This handwritten copy of Morrow's report is located in the Morrow/Boniface collection at the U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvannia. It contains a very interesting final section which has been omitted from all published versions of this report.
Headquarters 24th Mich. Vols.
Camp Near Fitzhugh Crossing
May 27th 1863
Lt. Col. Kingsberry
A. A. General
Colonel
I have the honor to submit the following report of the operation of the late expedition sent from the 1st Army Corps into King George and Westmoreland Counties under my command.
The command consisted of the 19th Indiana, Col. Williams, 6th Wisconsin, Col. Bragg, 24th Michigan, Lt. Col. Flanigan, & the 2nd Wisconsin Volunteers, Lt. Col. Stevens, numbering in the aggregate about twelve hundred men.
The object of the expedition was two fold. First we build the bridge over Mattox Creek & Secondly to expel or capture any rebel force which might be found on this side of the Rappahannock.
At daylight on the 20th Inst., the expedition broke camp and marched in the direction of King George Court House. The day was exceptionally warm and the troops required to be frequently halted for rest. In obedience to orders I left a detachment numbering about one hundred & sixty men, under the command of Lt. Col. Dawes, 6th Wisconsin Vols. At the cross road below King George Court House. Without any serious accident I arrived at Mill Creek distant from Camp between twenty-three and twenty eight miles about run down and bivouacked for the night. On the following morning at sunrise I put the column in motion for Mattox Creek where we arrived a little bit after 8 o'clock. The distance from Mill Creek to Mattox Creek is nine miles; the bridge over the latter had been burned by a party of rebel soldiers on the Saturday night preceding our arrival. The stream which is approached by a narrow causeway over very marshy ground, is fifty feet wide. Under the efficient & skillful management & direction of Capt. Ford of General Wadsworth's staff & Capt. Merrit of the 24th Michigan Vols. The bridge was rebuilt so as to admit of the passage of troops witting two hours. Previous to my arrival, at Mattox Creek, I received information from Country people that a considerable rebel force was in the vicinity of Leesville, opposite Port Micou. I at once determined to march my command to that point. I left a small detachment under Capt. Merrit to protect the bridge & with the rest of the command marched directly to Leesville. The country was thoroughly scoured on either side of the road by flankers, but no enemy force was found. I arrived at Leesville a little before dark & bivouacked for the night behind a skirt of woods out of sight of the opposite side of the river. I immediately threw out full companies as pickets along the river in front of Port Mica. I had information that the enemy had two boats of considerable size at this place so I determined if possible to destroy them. & to effect this I arranged to send over at day light on the following morning ten volunteers in a small boat which I found on the beach on this side. The party made the attempt but forewarned of efficiency in the officer in danger the enterprise failed and the boat returned to this side without accomplishing anything. A squadron of cavalry was doing picket duty in the vicinity of the town & to test the range of our guns. & the metal of the enemy I fired some Sixty rounds at them. From the hasty manner in which they beat a retreat I was satisfied that our Springfield rifle muskets may be depended upon for one thousand yards, that being the width of the river at Port Micou. If I had been provided with a boat capable of carrying twenty-five men. I should have crossed the river and captured the town.
At Leesville I received intelligence that Lt. Col. Critcher of the 15th Virginia Cavalry was on this side of the river & in this vicinity. I put the column in motion taking good care to magnify our numbers, & marched directly down the river as if going to Leedstown three miles below. With Cavalry & infantry I scoured the banks and the neighboring woods & was rewarded for my pains by the capture of Col. Critcher whom we found concealed in a clump of woods. He was endeavoring to return to his regiment but was prevented by the presence of my pickets which were between him & the river. Several boats loads of rebel soldiers crossed to the other bank of the river at a point some short distance down, but I had no means at hand to capture or molest them the distance being too great for our guns. I now changed my direction having first sent a squad of Cavalry to Leedstown, I marched for Oak Grove where I arrived about noon. At this place a squadron of the 8th New York Cavalry, Captain Foote, reported to me and I sent them in the direction of Westmoreland Court House under the command of Lt. Col. Dudley, 19th Indiana Vols. Late in the afternoon I sent two regiments under Col. Bragg to a stream on the main road from Westmoreland Court House to Oak Grove & four miles from the latter place. With the remaining Regiments I picketed the woods in all directions and forbid all citizens from crossing in any direction beyond my lines. This I did to be sure that no information of our presence here might be conveyed to the enemy & to this I attribute my good fortune in a capturing a non-commissioned rebel officer within two miles & a half of the place on the day following. Col. Dudley reached a point within two miles of Rappahannock Creek where he received intelligence of the existence within that distance of him of three regiments of rebel cavalry & a regiment of infantry. He communicated his information to me by a mounted orderly & at day light on the 24th I proceeded with my whole command for Westmoreland Court House where we arrived early in the afternoon. We still had no definite reliable information in relation to the 8th Illinois Cavalry. I now determined to leave my infantry to guard the crossing at the creek & with the squadron of Cavalry to find the whereabouts of the 8th Illinois. As we were about setting out the advanced guard of the 8th Illinois arrived at the crossing & soon after the Regiment came up. Having in charge an immense train of wagons, carts, mules, & negroes. On the 25th my command marched at 4 O'clock A.M in the direction of camp & bivouacked for the night at King George Court House having marched upward of twenty miles. On the 26th the command made camp a little after noon having marched from King George Court House a distance of 16 miles. I estimate the whole distance marched in five days & a half at 130 miles.
I found the people everywhere hostile to the Federal Government which they charged with sending out Cavalry to rob & plunder them. I trust it is not improper in this connection for me to state that, in my judgement of our cavalry forces in their excursions into the enemy's country is calculated to the last degree to exasperate & enrage the people instead of exhibiting the true standard of our character. These men are lawless and exacting in the demands. From all I saw and heard I am well satisfied that our cavalry should be required under the severest penalties to pursue the legitimate objects of their expedition & not pursue a system of individual pillage and exaction. The men pretending to act under & by virtue of the authority of the United States Government have stripped helpless women & children of the last article of food and often insulted them for complaining of the destitute condition in which they were left. And this wholesale blunder is pursued without reference to age sex or condition. It is indiscriminate and unreverseable. These men are the worst possible representatives of the federal government and if sent out at all should be placed under officers of character & responsibility. In what I have sad about the cavalry I do not desire to be understood as having reference wholly to the 8th Illinois Cavalry. Not at all. That regiment is probably neither better nor worse than other cavalry regiments. I find the camp to be full of rumors of an uneventful movement by General Lee against this army. It was currently reported that Longstreet had already marched in the direction of Culpepper Court House with the intention of Crossing the Rappahannock near the Fulltime (?) Springs.
This report has been written in great haste & under great physical prostration & without correction. This will excuse, I hope, all defects.
I am Colonel
Your Obt. Svt.
Henry A. Morrow
Col. 24th Mich. Vols.
Commanding Expedition.
Last Updated: 06/27/99
Webmaster: Rob Richardson
robr@advnet.net