To ascertain what enemy I would have to meet, I sent my chief of staff, Captain George E. Spencer, a very competent officer who was a genius in getting inside of the enemy's lines, with a communication to General P. D. Roddey, who had returned to Tuscumbia, and was in command of the rebel forces south of the Tennessee River. I told Captain Spencer that the communication was an important one and he must not deliver it to any one except General Roddey; that he must impress upon the officer on the enemy's picket-line that he must take him to General Roddey and in that way he would be able to determine very closely what forces I would have to meet. Captain Spencer went prepared to do this. He met the picket officer; they became very chummy, and the officer took Captain Spencer right through all of the enemy's forces between Bear River and Tuscumbia, and he delivered the message to General Roddey, who was in great anger at his officer; but they made the best of it. After the war, Captain Spencer and General Roddey were great friends and I believe partners in some business. The result of Captain Spencer's trip I set forth in the following dispatch to General Oglesby:
Corinth. April 17, 1863.
Major-General Oglesby, Jackson:
My A. A. G., Captain George E. Spencer, has just returned from Tuscumbia; succeeded in getting through all the enemy's camps and obtaining valuable information. The forces are posted as follows: Colonel Dibrell, 900 men, at Tuscumbia Landing; Colonel Josiah Patterson, 1,000, at Florence; Colonel M. W. Hannon, 1,800, at Tuscumbia; Colonel Roddey's old regiment, 800, at Tuscumbia Landing; Baxter Smith, 350, ten miles this side; Colonel Hampton, 300 at same place; W. R. Julian, 300, at Grey's, six miles this side; and Smith, 100, at Big Bear. The above all cavalry. Between Courtland and Tuscumbia, one brigade of infantry, under Colonel Wood, as follows: Colonel A. H. Helvenston, 300; Colonel J. B. Bibb, 500; Colonel W. B. Wood, Sixteenth Alabama, 400. The last brigade, and one brigade of cavalry, under General Roddey, arrived at Tuscumbia last week. This more than doubles their force. They have also five pieces of artillery at Florence and six pieces at Tuscumbia.
G. M. Dodge,
Brigadier-General.
Upon notification of General Rosecrans of the movement of Colonel Streight, I moved out to carry out the combined plan, engaging the enemy at Little Bear and Tuscumbia, and defeated them as my report shows. Colonel Streight was greatly delayed in starting from Nashville, and was only partially mounted, his intention being to complete the mount of his force as he traveled through the enemy's country—a fatal mistake. His delay in reaching me and my movement caused Bragg to send General Forrest to join General Roddey; and so by the time General Streight reached Eastport, April 21st, the force before me had been doubled and the best cavalry officer in the rebel force had arrived to take command in my front.
Colonel Streight lost part of his horses and mules while unloading at Eastport, and, although I made an effort to mount him, stripping my own transportation and scouring the country in my vicinity, still he left us after I captured Tuscumbia the second time, on May 26th, with two hundred of his men dismounted and one-half of the rest on mules, illy prepared for such a trip. I told Colonel Streight that I would hold the enemy in my front as long as possible, but the moment Colonel Forrest got word of his movement he would go after him and follow him to death. His only salvation was to get three or four days' start by long marches before Forrest learned of his movement. Colonel Streight was an officer peculiarly fitted for such a raid. He was active, clearheaded, determined, and of excellent judgment, and his many fights with Forrest showed him full of resources; but his two-days' halt at Moulton, the heavy rains, and the condition of his stock, were fatal to him.
On the morning of May 27th I felt carefully of the enemy and found them in my front, and commenced immediately to force them back, trying to make them believe, if they discovered Colonel Streight, that it was only a side movement into the loyal part of Alabama, where we had many friends and where we enlisted a Regiment of loyal Alabamians, which was afterwards known as the First Alabama Cavalry, commanded by Colonel George E. Spencer, whose Regiment became noted for its valuable service throughout the war. General Sherman selected it as his headquarters escort in his march to the sea.
Generals Forrest and Roddey, on May 28th, made a determined stand to halt my advance on Town Creek. The high water delayed my crossing, but on the morning of the 29th, after my force had crossed and driven the enemy from the heights beyond, I discovered that I had only General Roddey and his force in my front and I forced my cavalry out towards Decatur until the enemy disappeared from the front. The evening of the 28th I notified Colonel Streight that Forrest was still with me, and I was greatly alarmed to find that Colonel Streight was still directly south of me, when I hoped he would be well on the road. When General Bragg found that I was continuing my advance up the Tennessee, destroying his stores, he despatched General Van Dorn with his cavalry command to cross the Tennessee at Florence and get in my rear, but as soon as the enemy disappeared in my front, I turned immediately and marched rapidly back to Bear River, so that, if General Van Dorn succeeded in crossing the Tennessee River, I would have him in my front. My troops destroyed all the supplies in the whole Valley of the Tennessee, burnt the railroad stations, and destroyed the railroad so that it was never rebuilt until after the war. There followed me back to Corinth almost the entire negro population of that valley. They came in every conceivable conveyance from their masters' private carriage to a wheelbarrow, and they had hitched to the conveyances sometimes a cow and horse and sometimes a fine team of horses, or a cow and an ox. Hundreds were on foot, with their household goods packed on a mule, a horse, or a cow. They made a picturesque column, much longer than my command. At night their camps spread over a large territory, the camp-fires surrounded by the most motley and poorly-dressed crowd I ever saw, and it was a problem to me what I could do with them or what would become of them if the enemy's forces should happen to get into my rear. However, we all arrived safely at Corinth, where I established the great contraband camp and guarded it by two companies of Negro soldiers that I uniformed, armed, and equipped without any authority, and which came near giving me trouble. Many of the Negro men afterwards joined the First Alabama Colored Infantry and other Negro Regiments that I raised and mustered into the service.
In my advance up the Valley of the Tennessee, after I had passed Beaver Creek the enemy got into my rear, committing depredations and picking up stragglers, and all kinds of reports went back to Corinth of our fighting, capture, and other calamities too numerous to mention. These reports were all repeated to General Grant, who said, after being surfeited with them, "Well, if Dodge has accomplished what he started out to do, we can afford to lose him." General Grant said afterwards in discussing this movement that he knew they could not capture or destroy the kind of troops I had with me without my being heard from; that they might defeat me, but they could not capture me; and the boys used to use this saying in rounding up what value I was to the service. As my own report and that of Colonel Streight gives more and better detail of the movements of both, and the results, I submit them here: