USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 64
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755
FIGHTING AND RUNNING.
to Tilton and Villanow, in order to strike simultaneously the left flank and rear of the swift foe. Hood's rear-guard skirm- ished with Howard's front, but was gone before Stanley reached the appointed place. Sherman again divided his forces, after a rapid day's march again concentrated, but again grasped nothing. Once more he hastened on, follow- ing traces and rumors as far as Gaylesville, Alabama. Here he spent a week in inquiry and observation, the result of which was the permanent division of his forces. He sent Thomas to Nashville to assume command in Tennessee, and detached for the protection of Tennessee, Stanley with the Fourth corps, Schofield with the Twenty-Third, and all of his cavalry but Kilpatrick's division. He then turned his back on the north, and stripping the railroad as he went of the troops that guarded it, sending some to Thomas and ab- sorbing others in his own column, he made a leisurely march to Atlanta.
Tennessee was in a turmoil, not only because Hood was on its border, threatening an invasion, but on account of the actual presence of Wheeler and Forrest. Wheeler appeared first, whisking about like a Jack o'Lantern, attacking small garrisons, and outlying detachments, and running away from large forces. After the arrival of Forrest he was bolder and less cautious. But at every point after the first few days, the invaders were confronted by swift and gallant cavalry. There were the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Thir- teenth Indiana, which, during the Atlanta campaign had guarded the railroads in Tennessee and Alabama, the Sixth, which, after M'Cook's raid, had returned to Nashville to be remounted and equipped, the Seventy-Third, which had lately picketed the Tennessee river near Triana, and a detachı- ment of the Eighth, beside no small number of regiments from other States.
At first the Rebels avoided battle, but as their strength in- creased, and as the Union strength also increased, encounters became frequent. In an engagement with Forrest at Sulphur Branch Trestle, on the twenty-fifth of September, a detach- ment of the Ninth, but a small part of the Union force, lost one hundred and twenty killed, wounded and missing. On
756
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
the twenty-eighth there was sharp fighting before Pulaski, which Forest attacked just as Rousseau had succeeded in hastily concentrating a large force there. Colonel Jones, of the Eighth, with a command of twenty-five hundred men and a six gun battery, was in front of the town. At daylight Captain Fortner, with two hundred and fifty men advanced a half mile to a hill where he was attacked. Colonel Jones hastened to his assistance with the Sixth Indiana, the Fourthi Tennessee and detachments of the Fourth Indiana and of two other regiments. He held the hill six hours, Rousseau sending him no reinforcement, then being over-lapped on both flanks, he took position under shelter of the fort in Pulaski. 'The enemy followed, but at night retreated and turned his attention to the railroad near Tullahoma. Being driven from the road, Forrest divided his force, taking three thousand men toward Columbia, and sending four thousand, under Buford, to Athens, which was held by Lieutenant Colonel Wade with the Seventy-Third Indiana and two pieces of artillery. Early on the second of October, Buford opened from four guns a lively artillery fire, which called out a tell- ing rejoinder. After two hours of cannonading he demanded a surrender. Wade was protected by excellent defences, and he promptly declined. The artillery reopened and continued until Buford, toward evening, retired. Forrest was also re- buffed.
It was now Hood's turn to enter the lists. When he got rid of Sherman, he had forty-five thousand infantry and cavalry, but his number increased, and he approached the Tennessee at Florence with a large and sanguine army. To withhold attention from the crossing, he drew a considerable force off to Decatur, where he intrenched within five hundred yards of the defences. His lively advances were met by the forces under General Granger with an equal show of spirit. At noon of the twenty-eighth of October, about four hundred men of the Fourteenth United States Colored, under Colonel Morgan, charged an earthwork on the enemy's right near the river, capturing it and seizing a battery of four guns, of which they spiked two. They turned quickly to retreat, but the Rebels rallied, followed closely and forced a hand-to-
757
HOOD IS DRIVEN FROM DECATUR.
hand combat. The same day, the enemy's left was attacked and driven back with the loss of his rifle-pits in that quarter and one hundred and twenty men.
Lieutenant Gillet, of Colonel Morgan's regiment, was mortally wounded in the engagement on the left. Before he was carried from the field, he gave his watch and his diary to his captain, and said, "Good bye, Captain. 'Tell the men not to mind me, but to stand fast and do their duty."
The beautiful monument which marks Frank Gillet's grave in Crown Hill Cemetery, is the grateful tribute of his black soldiers. He had their warmest affection. And not theirs alone. "None knew him but to love him." "Not one painful memory of that boy from his babyhood to his heroic death at Decatur. Always gentle but brave. Sun- shine in his heart and on his face. His honest gray eyes were ever to me suggestive of crystaline purity." These words of his mother are not more tender or more admiring than the language of his old comrades of the Seventieth In- diana, as well as of his late associates in the Fourteenth United States Colored.
Colonel Morgan's regiment consisted of men who bore on them the terrible marks of the lash, but who had shown themselves eager for knowledge, poring over their books not only in their school rooms, but at moments snatched from guard duty, and most eager for the battle-field on which they hoped to claim the dignity and the rights of manhood. Colonel Morgan and the larger number of his subordinate officers were the indefatigable teachers and friends of their men. "All I had, and was, and hoped to be, I staked in the success of my regiment," writes Colonel Morgan. He had his reward.
Finding his demonstration at Decatur somewhat costly, Hood withdrew rapidly and followed his main army, which, in spite of sharp opposition offered by Croxton's cavalry, had effected the passage of the river. Forrest and Wheeler co- operated with Hood.
The prudent General Thomas meant to fight Hood at Nashville, and was anxious only lest his fiery antagonist should force him into a battle below that point. Schofield
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
and Stanley, who had been temporarily separated, reunited at Pulaski, and waited there a few days for developments. Hood moved toward them, and they fell back. Colonel Packard gives some account of the retreat, including the battle by which it was interrupted:
"On the morning of November 24, daylight found us marching rapidly for Columbia. When within ten miles of the town, we left the Decatur turnpike, and crossed over to the Mount Pleasant turnpike. The sound of musketry warned us that the cavalry were engaged, and hastening forward we were just in time to see our cavalry rapidly re- tiring, closely pursued by the Rebels. My regiment hap- pened to be in advance. Two companies, which were a little distance in its front, moved forward on the double- quick, deployed as skirmishers, and poured a scattering vol- ley into the faces of the over-confident enemy, killing and wounding a number, among them a Lieutenant Colonel killed. The regiment took position in line with the Sixty- Third, and threw up a rail barricade, but the enemy did not advance.
"On the morning of the thirtieth, having reached Franklin at five o'clock, we lay down and got just one hour's sleep, then took position and went to fortifying. The Twenty- Third corps was on the left, the Fourth corps on the right of our line, with Wagner's division occupying a position in advance. There was a range of hills about two miles in our front, and on this the enemy showed himself soon after our force all got in; and a battery was placed in a grove midway between the two points, to annoy him and prevent his planting artillery on the ridge. The town of Franklin is situated on a bend of the Little Harpeth river, which flows around the north side. Our line on the south completed the circle, resting the left flank on the river above, and the right flank on the river below the town. The Third brigade of Cox's division held the extreme left, and the One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth was on the right of the brigade, con- necting immediately with the One Hundred and Twenty- Fourth Indiana of the Second brigade. The line of my regiment passed through what had once been the yard of a
759
BATTLE OF FRANKLIN.
private residence, the house having been burned some time ago. The stone cellar was used in building the works, with from four to six feet of earth thrown against the rocks. Covering the whole front of the regiment, except the right company, there was a lot, of perhaps two acres, fenced witlı a heavy Osage orange hedge, which was untrimmed, and had grown up tall. The right company rested across a wide gravelled road. There being two lines of the hedge, one only a few yards from my works, and the other about fifty yards, a reasonable distance for abatis work, I had the closer line cut down, and the brush piled in the road on a line with the farther hedge row, so as to check an advance on my right company. So prepared, we rested, and the men got dinner.
"About three o'clock in the afternoon I was notified that the enemy was advancing, and every man stood to arms at the works. I should say that in our whole front there was an open field stretehing away nearly a mile. At a few min- utes to four o'clock their columns appeared moving upon our left flank, the object being to turn the left of our line, double us up in the town, seize the railroad bridge, and prevent us from crossing the river in case of defeat. Hood's troops came on in three lines of battle confident of victory and in splendid style. I never saw a more magnificent sight. The cannon from the fort on the north side of the river opened on them, leaving great gaps through their ranks, but they closed steadily up and moved on as firmly as if merely marching past us for review. As they came down upon the left of Wagner's division, his men fell back hastily behind our works. The skirmishers, two companies of which were from my regiment, stood till the last moment, delivering a rapid and destructive fire. My line bent in such a way that they struek the left first, and Major Healy caused the companies of the left wing to open fire, and as they came around in full view at about one hundred yards distance, I ordered the com- panies of the right wing to commence firing. Still they never flinched; but defiantly moved on until they struck the hedge, where they were balked as completely as though they had run against the Chinese wall. They made the most des- perate efforts to penetrate it without avail. Human nature
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
couldn't stand the destructive fire that was rained upon them, and they began to move quickly by the flank so as to pass round the hedge. When they reached the road they tried to force an entrance through the brush that had been cut down. Seeing their exertions, I directed the fire of two companies full upon them right down the road, and they were compelled to flank again. Having passed the brush, they came back in one grand rush, and struck the regiment near the centre, clos- ing up rapidly along my right, and down upon the One Hun- dred and Twenty-Fourth. One color-bearer sprang upon the works, and was instantly shot. His death grasp tightened upon the flag staff and it fell outwards with his body. There was a section of artillery in my works, and the colors fell almost under the guns. At that moment both pieces were discharged, the smoke enveloped the combatants, and under its cover the colors were seized and borne away.
"Another color-bearer was shot in front of companies A and F, in the road, and the colors fell, but were also carried off under cover of the smoke. One daring fellow attempted to enter at the embrasure, and a battery man struck him full in the breast with a hatchet. He stayed outside. Another was attempting to climb the wall when Lieutenant Brown of company F dealt him a blow over the head with his sword, and he did not come in. Their field officers and several captains were either killed or wounded, and they broke and fled in confusion. It was a terrible assault, and most terribly was it punished. I never before saw such slaughter, nor ever heard such groans and cries as came from that field when the fight was ended. It was all over at dark on our part of the line, but continued at intervals till nine o'clock in the night. Altogether our victory was complete and decisive.
"I lost three captains, brave, noble men, all of them, and good officers. Captain James Bissell, company A, Captain James G. Staley, company F, and Captain Frank M. Hen- ton, company K.
" The two first were shot through the head. Captain Henton was on the skirmish line, and never returned. I fear he was either killed, or too severely wounded to come in, and was taken prisoner. In other respects my loss was
761
HOOD FORMS HIS LINES BEFORE NASHVILLE.
wonderfully small,-only one enlisted man killed and three wounded."
Captain Henton was taken prisoner and held about a month, when he made his escape from the Rebels, and re- turned to the regiment at Columbia, after the retreat of Hood.
Toward the close of the day, Hood's assaults were di- rected against Kimball, who held the right. Near midnight, he drove off. Schofield, leaving his dead and wounded, re- sumed the march. He was not pursued until daylight. Forrest then fell in his rear, and dogged his steps to Nash- ville.
The Ninety-First and One Hundred and Twenty-Third Indiana reached Nashville at the same time. They had been guarding Duck river since the sixteenth of November, and had escaped the enemy only by a continuous march of sixty miles, much of it within sound and almost within sight of Forrest's cavalry. The One Hundred and Twenty-Fourth in a fight with cavalry between Columbia and Franklin, lost a whole company by capture. December 2, Hood took his position before Nashville with his army reduced by exposure and battle to forty thousand, and proportionally diminished in courage. However, it was not yet a contemptible force; and on a series of hills, five miles south of Nashville, from the river on one side to the river on the other side of the city, it was defended by excellent fortifications. No immediate advance was made, but large detachments reconnoitred the vicinity, skirmishing with troops of Union cavalry.
On the fourth, a division under Bate attacked a block house which defended the railroad at Overall's creek, five miles above Murfreesboro. It made no headway, and was driven off by Milroy, who hastened up from Murfreesboro with three or four regiments. Reinforced by another division of infantry and by two or three thousand cavalry, Bate shortly after threatened Fortress Rosecrans; but was again discom- fited. The Rebel cavalry then departed on an excursion to- ward the north, while the infantry halted on the Wilkerson turnpike. Here it was attacked and put to flight by General Milroy.
762
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
Meantime Hood, apparently under the delusion that he could starve Thomas out, would not be persuaded to venture an assault. Consequently Thomas took the initiatory steps toward a meeting. A. J. Smith's command, which had ar- rived from Missouri, was posted on his right; the Fourth corps, under Wood, because Stanley was wounded at Frank- lin, and Schofield's had the centre; Steedman, with his or- ganization of white and black troops, had the left. The flanks, resting on the river, were covered by gunboats, and by cavalry. On the morning of the fifteenth Colonel Morgan, in command of a black brigade, his own regiment, the Four- teenth, deployed in front, and with a section of Osborn's In- diana battery, moved out upon the Murfreesboro turnpike, carried the advanced intrenchments, and pushed forward against heavy resistance to an impassable railroad cut, from the further and higher side of which a Rebel battery poured out a destructive fire. Under heavy loss his troops behaved with great gallantry. Steedman advanced the remainder of his force, but was compelled to withdraw his front. His ob- ject, however, which was simply to draw the enemy's atten- tion from the right, was gained.
Smith went down the hills on which he had lain, up the Rebel hills, over the breastworks and upon the batteries with an impetus which defied equivalent action on the part of the foe. While he doubled back the Rebel left, Wilson's cavalry, on his right, approached the Rebel rear, and Wood and Scho- field pressed upon the centre, Kimball's division gaining Montgomery hill. Hood hastened reinforcements to this en- dangered point, compelling Wilson to draw rein, and check- ing Smith, Wood and Schofield.
Endeavors to renew the forward movement were without success, though at dark Wood captured a battery.
During the night Hood withdrew two miles to a wooded ridge, which covers the Granny White and Franklin turn- pikes, and which protected his retiring trains, compressed his line within three miles, straightened it, and arranged a for- midable front.
Early on the sixteenth Thomas' army, preceded by clouds of skirmishers, advanced, passing over the abandoned works,
763
CHASING HOOD OUT OF TENNESSEE.
and only halting when it was close to the enemy. At this point hour after hour wore away in vain efforts at progress. At three, Post's and Morgan's brigades made an unsuccessful assault. The Fourteenth Colored, deployed as skirmishers in front of the artillery, (Osborne's and an Ohio battery,) al- lowed the disordered retiring column to pass through it with- out being shaken. "What regiment is this?" asked the Sixty-Eighth Indiana as it struck the line. "The Four- teenth," answered the blacks. "Bully for you!" cried the Sixty-Eighth, "we'll stay with you!" And they did. The batteries meantime kept up their fire.
At nearly four o'clock prolonged firing on the Rebel flank and rear indicated that the cavalry had gained ground. In- stantly, Schofield and Smith, with fixed bayonets and with cheers, and scarcely later, Wood and Steedman, marched out in assault, up to blazing musketry and roaring artillery, and over the works. The enemy fled wildly, and continued all night in flight. A body of cavalry set out in hope of gaining Franklin in advance of the fugitives, but meeting with strong opposition, it made little progress. The next day all the cavalry and nearly all the infantry joined in the pursuit. Knipe's division captured four hundred and thirteen of a rear guard at Hollow Tree Gap. Wilson and Johnson put to flight a force which guarded the Harpeth, and captured the hospitals in Franklin, in which were eighteen hundred Rebel and two hundred Union wounded. Four miles below Frank- lin the cavalry had a sharp though short encounter. Below Pulaski occurred a severe fight, in which Forrest captured a gun from Harrison's cavalry brigade; although Harrison im- mediately regained the ground from which he had been driven. The weather was inclement, the only change being from cold and heavy rains to biting frost; the streams were swollen; the country was flooded; the bridges were burnt; and Thomas had no pontoons. The pursuit was no holiday affair, even though the pursuers were chiefly veterans, and the fugitive was Hood.
From Franklin, Steedman crossed to Murfreesboro, and went to Stevenson and Decatur, with the expectation of inter-
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
cepting, or in some way of annoying Hood, while the main army went on to Lexington, Alabama. But Hood escaped.
After all the fighting and racing were over the following letter was written:
"HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA, FORTIETH REGIMENT, - January 9, 1865.
" You will readily pardon my long silence when you re- member that since the last of October we have, save thic short time spent at Pulaski, been constantly on the go. Be- sides it is but poor business writing letters when you are liv- ing in the open air, without shelter of any kind, in the winter at that, with the ground for a seat, and your knee for a desk, while your eyes have become fountains of tears, as the smoke from burning fence rails compels them to the outward show of grief for the destruction worked. Now, however, we have been in that Potomaeian condition known as 'winter quar- ters,' for several days, (about three,) aud having built a ehim- ney to my tent, which has arrived, much to my satisfaction, from the hearth of said chimney there is dispensed a genial glow which, despite the warning winds and dashing rain, al- most convinces one that he is enjoying 'comfort.' 'Tis true the ground on which my feet rest, is wet and cold, and oeca- sional droppings here and there remind me that at best tents are leaky things, and not over warm, (except in the summer time,) but in that spirit of cheerful philosophy which urges one to be thankful, not that things are so well as they are, but that they are no worse, I accept the situation, and shall undertake, by most vigorous efforts of the imagination, to persuade myself that there might be something more miscra- ble than 'comfortable winter quarters,' and therefore be most thankful that the unknown possibility had not fallen to our lot. As usual my good fortune did not desert me, and I came out of all the fights without any holes through my flesh. I had a horse killed under me as quick as lightning could have done it, and a ball eut a strap from my saddle, directly in my front, not two inches from where it would have hurt me, if it had hit, making the farther digestion of hard-tack and fat pork impossible.
765
REVIEW OF THE CAMPAIGN.
"By the way, Hood was terribly thrashed in those same battles, but there can be no doubt that the greatest battle was that of Franklin. There his army was ruined. When we came back over the ground, we could see by the graves the fearful destruction of our fire. I met no prisoners of any rank who did not agree that their repulse there was most un- expected and disastrous. They largely outnumbered us, and our works were very hastily put up, and not finished when the attack was commenced ; yet their loss was numerous, and their repulse complete. We fought three corps with three of our divisions. Our regiment captured a battle flag, the man who took it running the bearer of it through the body with his bayonet.
"At Nashville, where we outnumbered the Rebels, and they had the advantage of position and defences, we took them squarely out of their works, and completely routed them. 'Tis true they used but little artillery at Franklin, and we an enormous amount at Nashville, still it was not in the killed or wounded by cannon shots, or in their moral effects that the difference lay, but in the growing conviction in rebellious minds, that they are now paying for a very dead horse, and that a life as an individual concern is rather a big price to pay. Sixteen general officers and any quantity of smaller fry were killed or wounded at Franklin. It is well known that generals do not expose themselves usually on either side, save in some desperate emergency. General Adams was killed right on our breastwork, and so were some others. Do you not see how difficult it must have been to bring the men to the scratch, when it became necessary to urge them for- ward by the generals themselves leading them? When we assaulted their works at Nashville, and began to go over them, I never saw more abject terror than among those we captured. It was real, genuine fright. 'What would we do with them?' 'Would anybody hurt them?' 'Do give me a guard,' &c., &c., they were constantly saying-in fact a badly thrashed set of rascals.
"The country is now full of deserters. Hood and his army, who were to go to the Ohio river, are completely played out, and quiet reigns in Tennessee. Thus it happens
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
that we go into winter quarters. The men are now busy as bees, cutting and hewing logs for their huts. Soon the men will settle down to daily drills and the consumption of rations, and the officers to the reception of orders to do or leave undone this, that and everything under Heaven that somebody else can think of when having nothing else to do but to devise and issue orders. Reports, returns, tri-weekly, tri-monthly, monthly, weekly, daily and hourly, are called for, and the grand aggregate carefully filed away at Washington, never more to be seen by eye of man. The paper wasted on all these things would each day freight a large ship, and Satan himself would yield to despair at the task of making head or tail of them. The idea is beginning to force itself upon me that, as it is after eleven o'clock at night, I had better stop writing, and go to bed, 'To sleep-perchance to . dream" of home, and wife, and chicks, and then to wake homesick beyond expression. Eheu!
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