September 7, 1862 – Status report on Confederate guerrilla activities in Haywood, Dyer and Lauderdale counties, and between the Forked Deer rivers
HDQRS. CENTRAL DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, Trenton, Tenn., September 7, 1862.
Capt. M. ROCHESTER, Assistant Adjutant-Gen., Columbus, Ky.:
CAPT.: The larger part of the rebel force that has been between the Forked Deer Rivers has fallen back to the Hatchie, leaving bands of marauders in Haywood County to do what mischief they can. Their camps extend from Brownsville Landing to Estenaula, and they are reported by our spies and Union men as being from 3,000 to 5,000 strong. They are recruiting a large number of men south of the Hatchie and in the counties bordering it on the north.
Where Col. McCullough [Confederate] is I know not, but judge by their falling back that he must be scouting in Haywood County. If we could have a force at Brownsville to occasionally dash across the Hatchie we could make it too hot even there for them; all their prisoners and our scouts say that they desire to get north of me.
The punishment that I have given them in Dyer, Lauderdale, and Haywood Counties makes them bitter. They take all the property of any Union man or anyone who even leans that way, negroes and all, and those men who bought the confiscated property at the sales here they punished terribly.
A fight occurred in the streets of Denmark Thursday Note 1 [4th]; what it amounted to I know not. The secesh report that their side lost 30 and that the cavalry cut them up terribly and dispersed them in the fourth charge. I trust it is so.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, G. M. DODGE, Brig.-Gen.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 17, pt. II, pp. 206-207.
Note 1: He probably meant at Denmark Lane, September 1, 1862. There is nothing further in the OR indicating that there was any kind of “fight in the streets of Denmark” for this date. Perhaps General Dodge made a mistake in his dates and was referring to the September 1, 1862, Skirmish at Britton’s Lane, near Denmark (see above).
Dyer’s Battle Index for Tennessee lists a skirmish at Big Creek Gap for September 4, 1862, but Big Creek Gap is in East Tennessee. Moreover, the OR has no mention of a fight of any kind at Big Creek Gap on September 4, 1862.