. Andrews was able on 
 the sixth of August to send out a column of 1,600 effective 
 cavalry, under Col. Geiger, to join a movement from Little 
 Rock under Gen. J. R. West, Gen. Steele's chief of staff, 
 into the north part of the state; and on the eleventh of 
 
15 
 
 August a force of one hundred and thirty cavalry to the 
 southwest. The Third Michigan Cavalry, a full regiment, 
 was transferred to the east of the Mississippi soon after it 
 was remounted. The Union reverse on the R-ed river 
 greatly inspirited the Confederates and emboldened them 
 to^turn their attention to Arkansas. A strong force hov- 
 ered at one time along the Lower Arkansas. The Confed- 
 erate general, Shelby, with a mounted column having, 
 August 25th, attacked and captured a detachment of the 
 Fifty-fourth Illinois Infantry — posted under orders from 
 district headquarters. Little Rock, to guard the Little Rock 
 railroad and some haymakers — also menaced Devall's 
 Bluff. Gen. Andrews immediately moved a detachment of 
 cavalry, under command of Col. Geiger, Eighth Missouri 
 Cavalry, to oppose him. 
 
 BATTLE OF THE PRAIRIES. 
 
 A sharp engagement took place on the open prairie till 
 dark, when Shelby withdrew toward the north part of the 
 state. A more formidable attack was expected from the 
 direction of the Lower Arkansas river, at a time when Gen. 
 Andrews' force was so small he was compelled to organize 
 and arm the civil employes of the quartermaster, communi- 
 cation with Little Rock being at the same time interrupted. 
 It was shortly after this that he received the following let- 
 ter from Maj. Gen. Canby, then commanding the Military 
 Division of the West Mississippi : 
 
16 
 
 "Headquarters Military Div. of the West Mississippi, ) 
 
 " New Orleans, Aug. 31, 1864. j 
 
 "General: Your dispatch of the twenty-fifth has been received. 
 Your position is of vital importance in keeping open Gen. Steele's 
 communications, and will be held at all hazards. Eeinforcements 
 are now on the way to you, and if the attack is real the army in 
 Arkansas will be reinforced by 20,000 men. St. Charles is alsoyf 
 importance in keeping the river open, so that the reinforcements 
 may get up without obstruction or delay. 
 
 « Ed. E. S. Canby, 
 
 ^^ Major General. 
 " Brig. Gen. G. C. Andrews^ Commanding., etc., DevalVs Bluff." 
 
 No further attack at Devall's Bluff was made. While 
 in command at that place he caused an extensive line of 
 field fortifications to be laid out and built, many acres of 
 forest to be felled for defensive purposes, a commodious 
 prison to be built with materials wholly supplied by ordi- 
 nary fatigue work. His command there saved to the gov- 
 ernment $30,000 in the single item of captured beef cattle, 
 the hides of which, to the value of $2,000, were duly turned 
 in to the United States. During the last two months he 
 was there his scouts, acting on his personal instructions, 
 captured, at different times, eighty prisoners of war, in- 
 cluding fourteen commissioned officers, with a loss of only 
 one man. September 21st his camp was visited and com- 
 mended by Maj. Gen. J. J. Reynolds. On Decem- 
 ber 23d, Maj. Gen. Q. A. Gilmore visited and inspected 
 Gen. Andrews' defensive works at Devall's Bluff, and, after 
 going over them, said : " There has been a great deal of 
 work done here, and judiciously done. Much more has 
 been done than I expected." 
 
17 
 
 1865. 
 
 OPERATIONS FROM MOBILE BAY. 
 
 He had now served seventeen months continuously in 
 Arkansas, nearly all the time in administrative duty, and 
 having been designated by Gen. Canby for field duty in the 
 Gulf States, on Jan. 3, 1865, seven days after quitting De- 
 vall's Bluff, he, at Morganzia, La., took command of the 
 Third Brigade Reserve Corps (Military Division West 
 Mississippi), which had been organized for field service. 
 There were then nine regiments in the brigade undergoing 
 consolidation at different places down the river. With the 
 regiments at Morganzia he moved to Kenner, ten miles 
 above New Orleans, arriving there January 9th. January 
 23d ordered to East Pascagoula,Miss. Reported there to 
 Gen. Granger with part of his command January 26th. 
 January 27 th landed at Barrancas, Fla., near Pensacola, 
 and went into camp. Here the regiments and batteries 
 began to arrive to compose the Second and Third Brigades 
 of the Second Division, Thirteenth Corps, which was de- 
 signed for his command. He commenced instruction in 
 brigade exercises (also provided for company and battalion 
 drill), and with five or six infantry regiments on the ground 
 a mile back of Fort Barrancas, went through all the exer- 
 cises of the school of the brigade. March 4th, by assign- 
 ment, assumed command of Second Division Thirteenth 
 Corps. March 9th he was commissioned major general of 
 volunteers by brevet. The two brigades of his division 
 that were present were composed as follows : The Second, 
 of the Twenty-fourth and Sixty-ninth Indiana, and the 
 Seventy-sixth and Ninety-seventh Illinois ; the Third, of 
 the Eighty-third and One Hundred and Fourteenth Ohio, 
 the Thirty-seventh Illinois and the Twentieth and Thirty- 
 
18 
 
 fourth Iowa. There were also the Second Connecticut and 
 Fifteenth Massachusetts Batteries, the whole comprising 
 over 5,000 effective men. March 11th marched with divi- 
 sion to Pensacola, and began repairs on the Central wharf, 
 which work was completed, and a railroad track laid there- 
 from up into the town, in a very few days. March 2^h 
 moved out with Gen. Steele's column towards Pollard to 
 co-operate with Gen. Canby's movement along the east 
 shore of Mobile bay, the infantry keeping in supporting 
 distance of the cavalry while cutting the railroad. An 
 uncommonly heavy rain commenced the first night out, 
 aad continued for a day or two, and it became necessary for 
 several days afterward to corduroy the road. Gen. An- 
 drews' division supply train numbered about eighty wagons, 
 Gen. Hawkins' (colored) division as many more. The cav- 
 alry force numbered about 2,300. That, as well as the 
 infantry divisions, had the usual allowance of artillery. The 
 march was exceedingly difficult and laborious. March 26th, 
 Andrews, with one brigade of his division, entered Pollard, 
 Ala. Arriving before the rebel works at Blakely the morn- 
 ing of April 2d, his two brigades formed on the left of Haw- 
 kins' division, completing the investment. The enemy's 
 line of earthworks was three miles long, in a sort of semi- 
 circle, each end resting on the Tensas river or bay. In a 
 day or two Garrard's division of A. J. Smith's corps re- 
 ported to Steele, and took position on the left. About the 
 same time Veatch's division took a brigade front immedi- 
 ately on Andrews' left. Andrews remained in about the 
 centre, with a front of three-fourths of a mile, along which 
 his command built three lines of rifle pits with approaches, 
 some of the trenches being wide enough for a team to pass. 
 Continued seven days in siege operations. In the assault, 
 about sundown on the ninth of April, his two brigades, in a 
 very few minutes, carried the enemy's breastworks in their 
 
19 
 
 front, capturing a number of flags, twelve guns, and between 
 1,300 and 1,400 prisoners, including a division general and 
 seventy-one other commissioned officers. The ground in 
 his front contained ravines with fallen timber, and in front 
 of the redoubts were three lines of abatis. His loss was 
 tL'^ty killed and two hundred wounded, some mortally. The 
 day after the assault a fatigue party of his division, guided 
 by a Confederate officer, took up seventy loaded torpedoes 
 in the ground over which the division had double-quicked 
 in the assault. A day or two afterward, Gen. Andrews 
 with one brigade moved down to Stark's Landing, as a re- 
 serve to the force that landed at Mobile on the twelfth. 
 Moving with Steele up the Alabama on April 27th, he was 
 left (Gen. Steele proceeding to Montgomery) with one bri- 
 gade in command of Selma, and so continued till INIay 12th, 
 when the force returned and went into camp a few miles 
 out from Mobile. On quitting Selma, Gen. Andrews re- 
 ceived the following voluntary communication from Judge 
 Byrd, a distinguished citizen of Alabama: 
 
 *' Selma, May 12, 1865. 
 
 ''Sir: I desire to express in a more formal and enduring manner 
 than 1 have done ray appreciation oi" your kindness to me and my 
 family, and as you are about to leave Selma, perhaps forever, to 
 say to you that, so far as I am informed, our citizens generally ap- 
 preciate your firmness, courtesy, and integrity. While you have 
 been true to the government you have shown us all the considera- 
 tion and attention of fellow citizens, and I am satisfied that if a 
 similar course is pursued by the authorities of our country the 
 people of the South will be more beneficently and effectively re- 
 stored to the Union and the Republic than they have been by its 
 victorious arms. Let me assure you at parting of my high regard 
 and consideration, and indulge the hope that you will ever remem- 
 ber your staj here among the pleasant memories of the past. 
 " Very truly, your obedient servant, 
 
 "W. M. Byrd. 
 
 ^^ Gen. C. C. Andrews, Commanding, Selma, AlaJ^ 
 
20 
 
 May 27th, a day or two after the great explosion, he 
 took command of the district of Mobile, with headquarters 
 in the city. July 4th embarked for 
 
 TEXAS, 
 
 and July 8th took command of the district of Houston, in- 
 cluding Galveston, Columbus, Millican, and Beaumont, liy 
 order, accompanied provisional governor A. J. Hamilton to 
 the state capitol at Austin, and was present at his rein- 
 statement in authority. Gen. Andrews had lately deliv- 
 ered an address at Brenham, which was published, explain- 
 ing the relations between the government and the people, 
 and especially between the government and freedmen. The 
 following is a copy of the letter of instructions by Gen. Gor- 
 don Granger, commanding the district of Texas, detailiug 
 Gen. Andrews for this duty : 
 
 " Headquarters District op Texas, 
 
 " Houston, July 26, 1865. 
 
 "General: You will please furnish Gov. Hamilton with such fa- 
 cilities as he may require to enable him to reach the city of Austin 
 with as little delay as possible. I desire you will accompany the 
 governor to the state capitol, giving him such official and political 
 support as you shall deem proper, observing the temper of the people 
 and their fitness and merits to restoration as citizens of the old Union. 
 
 The resources of the country, condition of the crops and facili- 
 ties for securing the same will engage j^our attention. * * * 
 
 You are instructed to impress on the people that anything like 
 moral or physical resistance to the mandates and requirements of 
 the United States authorities, both civil and military, will in no 
 instance be tolerated, while all law abiding persons and bona fide 
 supporters of the government will be encouraged and sustained. 
 Having completed the duties assigned you, you will return to your 
 command by such route as may in your judgment be most advan- 
 tao-eous to the accomplishment of your mission, consulting his 
 excellency the governor as to his wishes and views in regard to 
 your movements. "G. Granger, 
 
 ^^ Major General Commanding. 
 
 " Brevet Maj. Gen. Andrews" 
 
21 
 
 August 14th was relieved at Houston by Maj. Gen. 
 Mower. August 17th received orders from Gen. Sheridan, 
 headquarters Military Division of the Southwest, to report 
 to Gen. Steele on the Rio Grande, but in compliance with 
 a general order from the war department, received about 
 th"^ same time, and which relieved several general officers, 
 he proceeded to his home at St. Cloud, Minn. 
 
 1866. 
 
 Mustered out of the service, to take effect Jan. 15, 1866. 
 During his nearly four years of active service he was not 
 off duty on any account, except when a prisoner of war, 
 over ten days in all. 
 
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