Quite a bit of testimony was entered about this incident when Corporal William Smith, one of the men involved at Hobdy's, appealed the denial of his pension after the war.

According to the Department of the Interior Records, Skinner was killed and Smith, Daniel V. Melvin and Nathan Mims were seriously wounded. They were part of a large detachment commanded by Lt. Joseph Carroll that had gone from Montgomery to Eufaula to escort the mail because Southern guerrillas were reported to still be in the area.

When they reached Eufaula, Carroll allowed a number of his men to visit their homes, which were in the area, instructing them to rejoin the main detachment at Hobdy's Bridge on May 19, 1865. After allowing these men to leave the main column, however, Carroll was warned of a planned attack on his unit. He immediately headed back to Montgomery, leaving behind the men on leave.

They all arrived at Hobdy's Bridge as ordered on May 19, "to rejoin their command in obedience to his orders, and finding that the detachment was not there but had passed on, started to follow it; and on attempting to cross said bridge were fired upon by a band of rebel guerrillas, one of the party being killed, and all the rest...were wounded, with one exception."

Smith, one of the wounded, was initially denied his pension because he was on leave at the time of the incident. He appealed and the incident was investigated by order of Assistant Secretary of the Interior F.L. Campbell, who ruled that all of the men had returned to active duty at the moment they arrived at Hobdy's Bridge as ordered and that they had been killed and wounded while on active duty.

Interesting little incident, isn't it?

Dale