He Has a Name

 Henry H. Hilton—right time and right place in this universe to connect me to my cousin Shelby 160 years later.

Battle of Booneville

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Battle of Booneville
Part of the American Civil War
Date July 1, 1862 Location Booneville, Mississippi Result Union victory
Belligerents
United States	Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
Henry W. Halleck Philip Sheridan	P.G.T. Beauregard James R. Chalmers
Strength
4,700
Casualties and losses
1 killed, 24 wounded, 16 missing	65 killed

The Battle of Booneville was fought on July 1, 1862, in Booneville, Mississippi, during the American Civil War. It occurred in the aftermath of the Union victory at the Battle of Shiloh and within the context of Confederate General Braxton Bragg's efforts to recapture the rail junction at Corinth, Mississippi, 20 miles (32 km) north of Booneville.

Battle

After the Union Army victory at Shiloh, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck moved his forces slowly toward Corinth, an important rail center. By May 25, 1862, after traveling 5 miles (8.0 km) in three weeks, Halleck was positioned to lay siege to the town. But on May 29, the Confederate forces under General P.G.T. Beauregard slipped away undetected and moved toward Tupelo, Mississippi. In late June, Halleck ordered his forces south and learned that the Confederates, by then under Bragg, were advancing toward Corinth. The 31-year-old Union Col. Philip Sheridan established a fortified position to the south at Booneville on June 28 to await the Confederate attack.

Lead elements of 4,700 troops under the Confederate Brig. Gen. James R. Chalmers, who was also 31 years old, encountered Sheridan's pickets on the morning of July 1, three and 1.8 miles (2.9 km) to the southwest of Corinth. The pickets fell back and established a sound defensive line at the intersection of the roads from Tupelo and Saltillo. Aided by the superiority of their new Colt revolving rifles, the line withstood the initial Confederate assault before withdrawing to a backup position 2 miles (3.2 km) closer to the town.

Chalmers' effort to turn the left flank of this new line was thwarted when Sheridan's main force joined the battle. The bulk of the Union force stayed on the defensive while Sheridan sent the 2nd Michigan Cavalry under Capt. Russell Alexander and the 2nd Iowa Cavalry under Lt. Col. Edward Hatch to attack the Confederate rear and left flank, respectively. The cavalry forces pushed Chalmers to retreat and Sheridan called off the pursuit after 4 miles (6.4 km), when his fatigued troops encountered swampy terrain.

Aftermath

Sheridan estimated that Chalmers lost 65 troops killed in the battle; Federal casualties were one dead, 24 wounded, and 16 missing. Due to the battle, Bragg delayed his offensive strategy for Corinth, allowing Halleck additional time to unite his troops.

Booneville is in Prentiss County, Mississippi, directly below Corinth, Alcorn County, Mississippi where Hilton was discarged because of a disibility in August 1962.

This was all part of the Grant's efforts to sieze Vicksburg, the major Mississippi port. 

The Morton family at this time was in Yazoo County, Mississipp down by Vicksburg. 

Here http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/emancipation/text5/hughes.pdf

Is a link containing excerpts from a slave's account of living in the Corinth area during the time Henry Hilton was there with the Union Army.

Searching for the unnamed...

 Sister Betty and I have been trying to help an new found African-American search for her family history.  This is our first experience extensively searching ancestry for African-American records.  Records prior to 1870 rarely list any identifying information for Black families, not even their names.  

Here are some ways we have found to search Ancestry.com for records prior to 1870.

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/catalog/?title=slave

will search records that have the word slave in the name of the record

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1944/

This will search records of the slave narratives.  I am guessing 1944 is the year.  There do not seem to be other years included in these scans... 

Here https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/

0