The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 39, July 1935 - April, 1936 Page: 8

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

men and a steamboat at my command with orders to destroy all
the guns, to burn all the quarters, and then to embark on the boat
for Memphis to place my twenty men in command of the orderly
sergeant and send them down to Vicksburg which I did. I spent
the night at the residence of Dr. Scott in Memphis and the next
morning in company of some ladies went down and saw the enemy's
boats. Colonel Montgomery asked me to take command of one
of the boats. I told him I was not a naval man. After the de-
struction of the fleet I boarded the last train, and joined General
Villepigue at Grenada, Mississippi.
I had a disagreement with one of the officers on General Ville-
pigue's staff, a man named Simpson. He insulted me at table in
the presence of General Villepigue. I took two revolvers and said
we would shoot it out. But no! He refused to fight a duel with
pistols, and I called him a low-down, dastardly coward. I called
him everything. He ran like a baby and told General Villepigue
about it. General Villepigue called me to him and asked if I had
said it. I told him I had, and that I did not want to serve on the
same staff with the fellow. I regretted that last remark, but at the
same time if I had stayed, I would have had him removed because
I had declined an appointment on General Bragg's staff out of
gratitude to General Villepigue. General Villepigue relieved me
from duty.
Later General Villepigue said he wanted Blount back. He said
that he could rely on me. Simpson was a dog. He went to New
Orleans and turned Republican. They made him a justice of
peace. In a dispute between a white man, La Blanc, and some
negroes he decided in favor of the negroes. La Blanc shot and
killed him.
I reported to General Van Dorn. lie assigned me to duty as
assistant officer of exchange of prisoners. I received the prisoners
at Vicksburg by flag of truce and delivered the Federals at Vicks-
burg through flag of truce. I was then ordered by General Van
Dorn to repair to Camp Moore and inspect the muster roll for the
pay of the troops there; also to muster Colonel James Wingfield'se
""Van Dorn was to clear the troops of Rosecrans and Grant out of
Mississippi and Tennessee and regain control of the great river." D. S.
Mussey, The United States of America, I, 571.
'I do not find any mention of a Colonel Wingfield, but a Captain J. H.
Wingfield is mentioned as wounded in Colonel H. W. Allen's report of
the Battle of Corinth, April 10, 1862. Official Records, I, 15, p. 489.