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were conspicuous for their valor and endurance.
The men of the Thirty-ninth were naval heroes as well as soldiers.
In February, 1863, three companies were detached and ordered down the Mississippi on a steam ferryboat armed with two field pieces, to watch the movements of the gunboat Queen of the West, which had passed our batteries.
They proceeded up Red river and captured the gunboat.
Then an expedition was fitted out under Maj. J. L. Brent, and the men of the Thirty-ninth assisted in manning the Queen of the West and steamer Webb.
Ascending the river, they met and captured, after a desperate conflict, the ironclad Indianola, with her stores and 112 prisoners. Major Brent, commanding the expedition, made honorable mention of Captain Carnes and Lieuts. H. A. Rice and Henry Miller, of the Thirty-ninth.
During the siege this regiment lost 20 men killed and wounded.
Brig.-Gen. John C. Vaughn, of Tennessee, commanded a brigade consisting of the Sixtieth Tennessee, Capt. J. W. Bachman; Sixty-first, Lieut.-Col. James G. Rose, and Sixty-second, Col. John A. Rowan.
On May 16th, while the disastrous battle of Baker's Creek was pending, Vaughn's brigade was ordered to protect the railroad bridge over Big Black river in rear of Pemberton's line.
The entire command in retreat crossed the bridge, yet Vaughn, in momentary expectation of orders to follow, continued to defend a crossing no longer useful.
After daylight next day, Osterhaus' division of the Federal army assaulted the faithful guard of Tennesseeans.
Colonel Rose counted seventeen regimental flags passing to his front.
After a fierce struggle the enemy gained an open space enfilading Vaughn's entire line, and the position being no longer tenable, a retreat was ordered.
The assault of Osterhaus was almost exclusively on the Sixty-first, which met it bravely and with the free use of buckshot and ball, so that the Federals
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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