Letter From B. F. Burke to His Parents - February 18, 1863

Dear Father & Mother:

The opportunity once more presents itself for me to write you a few lines and also afords the means of sending you a letter by a man who is going to Texas from this reg't. It has been about three weeks since I wrote you last at which time I was at Shelbyvill Tenn. The last letters I wrote I sent by Mr. McGonigill of our company who was going direct to Texas.

I am at Louisburg, Tenn. at this time which is about twenty miles west of Shelbyvill. We have been at this place five or six days. We left Shelbyvill on the 28th or 29th of January and made our way on in the direction of Fort Donaldson. On the eavening of the fourth day after our departure from Shelbyvill it commenced snowing upon us. We were then in thirty miles of Donaldson and as it was the intention to make a forced march on the next day in order to take them as much on surprise as possible. That being the case we were ordered to leave the next morning at 3 o'clock. So we were aroused about two in the morning and in readiness to start. At the appointed hour the bugle was sounded & off we went for Fort Donaldson. The ground was frozen and covered with snow and in reality it was very cold, colder I think than ever I felt before. So we had to ride 20 miles without seeing fire and by the by we had the roughest read to travail that ever men travailed. So after riding that fare we all were so near frozen that we was compelled to build fires and warm ourselves up so as to be in plight [ ] to attact the fort. We were then in about ten miles of Donaldson & it was about 12 o'clock. After we had warmed up sufficiently we pitched out for our adventure on Fort Donaldson. Our force comprised Gen. Wharton's and Forrest's commands which numbered in all to about 3 or 4 thousand men. The attact was made at about 3 o'clock in the eavening. All the cavalry were dismounted with the exception of our regiment. We were sent out on the Fort Henry road to pickett to prevent any reinforcements from coming in that way. So luckily we were not in the engagement at all with the exception of one company of our regiment which was with Gen. Wharton. They were in the fight and had two men wounded. The fight lasted from 3 o'clock till after dark. We were about two miles below on the river but could hear the small arms distinctly. We had ten pieces of canon playing on them all the time. Our men made several bold charges on their breastwork but was repulsed as the ground was so open that the enemy had all advantage over our men. Our men at last succeeded in driving back into the main Fort and captured one fine piece of canon after dark. (In) a little while four or five gunboats came steaming up to the aid of the fort. They turned loose to shelling at a terrible rate, though it was too late to do us any harm as all of our men had retired from the fort.

We moved out about two miles and camped that night. We did not renew the attack the next morning as we saw that we could not accomplish much without a very heavy loss on our side. We did not accomplish much at last for we lost two or three hundred men killed and three or four wounded. We took about one hundred prisoners and took one piece of canon. The enemy lost only two or three killed and about 40 wounded. One of the Rangers swam over the river after night and burnt one transport loaded with hay and had several negroes aboard. The man's name that performed that daring deed was Mr. Maverick, he has been promoted to 2nd lieutenant since that time for his valor and gallantry.

After our departure from Fort Donaldson we came on to the beautiful little town of Columbia in Maury county which is surrounded by the richest and most beautiful country in Tennessee. We remained at that place three or four days where we got plenty of everything for ourselves and horses. From there we came to this place where we have been ever since. This place is not a very rich country here but the people are generally very clever. Corn & forage is pretty scarce here. i am staying in the town of Louisburg at this time guarding some commissary stores. There is three others from my company with me. John Justice is one of them. We have a good house to stay in, it is very comfortable quarters to what we have been used to. The lady who lives near us sends us something good to eat evry day. We have escaped much bad weather since we have been here for it has been raining evry day since we have been here. We had a greateal now and bad weather on us since we left Fort Donelson.

I understand that we have gained another great victory in Virginia near Fredericksburg. I don't know how true it is. It is thought we will have another grat battle near Shelbyvill. Some new army there has recruited so now we have a better force, there now than we had at Murfreesboro. It is reported that Gen. Vandorn is in 18 miles of this place. I hope it is so as I think brothers William, Peter & Isaac are with him. I have not heard from them since Vandorn made that raid at Holly Springs. I would be very glad to catch up with them.

The boys of your acquaintenance in the Co. are all well except Bill Scallorn and [ ] Murray. Scallorn is near here at a house and right sick. Murray was left sick between here & Fort Donelson.

I must close. I wish you would preserve all the letters I have sent home during the war as they will serve me as a diary of my time. Give my love to all. As ever I remain,

Your affectionate son,
B. F. Burke

P. S. Please excuse this bad writing for my paper is so mean I cannot write plain. I forgot to state the number of federals that were in the fort. It is thought that there was about one thousand or twelve hundred.

Heard, Jessie Burke, ed. Terry Ranger Writes Home: Letters of Pvt. Benjamin F. Burke Written While in Terry's Texas Rangers 1861-1864. No Place, No Publisher, 1965. (Available in the University of Houston Library.)

 

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