First Lieutenant Theophilus Millhouse was most thoroughly miserable. He had been born and raised in Connecticut where the world was cool and brisk. This August day in Mississippi in 1864 the humidity was so thick you could rip off a chunk of air and gnaw on it.
Millhouse answered to Brigadier General Andrew Jackson Smith. They were pushing south from Holly Springs past Abbeville toward Oxford. The war criminal Nathan Bedford Forrest had been up to mischief and General Smith purposed to teach the rebels a lesson not soon forgotten.
They found the town of Oxford devoid of men of military age. Grant and Sherman had been here two years prior and used the university as a field hospital. Grant had ridden his horse through the front doors of the Lyceum, the administrative building anchoring the University of Mississippi.
This day Lt. Millhouse and his men were in a foul temper. Word had just arrived of a cavalry attack by Forrest’s troops on their base of supply in Memphis. Clearly outwitted, Smith and his men vented their frustrations on the pastoral little Southern town.
At Smith’s behest Millhouse had his rampaging bluecoats fire the courthouse, the square and the surrounding homes. The weeping of the rebel women could be heard above the crackling flames. Once the center of the town was fully involved the Federals retraced their steps north. When marching abreast in the little community of Abbeville near Hurricane Creek a symphony of shots rang out from the adjacent wood line.
A modest contingent of rebel Infantrymen got off several volleys supported by a pair of field pieces before melting into the dank surrounding swamps. When the smoke cleared Lt. Theophilus Millhouse lay in the hot Mississippi ooze, his glassy eyes staring lifelessly toward the blue heavens. His men pressed on for Holly Springs, further driven in their mission to find Forrest.
