(The following is from Chapter 6 of the book titled “Rosecrans Meets Price:  The Battle of Iuka, Mississippi,” written by Dr. Ben Kitchens. This is Part 3 of a three-part series.)

olonel Murphy spent most of the afternoon lying on the bed and complaining that he was sick. His staff engaged themselves in examining roads and stationing the command in the appropriate places. Murphy directed the Eagle Regiment and Dees’ section of battery to be placed on a hill inside of the fortifications a short distance south of town. The 5th Minnesota was stationed in town as a provost guard. Rifle pits 50 yards long had been dug on the crest of the hill in the southeastern part of Iuka. The logs had rolled into the pits and had been raised more than 18 inches from the surface.  

According to Captain A. W. Dees, commanding the battery, there was no protection for the artillery. He said that, “It is one of the worst places to use artillery that I ever saw. The enemy can cover themselves in front of us within rifle shot.”

1st Lieutenant E. Y. Sprague of the 8th Wisconsin, who was acting assistant adjutant general of the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, spoke with Colonel Mizner that afternoon about the pickets and the approaches to Iuka. He also asked the same questions to Major Nelson who was in command of the cavalry attached to Murphy’s command. Sprague learned that there was no cavalry available in Iuka for picket duty. Infantry forces, therefore, were posted as pickets on the inside picket line. That evening the companies of cavalry at Buzzard’s Roost and Bear Creek Bridge were sent for. Major Nelson also summoned the cavalry troops commanded by Captain Webster. They arrived in Iuka on the night of the 12th or the morning of the 13th from the direction of Bay Springs.

Captain Webster, who had camped at Barnett’s Crossroads eight miles south of Iuka, found no other cavalry in Iuka when he arrived. A total of eight companies of cavalry were subsequently posted in the vicinity of Iuka, including four companies of the 7th Illinois Cavalry, which were placed at the junction of the Tuscumbia and Jacinto and the Iuka Roads (Barnett’s) and along the line of that road toward town. Major Nelson of the 7th Illinois Cavalry was in Iuka when Colonel Mizner left and received his instructions from him.

Just after dark that evening (the 12th), Colonel Murphy went to the telegraph office, accompanied by his aide-de-camp, 2nd Lieutenant John Woodworth of Company C, 8th Wisconsin Regiment. The Colonel still did not feel well, and after sending a dispatch by telegraph, lay upon a cot and fell into a light sleep. Between the hours of 5 and 6 o’clock, Colonel Murphy received orders to send his freshest infantry regiment and a battery to Burnsville that night and to let the other regiment follow the next morning. Murphy replied that neither of his regiments was fresh and that Dees’ section of battery was poorly horsed. He informed General Rosecrans that the day’s march had been severe but that he could move all of his command towards Burnsville before daylight of the 13th.  

”I am quite done myself,” Colonel Murphy dispatched General Rosecrans.

Lieutenant Woodworth and Colonel Murphy remained at the telegraph office until a little after 11 o’clock. During that period of time, several telegrams were sent and received. After examining each dispatch, the aide-de-camp awoke the sick colonel and read the telegram to him.  Woodworth read all of the telegrams that were sent and the ones that were received. Colonel Murphy received instructions from General Rosecrans by these telegrams to carefully guard all of the public property. All of the tents were to be packed and placed together where they could be easily loaded. The provost guard was to be strong and in attendance when the trains arrived and departed. All of the cots located in Iuka were to be gathered and sent to the hospitals in Corinth. Colonel Murphy was cautioned to keep everything in order, look for spies, reassure the fearful citizens of Iuka, and to be ready either to march or come by cars, sending the trains, with guard, by Burnsville towards the old camp at Clear Creek.

General Rosecrans mistakenly thought that Colonel Murphy had the 43rd Ohio under his command at Iuka. As soon as the general learned from Colonel Mizner that Colonel Murphy had only two regiments, he directed that both remain at Iuka until further orders were given. He further directed Colonel Murphy to “have everything in readiness to move by railroad at short notice.”

The telegrams that Colonel Murphy received at the Iuka office on the evening of the 12th of September were quite disconcerting as they led him to believe two things: First, that an attack was expected at or near Corinth at any moment, and secondly, that he was left at Iuka weaker than in the judgment of the commanding general he should be or that he intended.

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RaNae Vaughn is president of the Tishomingo County Historical Genealogical Society-TCHS, and a board member of the Tishomingo County Archives and History Museum.