Michigan at Tebbs Bend / Michigan at Tebbs Bend
During the first week of July 1863, while the people of the North and the South focused their attention on Gettysburg and Vicksburg, five Michigan companies defended the bridge across the Green River here at Tebbs Bend. They were members of the Twenty-fifth Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Colonel Orlando H. Moore commanding), First Brigade, Second Division, Twenty-third Army Corps, Army of the Ohio. On the morning of July 4, 1863, Confederate cavalry troops under the command of General John H. Morgan attacked the 260 well-entrenched Michigan volunteers. After the Michigan troops repelled eight attacks, Morgan retreated from this locale. However, his troops continued to raid through Kentucky and Indiana before the last remnants were captured in Ohio.The Twenty-fifth Michigan Volunteer Infantry was organized at Kalamazoo and mustered into service in September 1862 under the command of Colonel Orlando H. Moore. The companies of the regiment that fought here were: Company D, recruited at Three Rivers; Company E, recruited at Galesburg; Company F, recruited at Niles; Company I, recruited at Holland; and Company K, recruited at Buchanan. When ordered by General John H. Morgan to surrender, Colonel Moore replied, “This being the Fourth of July, I cannot entertain the proposition of surrender.” Total casualties for the Twenty-fifth Infantry were six killed and twenty-four wounded. Eighty-one Confederate troops fell, including twenty-two commissioned officers.
Plaque via Michigan History Center