Approximate location based upon report of Lieut. James B. Comstock (see below)
June 17, 1864 – June 20, 1864 – Scouts on the Memphis & Charleston Railroad between Collierville and Lafayette
HDQRS. CAVALRY DIVISION, Memphis, Tenn., June 16, 1864.
Col. GEORGE E. WARING, Jr., Cmdg. First Brigade, White’s Station:
By direction of Gen. Washburn you will send 500 cavalry to the terminus of the railroad between Collierville and La Fayette. They will carry three days’ rations. Two days’ [forage] for 4,000 animals has been ordered sent to the terminus of the road.
By order of Brig.-Gen. Grierson:
HDQRS. CAVALRY DIVISION, SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Memphis, Tenn., June 16, 1864.
Col. T. P. HERRICK, Cmdg. Seventh Kansas Cavalry:
COL.: You will proceed at daylight to-morrow morning with the effective mounted force of your command, with three days’ rations and 100 rounds of ammunition, to the terminus of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, between Collierville and La Fayette.
You will send patrols upon the different roads from that point and telegraph any information to these headquarters. Forage will be furnished you at that point, where you will remain until further orders.
By order of Brig. Gen. B. H. Grierson:
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 39, pt. I, p. 126.
LIEUTENANT: In compliance with orders from headquarters Third Division, Sixteenth Army Corps, July 28, 1864, I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by my command during the late expedition to Tupelo, Miss.:
In obedience to Special Orders, No. 63, paragraph VI, headquarters Right Wing, Sixteenth Army Corps, Memphis, Tenn., June 23, 1864, my command, after having been paid off, proceeded by train to Moscow, on the 23d.
When near La Fayette a party of guerrillas fired into the train, killing and wounding several. Some of the men who jumped or fell off the cars were captured and afterward murdered. Their bodies were recovered by a party of the Second Iowa Cavalry and recognized by Lieutenant McDonald, One hundred and seventy-eighth New York Volunteers.
The casualties on Memphis and Charleston Railroad on June 23, 1864, when the train was fired into near La Fayette, Tenn., are as follows: Killed, 5; wounded, 2.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
E. H. WOLFE, Colonel, Commanding Third Brigade.
Lieut. JAMES B. COMSTOCK, Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen., Third Division, 16th Army Corps.
OR Series I, Vol. 39, Part 1, pp. 295-296.