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Confederate officers ordered men to dismount and push the cannon. "De head men start hollerin and some de hosses start rearing"29 as soldiers commenced beating the animals with bullwhips. Slowly, the trapped cannon started to move. Rebel troops formed a skirmish line across the road and launched a brisk fire to cover the gun's retreat. Caught in the crossfire were Indian and slaves trying to flee. "We can't git out on de road so we jest trek off through de prairie..."30 Then, a thunderous musket volley forced the skirmishers to withdraw. Immediately, black troops ran ahead and occupied the wagon depot without losing a man. |
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29 Ibid, Vol. 7:53-64. 30 Ibid, Vol. 7:53-64. 31 Cooper to Steele, August 12, 1863, Official Records, i, XXII, Pt. 1, p. 462. 32 Ibid, p. 460. 33 Blunt to Schofield, July 26, 1863, Official Records, i, XXII, Pt. 1, p. 448. 34 Ibid, Vol. 7:53-64. 35 Bowles to Judson, July 20, 1863, Official Records, i, XXII, Pt. 1, p. 450. |
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3:10 P.M. Two companies of black troops stayed behind to secure the wagon depot area. The remaining soldiers followed the cannon toward a toll bridge at "the main bottom of Elk Creek."31 As black troops advanced, the rebel's rear guard withdrew across the creek "in the face of superior numbers, flushed with victory."32 The easy capture of the toll bridge was the regiment's final victory of the day. Shortly after black troops reached the "prairie south of Elk Creek,"33 they received a message to halt. It said the rebel guns were no longer a threat. As the exhausted men assembled around the messenger to listen, they learned Phillips' brigade had captured Cooper's headquarters. |
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Before the regiment set fire to the depot's buildings, they allowed black Indian soldiers to call out in Creek and English for people inside to come out. Mose Jamison, a former slave fighting with the Indian Home Guards, discovered over 75 slaves of Col. George Stidham, whose Second Creek regiment was defeated earlier that day. From the dark hot cellars of warehouses, black Indian soldiers uncovered hordes of frightened slaves hidden by their slave masters. They found the most valuable slaves such as blacksmiths and young women shackled in chains to keep them from running away. Tally Lewis, a black Creek soldier, reassured the slaves not to be afraid. He said their master Stidham was headed for the Canadian River and they were now safely under union control. 4:30 P.M. Shortly after torching the wagon depot, the regiment received orders to "fall back to the Springs, rest the men, and cook supper."35 With the depot behind them in flames, the regiment headed for its assigned campsite on Old Texas Road. Along the way, slaves who dodged the fighting began coming out of hiding places to follow the black troops. As the regiment weaved its way through the narrow back streets of Honey Springs, children and elderly men left small slave cabins and joined the procession. Teenage boys and older women joined in when the regiment marched through wooded trails and thick brush. The crowd got even larger when additional slaves exited deep creek beds and secret caves to join the exodus. |
