The Battle of Collierville

(Excerpted from “Past Times, Stories of Early Memphis” by Perre Magness, Parkway Press, 1994.) 

(Reprinted in the Collierville Herald 7/12/07)

      The battle of Collierville energized General Sherman

                                               By Perre Magness

Collierville’s location on the railroad and at the junction of the roads into Mississippi and Tennessee made it the scene of several skirmishes during the Civil War.

As the Civil War approached, 80 men of Collierville had formed a company called the Wigfall Greys, named after a Texas senator who made a fiery speech supporting secession.  The ladies of Collierville met at the Methodist Church to sew uniforms and a beautiful silk flag to present to the troops.  On May 11, the troop was ordered to report to Germantown to join the Confederate Army.  Later, as company C of the fourth Tennessee infantry, they served at Shiloh, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and Atlanta.

The skirmish that came to be known as the Battle of Collierville occurred on October 11, 1863, and brought the war tragically home to Collierville.  It was the first engagement in the devastating drive that became known as Sherman's March to the Sea.

General William Tecumseh Sherman was commander of the Union forces occupying Memphis.  That fall, his young son Willie had been stricken with typhoid while traveling on a steamboat from Vicksburg.  The family landed in Memphis, but nothing could help the boy and he died in the Gayoso Hotel.  Sherman was disconsolate.  He put his family back on a steamboat for St. Louis and tried to bury his grief in plans for the coming campaign.

On the morning of October 11, Sherman and his officers boarded a train for Corinth, Mississippi.  He had fewer than 600 troops and no big guns.  At Germantown, as the train near Collierville about noon, they heard gunfire.  A Confederate force under General James R. Chalmers was attacking a Union encampment.

Sherman noted signs of danger and stopped the train.  A Confederate officer with a flag of truce approached, demanding surrender.  Sherman wrote: “I instructed him to return an emphatic negation, and at once made preparation to resist the attack.”  He had just time to wire for reinforcements before the Confederates cut the telegraph wires.  The troops he had earlier passed were ordered to march double time.

Bloody fighting ensued as the Confederates attacked the train.  A Confederate soldier, J. S. Hopper reported, “our boys raided Sherman’s commissary car and paused to eat and drink cake and wine while the blue whiskers were speeding by their ears. Lieutenant Lingston, while awaiting orders or on an opportunity to strike again, was munching on sponge cake, he being partially sheltered by the cars.”

The Confederates had a force of about 3000 and four big guns.  They captured the rear cars of the train and made off with trophies, including Sherman's own horse, his second-best uniform and his saber.  From Sherman's account of the battle in his memoirs: “The enemy closed down on a several times and got possession of the rear of our train, from which they succeeded in getting five of our horses among them my favorite mare, Dolly; but our men were cool and practiced shots (with great experience acquired at Vicksburg) and drove them back.  With this artillery they knocked to pieces our locomotive and several of the cars and set fire to the train.  Colonel Audenreid, aide-de-camp, was provoked to find that his valise of nice shirts had been used to kindle the fire…”

The battle lasted four violent hours.  In a move that pre-staged his tactics in the coming campaign, Sherman gave an order to set fire to all the buildings nearby that might shelter the Confederates.  Only the arrival of the reinforcements from Germantown prevented the Southerners from capturing the railroad and the town.  When the new troops arrived after three o'clock, the Confederates pulled back, leaving the ground littered with the bodies of the dead and wounded.  Major General S.A. Hurlburt reported Union losses as 18 killed, 60 wounded and 20 missing, while Chalmers reported Confederate losses as 50 killed or wounded.  The town of Collierville was severely damaged.

The battle restored Sherman’s energy and made him forget the sorrow of his son's death.  Soon the train was repaired, and he was on his way to becoming one of the most hated Yankee generals during his bloody March to the Sea.