Wheeler's October 1863 Raid (October 1–9, 1863) was a large cavalry raid in southeastern Tennessee during the American Civil War. Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler's Confederate cavalry scored a great initial success, but subsequently was roughed up by Union cavalry during its withdrawal south of the Tennessee River.
After being defeated in the Battle of Chickamauga, the Union Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, withdrew into the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was besieged by Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee. The Federals held a rail head at Bridgeport, Alabama, but because Bragg's army occupied Lookout Mountain, they had to bring supplies into the beleaguered city by wagon. The routes along the Tennessee River were easily harassed by the Confederates, so Rosecrans had to bring most of his supplies into Chattanooga from Bridgeport along a 60-mile wagon route across Walden's Ridge. Bragg ordered Wheeler to take the bulk of his cavalry corps and disrupt Rosecrans's communications across Walden's Ridge.
Wheeler set out on October 1 with the divisions of Brig. Gen. Frank Crawford Armstrong and Maj. Gen. William T. Martin, plus part of Maj. Gen. John A. Wharton's division. He quickly broke through the screen of Brig. Gen. George Crook's 2nd Cavalry Division near Decatur, Tennessee, and rode toward Walden's Ridge. On October 2 at Anderson's Cross Roads, Wheeler surprised a train of 800 mule-drawn wagons, plus sutler's wagons. The Southern horsemen easily overwhelmed the few guards and began to carry out their orders to "kill the mules and burn the wagons." Soon, whiskey was discovered in the sutler's wagons and Wheeler's men began pillaging the wagons for new clothing and other booty. The officers were either unwilling or unable to stop what became an eight-hour orgy of plundering.
Soon, Col. Edward M. McCook arrived with his brigade of Union cavalry. In a series of skirmishes, McCook lost 70 men while recapturing 800 mules and a few wagons and inflicting 270 losses on the tipsy Southerners. Wharton rode to McMinnville, Tennessee, which was captured with a loss of 388 Federals and 23 Confederates. Meanwhile, Crook could deflect Wheeler's main body away from the supply base at Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
By October 7, Brig. Gen. Robert Byington Mitchell concentrated McCook and Crook at Shelbyville, Tennessee. That day, Crook mauled Henry B. Davidson's brigade of Wharton near Farmington, losing 75 Federals while inflicting a loss of 310. The pursuit continued in foul weather as some elements of Union cavalry rode as many as 57 miles. Wheeler escaped across the Tennessee River on October 9 at Rogersville, Alabama, but not before another 95 of his horsemen were overwhelmed near Pulaski, Tennessee.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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