Captain Castle and the Second Battle of Memphis

Henry Castle attended both Quincy’s Methodist College, now Chaddock, and McKendree College where he graduated in 1862. 

The summer of 1862 saw the Lincoln Administration call for more volunteers to put down the Southern Rebellion. Henry Castle answered the call, enlisting on August 20, 1862, in the 73rd Illinois Infantry. This was a logical choice as 73rd’s colonel, the Rev. James F. Jaquess, was the president of Quincy’s Methodist College. 

Fifteen Methodist clergymen were in the 73rd’s ranks. Consequently, the 73rd was known as the “Methodist Preacher’s Regiment.” Working as the adjutant’s clerk, Pvt. Castle brought this to the public’s attention when he wrote the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper giving a list of regiment’s field officers and captains who were licensed Methodist ministers.

There is no question that having an education and ties to Col. Jaquess, helped in Pvt. Castle’s promotion to Sgt. Major. However, at the Battle of Stone River, Castle demonstrated that he was more than a paper shuffler. In the heat of the fight, the 73rd took cover in a railroad cut, Castle’s keen eye caught sight of a rebel battery positioning to enfilade the regiment. Taking charge, Sgt. Major Castle ordered the men out of the cut, narrowly escaping a severe shelling and numerous casualties.

Stone River was a Union victory. For Henry A. Castle it was bittersweet. Severely wounded, Castle was on April 19, 1863, honorably discharged as disabled.

With his wound healed and the Lincoln administration’s call for short term volunteers, Castle left his law studies and enthusiastically recruited a company, which became Company A of the 137th Volunteer Illinois Infantry.

When the 137th arrived in Memphis, the city had been occupied by Union troops for two years. Memphis had surrendered after a brief naval battle on June 6, 1862. 

Under Federal occupation, Memphis became a gathering and staging site for Union infantry and cavalry. Eventually hospitals for the sick and wounded, warehouses of military supplies, and a prison housing captured rebels were all established there.

In the summer of 1864, deplete infantry regiments returning from the Red River Campaign were sent to Memphis for rest and reorganization. While Union calvary patrolling west Tennessee and northern Mississippi operated out of Memphis.

In a letter dated June 20th, a Co. B soldier wrote the Whig and Republican saying: “The prospect for this regiment to stay here until our time is out is very flattering. We are encamped by the side of the 3d Illinois Cavalry. The companies are not all here. The 119th is camped down the Herndon (sic) Road. . .. The regiment is badly used up, having been in that expedition up [the] Red River which was so shamefully executed.”

During the summer of 1864, 6,000 Union soldiers were stationed at Memphis, a seemly sizable deterrent. It was not. Having nothing but contempt for the Union soldier, Confederate Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forest elected to raid Memphis. His three objectives were to capture three Union generals posted in Memphis; to release southern prisoners from the Irving Block Prison; and to cause a recall of Union cavalry from northern Mississippi.

On August 21st, Forest with 2,000 horsemen took advantage of a thick fog to approach and capture the Union pickets. Once inside the Union line Forest unleashed his raiders down the Hernando Road. 

Captain Castle, in a letter to the Daily Whig and Republican dated August 22, 1864, related the role of the 137th in the fight. “At about half past three o’clock yesterday (Sunday) morning,” he wrote, “we were awakened by the thunder of approaching horsemen. Our camp is but a quarter of a mile from the picket lines,” and “they were on us without a moment’s warning.” The raiders galloped past and fired their revolvers into Co. A’s camp. To return fire, Castle formed his men on the company’s parade ground “and fought them for some time . . . until ordered down to join the regiment which was forming in front of headquarters.” He continued: “Here the whole regiment, without regular organization at first, kept the charging column at bay, until we could form a line of battle.” Castle wrote that the 137th “checked their advance and turned them onto another road . . ..” Just as orders were given to fix bayonets move forward the rebels “opened on us with artillery, compelling us to fall back. . ..” Seeing that the regiment was nearly surrounded, Captain Castle wrote that most of the 137th “fell back down the Hernando Road, toward the city where they held their position, and greatly harassed the rebels on their retreat, re-capturing prisoners, etc.”

In the fog of battle and retreat, a detachment of 50 men ended up at the State Female College and took refuge in the building. Here Col. John Wood lay sick being attended by his daughter and daughter-in-law. The men at the College held off their rebel attackers. 

Captain Castle said this of Forest’s raid: “It was a signal failure. Their avowed object was the opening of ‘Irving block’ and the release of rebel prisoners confined there. They failed in this. . ..” There were three scared, but not captured Union generals.

Chaplain Hiram Roberts, wrote: “In this affair the (137th) regiment was under fire for the first time, but bore itself bravely, and has received much commendation from those who have before ‘seen service.’ Though but ‘hundred days men’ their record reads well, and Illinois has reason to be proud of their conduct. . ..”

The 137th Illinois Infantry lost 1 officer and 17 enlisted killed and/or mortally wounded in what became known as the Second Battle of Memphis.

Sources

“Citizen’s Present to Col. Wood.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, June 8, 1864, 3.

“Death of Mr. T. H. Castle.” Quincy Daily Whig, June 23, 1864, 8.

Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Des Moines, Iowa: The Dyer 

Publishing Co, 1908.

“Fall In! Fall In! “ Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 5, 1864, 2. 

“Flag Presentation.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, June 8, 1864, 3. 

“Flag Presentation.” Quincy Daily Herald, June 13, 1864, 2. 

Find a Grave. Henry Anson and Timothy Hunt Castle.

“Henry Castle Dies.” Quincy Daily Herald, August 17, 1916, 2.

A History of the Seventy-Third Regiment Illinois Infantry Volunteers. Springfield, Illinois, 1890.

“The Hundred-Day Men.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 3, 1864, 2.

“Hundred Day Men.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 16, 1864, 3. 

Ives, Gideon S. “Captain Henry A. Castle.” Minnesota History Bulletin. Vol. 2, No. 1 (February 1, 

1917).

The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. New York: James T. White & Co., 1918.

“Recruiting.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 3, 1864, 2.

“Recruiting.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 4, 1864, 3.

Reyburn, Phil. “John Wood: Illinois’ Quarter Master General.” Quincy Herald-Whig, January 26, 

2014, 5.

“The Quincy Company.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 23, 1864, 3. 

“Who Wouldn’t Go.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 14, 1864, 3.