You will perceive by the heading of this that I am a good long
distance from where I wrote you a few days since - While I was just setting here
by the fire pouring cold water on my wounded arm when (God bless her) an angel
of mercy rapped at my door and answered the longing inquiry of my heart. How
should I let my wife know of my existence since - after the terrible battle of
the 25th of Nov - she told me to write & send it to her house & she would have
it sent May God bless and preserve her for her Kindness -
Well Carrie we have had another hard battle & I am ashamed to
tell you that we were most disgracefully defeated. Our army lost some twenty
five pieces of Artillery, five thousand prisoners & the strongest position in
the Confederate States - I was on the Right Wing under Hardees where we drove
the enemy with great slaughter but on the left where the Natural position of the
ground was ten times stronger than ours they took a senseless panic and
abandoned their trenches & guns to the enemy and took to their heels. The
fiercest battle was fought on the right 3 miles north of Chattanooga where I was
& my Brigade was in the very hottest of that. We had some temporary breast works
of logs and the Yankees came on in great numbers & came so close to the works
laying behind logs & stones that our artillery men could not handle their guns
for their sharp-shooters During the evening of the 25th about 3 o'clock one wing
of the enemy came on us and laid down in ten steps of our works on the right of
my Regt and drove the gunners away from our battery - Gen Smith ordered me to
move my Regt to the right and charge them. I gave the order to move to the right
and but two companies heard it - they moved up and with them I leaped the works
and calling on my little squad to recollect that they were Texans and that their
families would rather hear of their death than their disgrace they followed me
with a Texas yell. The Yankees opened on us with their battery & small arms but
we drove them like sheep, here I was wounded in the left arm by a piece of shell
about half way between the elbow & shoulder. The bone is not broken but it is a
very lacerated and ugly flesh wound and will be two months before I am fit again
so my surgeon says. My Regt suffered considerably in the fight Maj Saunders lost
his right arm - three of my Capts wounded - Gen Smith was seriously wounded.
My Regt captured seven stand of colors five hundred prisoners
and killed more than my own number in the fight - Write to Mrs Young that Col
Young was not in the fight He left the hospital this morning for his father - He
is not yet well but nearly so.
The people are very much down in the mouth but we will whip the
fight yet If the People would quit hanging their long faces & sustain the army &
drive deserters away from their houses we would soon get through
My Regt never yielded an inch of ground during the fight but
whipped the yankees to the end & concerned itself with immortal glory. We have
captured seven stand of Yankee colors what Regt can beat that?
I am going to Col Youngs father in a few days he has sent word
for me to come & I will go as soon as I can get permission - Dont feel uneasy
about me
Notes
Col. Roger Q. Mills - Age 29 upon appointment to the post
of Lt. Col. by Brig. Gen. Hebert at Houston, Texas, on October 21, 1861. A
native of Todd County, Kentucky, he was born within 5 miles of Jefferson Davis'
home. Mills moved to Palestine, Anderson County, Texas, at age 17, and began
practicing law, he passed the bar in 1852, at age 20; at which time he moved to
Corsicana, Texas, and set up a practice. He represented Navarro County in the
1859-60 Texas Legislation; and was a delegate at the Texas Secession Convention.
At the outbreak of the war, Mills enlisted as Pvt. in the 3rd Texas Cavalry.
Lt. Col. Mills was promoted to Col. of the 10th Texas Infantry,
on September 12, 1862, by order of Gen. Holmes, taking command of the regiment.
Col. Mills was captured at Arkansas Post, Arkansas, on January
11, 1863; arriving captive, at Camp Chase Prison, Columbus, Ohio, on January
30th. He was paroled from prison for exchange on April 10th, then sent to Ft.
Delaware, where he was held until April 29th, at which time he was exchanged at
City Point, Virginia. According to his parole certificate, Col. Mills stood 5'9"
tall with dark eyes, brown hair and a dark complexion.
Col. Mills took temporary command of Deshler's Brigade at 1 P.
M., September 19, 1863, when Brig. Gen. Deshler was killed in the breast by a
shell, in the heat of battle at Chickamauga, Georgia. Mills remained in command
of the brigade until replaced on October 6th, by Brig. Gen. James A. Smith.
Both Gen. Smith and Col. Mills were seriously wounded while
leading a charge at Missionary Ridge, a.k.a. Tunnel Hill, Tennessee, on November
25, 1863. Mills was sent to the hospital at LaGrange, Georgia, to be tended have
his left arm tended to; as mentioned in the letter above.
Col. Mills and Gen. Smith were both wounded, for a second time,
seriously, "Near Atlanta" on July 22, 1864, while leading a charge upon
the rear Federal works at Bald Hill.
His last military record has him in Macon, Georgia, on August
25, 1864, purchasing "one Whitney Pistol for $125 + one Pistol Holster for $5
Macon Arsenal."
After the war, Mills served in the United States Congress from
1873 to 1892. During that time, Mills was chairman of the Ways and Means
Committee, and wrote the Mills Tariff Bill, and was a bitter opponent of Free
Silver and Prohibition. He failed to gain the seat of Speaker of the House in
1891, and resigned his post in 1892. He was elected to the United States Senate
in March 1892 to fill a vacant seat.
Mills retired from the U.S. Senate in 1899. After several years
of long deserved of retirement, Mills died peacefully on September 2, 1911, in
his home of Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas. He was buried in the Oakwood
Cemetery of that city.
Copyright 1998-2009, Scott McKay