e first block-houses in the
West that I know of were built by my command in July and August, 1862,
when it rebuilt the Mobile & Ohio Railroad from Columbus to Humbolt. There
were many important bridges on this line, and we built block-houses at the
most important ones, and stockades at the others.

In the fall of 1862, when Forrest and Jackson made the noted raids into
West Tennessee, the forces at all these structures that my command had
erected held their positions, and defeated the enemy when attacked, while
at the bridges between Jackson, Tennessee, and Grand Junction, where they
had only earth defenses, the forces were driven away or captured and the
bridges destroyed. The result of this was that General Grant issued an
order commending the action of the detachments that were successful,
stating that wherever they stood success followed, and the enemy suffered
a loss in killed and wounded greater than the garrisons of the
block-houses and stockades. This result also caused General Grant to issue
an order to build block-houses and stockades on the line of the Memphis &
Charleston Railway at all important bridges from Memphis to Corinth, and
they protected this line of communication until it was abandoned.

The block-houses held about a company, but sometimes stockades or earth
intrenchments were added to hold two companies, and our orders were
imperative to all forces occupying them never to leave them or surrender,
no matter how large the attacking force. My first order stated that a
company in a block-house or stockade was equal to a Regiment attacking,
and I do not remember the enemy, in their numerous raids, ever capturing
one that was defended, up to the time I left Corinth in the summer of
1863. After the Battle of Chattanooga, when our Armies were lying along
the line of the railway from Nashville to Decatur and Nashville to
Stevenson, I rebuilt the Nashville & Decatur Railway, on which there were
at least thirty important bridges, at each of which we built strong
block-houses and stockades, and the enemy never captured one of them,
though in two instances they were attacked with a brigade, and often with
two Regiments and batteries. We protected against artillery fire by
throwing up earthworks to the height of the first line of fire, taking the
chance of any damage being done above that. Our orders here were when
Forest, Roddy, and Hannan attacked this line to hold the posts under any
and all circumstances,