Pvt. Henry Helm

The cavalry during the Civil War was used for scouting out the enemy’s position, screening the movements of troops, providing security for units on the move and performing picket duty for encamped forces. Highly mobile, cavalry units could travel as much as 35 miles in a day without tiring horses or their riders. Cavalry troops were frequently used by both sides to conduct long distance raids to disrupt enemy supply lines.

 

A cavalry soldier represented a significant investment. A Union cavalry trooper would have been issued a sword, revolver, and usually a short-barreled carbine rifle. He would be issued a dark colored horse, that typically would eat 10 pounds of hay and 14 pounds of feed each day.

 

Cavalry units in both armies learned to fight on horseback and on foot, employing tactics that had been developed while fighting Native American tribes on the western frontier. On horseback, troopers would use their revolvers and swords; when fighting on foot, every fourth trooper would hold the horses of the other three while they fired their carbines.

 

Private Helm’s cavalry uniform was probably the nicest and most complete set of clothing he had worn in his life up to that time. He would have been issued a blue kepi-style hat, a dark blue blouse (shirt), and light blue trousers with a yellow stripe up the side of each leg, and knee length black boots. A wide leather belt with a brass buckle, supported by a strap across his chest, would hold his sword and pistol. On his horse he would carry a tent, blanket, poncho, canteen, and saddle bags for his rations and personal effects.

 

In February 1864 Private Helms’ unit joined an expedition led by Colonel James Coates that had been ordered to raid through the Yazoo City area and link up with General Sherman’s army at Meridian. As Coates’ force travelled, they confiscated several hundred bales of valuable cotton from plantations along the river. Reaching Yazoo City on February 28, the cavalry disembarked first to reconnoiter and secure the town.

 

On March 5 Confederate forces commanded by Brigadier General Lawrence Ross attacked the Union detachments guarding Yazoo City. The day before, Ross’s force had been reinforced and now outnumbered the Union troops defending the town. Men from Helm’s unit were dug in, fighting from rifle pits. The Union infantry used cotton bales to barricade the streets. Three times Ross demanded that the U.S. force surrender, but the commander refused, as Ross would not guarantee that black Union troops and their officers would be

treated as prisoners of war rather than executed. After a six-hour battle, Coates was able to mount a counterattack that drove the Rebels away.

 

The 3rd U.S. Colored Cavalry also participated in Brigadier General Benjamin Grierson’s raid on Egypt Station, Mississippi in December 1864. The Union division captured more than 600 prisoners, destroyed 10 miles of railroad track, several locomotives, dozens of freight cars, warehouses and other supplies. Grierson’s raid was so successful that when the remnants of Confederate General John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee reached Tupelo, Mississippi after being defeated at the Battle of Nashville, there weren’t enough supplies to feed them. Hood had to furlough many of his men so they could fend for themselves.

 

When the war ended, Private Henry Helm travelled to Memphis with his unit. At 26 years old, he had escaped from slavery and survived the war. He had to have cut a dashing figure in his cavalry uniform. He met and married a 21-year-old woman named Elizabeth, but their time together was short lived. Private Henry Helm died of typhus in the regimental hospital on September 14, 1865.

 

Contributors: John Wood, Autumn Curnutt, and Sarah Plummer