This thread is from the Flags message board, but is very interesting. Thought I would share on the Mississippi and Missouri Boards.
"It never fails to amaze me how you can track down so much information with so few clues. To think all I had provided was a clue from letter that described the capture of a flag and the capture of a Missouri Captain (US) by a Missouri Lt. (CSA) at Egypt Station, Mississippi and now we have a whole new thread about an obscure but decisive battle and aftermath of the combined December 1864 raid of Grierson on the Mobile & Ohio RR from the north and Davidson's raid from Baton Rouge on the south end of the Mobile & Ohio with Mobile as their target.
You could have easily stopped with your first response, but as always, you couldn't help it....You had to dig deeper; what a treasure trove you uncovered. I had looked for reports by "Col. Ware" as written in Riley's letters. No wonder I couldn't find antything. I had also tried to Google Eqypt Station, but again no information relating to the action after the main battle. Since then, I have been able to collect enough to almost write a chapter in the E. M. Riley Letters" manuscript.
These men of the 1st Confederate Veterans were a conglomeration of Galvanized Yankee recruits from Andersonville and other POW camps in Georgia and men separated from their units in the Army of Tennessee either by being left behind in hospitals, straggling, or being home on furlough, when Hood's Army left for Tennessee from Atlanta in September 1864.
They had been stationed at Corinth and Enterprise and then sent down the railroad when word that Davidson's raid was determined to be heading across south Mississippi toward Pascagoua and ultimately for Mobile. Word must have reached Davidson that these tropps were on their way, and he decided to end his eastward push.
Once in Mobile the Veteran Regiment remained awaiting orders. From these records and the letters of Edward M. Riley of Co. A 39th Mississippi (Now a member of Co. A 1st Confederate Veterans) along with his major, R. J. Durr, and his captain, C. W. Gallagher, formerly from the 39th Miss. commanding the company, we learn that a flag was captured and a Captain of the 4th Missouri was captured. The commanding officer of the expedition , Lt. Col. William M. Weir, was familiar to these men as well since he had commanded the 37th Mississippi in their same brigade (Claudius Sears', French's Divison). So from that standpoint there was at least unit cohesion at the leadership level. If the men on the way from Mobile have arrived earlier, would the battle have gone differently, who knows?
The motley band, though utterly defeated in the main battle for the Egypt Station, was able to inflict damage on the raiders, prevent them from going further south on the Mobile & Ohio RR, and eventually forced the raiders to go west to reconnect to other federal forces in Mississippi.
Now my question is which flag? and what happened to it?
Once again you have come through like a champ. Thanks George.
For more on the troops involved at Egypt Station check out this website of the "Breckinridge Greys" reenactment group:
http://breckinridgegreys.org/galvanized3.html