Unhorsing the “Wizard of the Saddle”

This short story is based on an actual event at the end of the US Civil War involving the notorious “Wizard of the Saddle,” General Nathan Bedford Forrest,  and Sergeant Hugh Longstaff. It involved a small detachment of cavalry soldiers from the First Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry Regiment and a large detachment of General Forrest’s Cavalry Division.

It was April 3rd, 1865, Colonel La Grange, the Brigade commander received orders to provide an escort for a wagon train. He relayed the order to Lieutenant Colonel Harnden the commander of the First Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry tasking him to provide a body of men to guard the wagon train as it headed back towards Jasper, Alabama.

Colonel Harnden sent his Orderly Sergeant to Lieutenant Pardon B. Lameroux, the Commander of Squadron “B” with orders to provide a provost guard to escort the wagon train to Jasper, Alabama.

 Sergeant Hugh Longstaff of Squadron “B” was placed in charge of the provost guard and was well ahead of the regiment. Longstaff, a resident of Kenosha, Wisconsin, was considered to be one of the best Sergeants in the Regiment. He had risen from the ranks based upon his abilities as a forceful noncommissioned officer and his ability to take the initiative when needed to accomplish his mission. He was the best swordsman in the entire regiment, and he was often called upon to train the new recruits in the use of the cavalry saber.

Hugh Longstaff was a mountain of a man, and he had weathered the trials and tribulations of the long campaigns without ruining his health. He had been one of the real heroes of the regiment at the Battle of Chickamauga when he single handedly halted a charge by Wheelers cavalry as they tried to capture the last wagon train off of the battlefield. The train was carrying the wounded back to Chattanooga during the Union retreat. Near the Moore-Lee house he had spotted the confederates racing along a parallel lane, formed his small group of men in a wedge formation and blasted into them with such a fury that the confederates, who vastly outnumbered Longstaff’s meager force, fled in terror under the weight of this surprise attack. Sergeant Longstaff’s valiant action so impressed Colonel La Grange that Longstaff and his band were individually mentioned in the battlefield report of the incident.

Longstaff was a man respected by the officers and men of the entire brigade. After this battle he was offered a commission as a Second Lieutenant, but he refused the honor. He was a soldier, a man of action, and not one who would wear the ‘shoulder straps’ of an officer. It wasn’t a surprise the he would be selected to lead this provost guard.

Dewitt Clawson of Squadron “K”, another Kenosha boy, volunteered to accompany his ‘pard’ Longstaff on this mission. The two of them had been messmates for most of the campaign until Dewitt was caught in one of the regimental reorganizations and transferred to Squadron “K”. They were joined by Captain J.D. Taylor who was ordered to go to Jasper and pick up a group of draftees and recruits waiting there to join the Second Indiana.

The road to Jasper was a good one. The recent bad weather hadn’t flooded the track and the good drainage in the area insured that the road was passable for such a large train. As they marched along Captain Taylor engaged Clawson and Longstaff in a lengthy conversation about the battle of Chickamauga and listened to their stories about their harrowing experience. His regiment had been in reserve near Chattanooga and hadn’t participated in the battle.

 A large number of ‘contraband’, former slaves, flooded the roads heading towards Jasper. One particularly large former farmhand engaged the Union troops in conversation. He and his fellows were heading to Jasper because the Union army was in possession of the town and as long as they could remain with the Army they were guaranteed their freedom, Hugh and Dewitt were walking their horses, resting them as a result of the train slowing to cross a small stream.

“Is you Yankee boys gonna take us to freedom?” asked the former field hand.

“Youse need to go back up into the country towards Plantersville, them rebs from the Alabama Home Guard’s got’s themselves about twenty of your blue coats all tied up like hogs to the slaughter and holding them in one of the barns there as prisoners. I heard that they were sending them to someplace called Andersonville to one of them big camps. Hear that life there ain’t good for man nor beast. I’s can show you the road to follow!”

“Hugh,” remarked Dewitt, ”we’ve got to do something!

The wagon train seemed to be in good shape, its guards were active, the wagon master was a very competent soldier and Longstaff and Clawson felt that guarding the train was a waste of critical manpower, especially when they heard the fate of some of their fellow soldiers. When they found out that some of their friends, and comrades from cavalry regiments were being held by the Home Guard unit in the area they thought that they should take it upon themselves to change their mission and their orders.

“Good God Hugh, we can’t let our guys get sent off to Andersonville. We all know  what happens when that occurs.  hundred men go in maybe if they’re lucky maybe one man comes out alive. These rebels are just Home Guard, common militia, what the hell do they know about soldiering? I say we go and get them,” stated Sergeant Clawson.

“I don’t know DeWitt you know what our orders are and I think that the Captain will have our butt if we don’t go out there and guard this wagon train.”

“Yeah, Hugh, but they don’t need us. They got plenty of our boys along with them already and they can handle the action. Besides I think we’ve run all these Johnnies out of here and I doubt if there’s anything other than militia between here and Selma, Alabama, and we’ve got to get our boys; we can’t let them end up in Andersonville. We’ve already lost too many good men who have been captured and sent there.”

“Well I’ll tell you what DeWitt, let’s go ahead and talk to the wagon master and see if he’ll release us from our orders. What we’ll do is we’ll go down the road here a little further and see if we can find these rebels, and if they’ve got our men we’ll turn them loose. I figure you me and the rest of the boys here should be able to handle some local militia without any trouble at all.”

About that time Captain J. D. Taylor from the Second Indiana Cavalry came up behind the two sergeants and asked what they were talking about. Clawson and Longstaff told him about the potential of releasing at least twenty prisoners that were supposedly on the road ahead of them. Longstaff explained that the wagon train could take care of itself, but they really needed to get up in advance and try to rescue some of their boys.

“Well I’ll tell you what.” stated Captain Taylor.” I see your point, there hasn’t been any real action on this road for a long time, and we drove down this road from Jasper to West Point a couple of days ago. I think we scared every one of those Johnnies out of the area. I sure don’t want any of my brothers from Indiana ending up in Andersonville.”

The three of them approached the wagon master and explain the situation to him. He was confident that he had enough manpower to defend the wagon train if it was attacked. He had already made this trip a couple of times and hadn’t run into any issues with the Confederates attacking the train. He concurred; it was more important to release the prisoners than it was to worry about the train at this point. He felt that he had sufficient manpower to contend with any issues with the manpower that he had available.

Captain Taylor, Sergeants Longstaff and Clawson took off riding towards the little hamlet of Montebello about five miles up a dirt road. This road forked off from the main track to Jasper. They were on a small side road that snaked through the countryside. They met another small band of contraband searching for the Union lines and freedom. When they were interrogated they told the Captain that the State Guard unit was moving with their prisoners. Captain Taylor had taken six men from his regiment along, but he had also left six men behind with the wagon train. In total he had 10 men with him, and he figured that was more than enough to take on the ragtag militia outfit.

They were very quietly moving down the road being observant watching for signs of confederate activities. Sergeant Longstaff spotted what he thought was a small group of Confederates along the side of a small bridge, near Plantersville serving as a vidette. They thought that these men had been left to observe any enemy movements that might be in the area that could attack the slow moving group of union prisoners walking behind the wagons. Taylor took two men with him and ordered Clawson and another trooper from the First Wisconsin to attack the vedette. The Captain felt that he had more than enough manpower to surprise and overwhelm the small observation post.

They came around the bend in the road; the Captain ordered his men to draw their sabers; when they were ready they raced towards the bridge yelling and screaming waving their sabers in the air and firing their pistols at the men on the bridge.

The men on the bridge turn tail and ran as fast as they could with the union cavalrymen close behind on their heels. The men ran for about 100 yards down the road and then fled into the woods. Captain Taylor thought that it was all over until he rounded another bend in the road and ran right into the advanced guard of General Nathan Bedford Forrest and 300 of his horsemen.

Taylor reacted quickly, he tried to order his men to halt but they were moving so fast that they ended up intermingling with the confederate horsemen. The battle was on.

Captain  Taylor spotted the commander of the force, General Forrest, surrounded by his staff. He recklessly charged directly into that group of men waving his saber and firing his pistol as often as he could. He charged seven or eight of Forrest men with a saber, slashing and cutting at them blow for blow until one of them fired a pistol shot that brought the gallant Captain down.

Sergeant Longstaff was infuriated, his Captain was fighting on horseback like a knight of old. a man of honor. yet some coward shot him in the back and killed him instantly. The enraged Sergeant tore into the confederate cavalry surrounding General Forrest, sabre in one hand, pistol in the other. He unloaded his pistol into two of Forrest’s men dropping them to the ground.

Reaching the General’s inner circle he slashed at the General’s aide-de-camp and knocked him off of his horse and now he confronted the General directly.

Like two ancient medieval Knights jousting for the hand of a fair maiden, the Sergeant attacked the ‘Wizard of the Saddle’. Longstaff was noted for being an excellent fighter with a saber. In fact in the regiment he was considered to be the best man in a battle with the sword. But General Nathan Bedford Forrest was no slouch with a cavalry saber either. Their blades clashed over and over again until finally Longstaff bested Forrest and pushed him out of the saddle and onto the ground.

General Forrest quickly noticed that one of his men was taking aim at the valiant Sergeant, ready to squeeze the trigger and blow him out of the saddle with his gun. He yelled:

“God damn you son, put that god-damn pistol down, this man fights, and he’s the only man that I’ve ever known that has ever got the best of me with the saber. He bested me in a fair fight, and I will not let you kill him because he’s a better soldier than I am. Now God dammit put that gun down right now!”

With that the battle was over. Longstaff knew that he was surrounded. With thirty guns trained on him he knew that if he made a move he’d be a dead man. He was ordered off of his horse and he faced General Forrest directly. Sergeant Hugh Longstaff rendered a proper military salute to his recent foe which was returned.

“Sergeant, that was a remarkable display of swordsmanship. Some of my men should learn from you. Now son it’s evident that you are a brave soldier and an honorable man. You tried to rescue your Captain even though you knew that, numerically, you were overwhelmed. You fought a great fight young man, you know how to fight, and I respect that.

Aide, bring me that flask of whiskey I need a drink and so does this Sergeant!”

Without hesitation the young Lieutenant, who was serving as an aid-de-camp, brought him a bottle of the best whiskey that they had in the regiment. General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the ‘Wizard of the Saddle’, sat on a log and shared a bottle of whiskey with a Union Sergeant. We don’t know what was shared between the two of them, but there was a deep sense of mutual respect for both of the men.

“Yank, that was one hell of a battle. You’re the first man that’s ever knocked me off my horse and I respect you for that. I think this war is just about over, I think we’re just about all used up. It won’t be much longer now, and I hope that both of us can get on to our homes as soon as possible. I want you to take my horse, and all the trappings. You deserve that son you fought a good fight. Now I’m gonna tell my boys to let you go, and I hope that I never have to see you again.”

General Forrest’s men did not know what to expect. Were they going to shackle this man and take him into captivity? They awaited the General’s orders.

After the General and this Sergeant drank their fill the General returned him to his horse shook his hand, and ordered him to take the reins leading his horse with his Captain’s body, and the bodies of the other soldiers that had been killed, draped over the saddle.

With that Sergeant Hugh Longstaff headed back towards his regiment. Later, he found that the twenty prisoners had been recaptured and sent back to their regiments. The Home Guard had been afraid of sending them to Andersonville because of the situation in Alabama. They feared retribution if they didn’t release their prisoners. The war was virtually over at this point.

Each time that the regiment met after the war Longstaff was ordered by his officers especially Colonel La Grange to tell about his battle, the individual combat that he had had with the notorious ‘Wizard of the Saddle’, General Nathan Bedford Forrest himself. They listened with awe!

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• “The Advisor, Kien Bing, South Vietnam, 1969-1970. A Novel” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B09L4X5NQ3)
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