Captain Emmett Taylor, Co. C, 5th Regiment Mo. Vol. Cavalry

Captain Emmett Taylor
Co. C
5th Regiment Mo. Vol. Cavalry
First Federal Division

To:  Col Crowder
Subject: Movement of 5th. Mo. Cav. On Friday 11/12

We left our camp at 13:45 to join the main Federal Cavalry. When we arrived in FC, the army had already moved out.  People still in camp pointed the way for us.  We marched out and began to listen for signs of engagement.  We moved in direction of cannon fire.  When we reached a pine tree grove, we took the road leading upward.  At the crest, we took the road to the right.  That brought us behind our federal lines.  We soon found ourselves looking through a clearing and saw our forces advancing.  We initiated fire on reb mounted troops and took off at a gallop in the direction we had entered by.  Soon we found ourselves in reb camp with unknown number of mounted troops following us.  We turned and prepared to engage after clearing the camp.  We found only about ½ dozen troops.  We easily overwhelmed them.  One of their members had some breathing problems and we stopped action to help him. An ATV came to transport him back to his camp.  We continued and retired our march through the FC again and this time turned right before going up the pine tree grove hill.  We eventually found ourselves with a group of mounted staff waiting for the entire cavalry ______(Federal) to arrive.  They soon did and we took the lead into a sweeping charge on the RC force the 5th. Mo. Cav. Position ______ to prevent the rebs retreat as other FC continued to ___in and box the RC in. It was a good showing for the entire FC force.