USA > Tennessee > Henry County > A history of the Henry County commands which served in the Confederate States army, including rosters of the various companies enlisted in Henry County, Tenn. > Part 6
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breath. W. CORP. A. H. LANKFORD D. Street went on a similar danger- ous errand to fill our canteens with water. These were two of the bravest deeds that I witnessed during the whole war.
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About 4 p. m. the Federal battery opened a heavy shelling. One shell struck a head log in front of Companies "B" and "E," cut it in two and turned it around over the heads of the men. Lowering their pieces, they plowed up the ground between the picket holes, and one shell struck the bank of red clay in front of a picket hole and piled the earth on top of the crouching men. W. D. Street raised up and shook a peck of dirt (more or less) from his knapsack. It was deemed best by Lieutenant Rennolds to order the two picket holes nearest the line of shelling aban- doned till the firing had ceased, when they were re- occupied.
On the night of September 5 the enemy retired to Atlanta, and on the 6th we advanced to Jonesboro and rested from our long and arduous campaign. For four months we had been almost continuously marching, fortifying, skirmishing and fighting bat- tles. Heavy rains set in and much sickness, dysen- tery, malarial fever, etc., followed.
On the 18th of September General Hood marched his command to Palmetto, on the Atlanta & West Point Railroad, so as to place it between Sherman and the cornfields of Alabama and Mississippi, which furnished our breadstuffs.
The continued decimation of all the commands rendered it expedient to still further consolidate them, though it was called temporary. The Fourth, Fifth, Thirty-First, Thirty-Third and Thirty-Eighth Tennessee were each reduced to two companies, and formed into one regiment. Companies "A," "B," "C" and "E" of the Fifth forming one company and
L. of C.
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"D," "F," "G," "H," "I" and "K" another, Col. A. J. Keller of the Fourth in command. We no longer had a field officer. The first company was officered by Lieuts. T. C. Neal, F. M. Clark and G. W. Craw- ford, and the second by Capt. B. F. Peeples, Lieuts. J. P. Tyler, F. M. Clark and E. H. Rennolds.
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CHAPTER XVII.
TO SHERMAN'S REAR AND TENNESSEE.
The next ten days were spent in preparing to move on Sherman's communications. On the 29th we crossed the Chattahoochee and advanced by forced marches to the Western & Atlantic Railroad, reaching the vicinity of Big Shanty on the 3d of October, and set to work to tear up the railroad, piling up the crossties and putting the rails on them, and setting the crossties on fire, thus heating the rails and then bending them around telegraph poles and stumps.
French's Division was sent to attempt the capture of Sherman's reserve supply of commissary stores, consisting of a million rations, enough to feed a hun- dred thousand men for two months. While march- ing to the railroad we could see the Federal Signal Corps on Kennesaw Mountain signaling over our heads to Altoona Heights, Sherman's famous message, "Hold the fort, for I am coming."
General French found the fort at Altoona too strong for his forces to capture. By the time we had torn up the railroad to near Altoona, Sherman's ad- vance forces, sent to relieve Altoona, approached and we turned our faces to the west as if in retreat, but making the circuit of Rome, we returned to the rail- road again, striking it at Dalton, the other two corps at Calhoun and Resaca. Captured 800 prisoners at Dalton, mostly negroes, and put them to work tear- ing up the railroad track. Destroyed it to Mill Creek
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Gap. At noon on the 14th we were again compelled to desist on approach of the Federals.
We turned again to the west by way of Walker, LaFayette and Alpine to Gadsden, Ala., making twenty-three miles one day. We were enabled to buy apples, potatoes, sorghum, etc., and we had some recompense for our hard marching. At Gadsden we touched again our railroad communication and ob- tained clothing, better rations, etc. On the night of October 21 Generals Beauregard, Hood, Lee, Cheat- ham, Cleburne, Bates, Clayton and others made us encouraging speeches, asserting that we would be able to hold Tennessee, whither they said we were going. Started again on the 22d, our regiment was in the advance on the 24th and fared sumptuously, as we had first chance at the luxuries of the country. When we halted before sundown a frightened deer ran through the camp and was shot by one of the soldiers. On the 25th, no other command being ready to move when the appointed time arrived, our brigade was again given the advance.
Reached Decatur on the 27th and threatened to attack the fort there. Protests and muttered threats of refusal were heard among the men. Only beef and one ear of corn to each man was issued, and on the 28th an ear of corn constituted the ration. Gnawing hunger preved on us, and parched acorns were greed- ily devoured. The mounted officers had to guard their horses when fed to prevent the corn from being stolen from them.
About 3 p. m. we withdrew from before Decatur and marched west, reaching Tuscumbia on the 31st.
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Here we rested till November 13; crossed the Tennes- see River on a pontoon bridge, and waited another week for supplies to be hauled up from Cherokee, the temporary terminus of M. & C. R. R., twenty miles distant. Started again on the 21st. There was a slight fall of snow during the day.
On the 22d we came in sight of a large sign stretched across the road, which read: "Tennessee Line." Hearty cheers greeted it, and we Tennes- seeans stepped more briskly on our native soil. On the 23d we guarded the supply train. On the 27th reached Columbia, and on the 28th two corps, Cheat- ham's and Stewart's, crossed Duck River on a pon- toon, six miles above Columbia and marched by dirt road to Spring Hill. Part of the way the road ap- proached so near the pike, on which the Federals were moving, that flankers had to be thrown out, who skirmished with the Federal flankers. We reached Spring Hill, twenty miles, about sundown, and found our advanced troops engaged with a small force of the enemy, in a short line of rifle pits. By some mis- understanding among the generals no attack was made, and night closed in upon us. All through the early part of the night the Federals could be heard passing along the pike only a few hundred yards away. Lieut. N. C. Howard says that he was standing near Generals Hood and Strahl and heard General Strahl say to General Hood: "If you will let me throw my brigade across the pike I will have those fellows in the morning or you may take these stars off my collar." General Hood replied in a tone too low for Lieutenant Howard to understand it.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
BATTLE OF FRANKLIN.
Early on the morning of November 30, 1864, we were put in motion on the pike and made a rapid march of ten miles, and by noon reached the hills two miles south of Franklin. It was 5 o'clock p. m. before all the troops had arrived and been placed in position. Cleburne's Division was immediately on the right of the pike and Cheatham's on the left, in two lines. Other divisions extending far to the right and left. Strahl's Brigade was in the second line with our (con- solidated) regiment next to the pike.
The fearless General Cheatham was in command of the corps, and when he issued General Hood's order to advance, he shed tears and said : "It is a mistake, and it is no comfort to me to say we are not responsi- ble." The long lines of infantry moved steadily and grandly forward through the open fields, with the precision of trained soldiers on parade. The band of the Fifth struck up "Dixie," and one of Cleburne's the "Bonnie Blue Flag," and for once, and only once, we went into battle cheered by the sound of martial music. It was the grandest sight I ever beheld.
A battery went galloping up the pike, and, turning aside, unlimbered on a little knoll and opened fire, as the infantry passed, limbering up and advancing again. The enemy's main line was posted in substan- tial breastworks, which circled around the edge of the town, reaching from the Harpeth River above to the
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river below. Four or five hundred yards in front of this was a line of advanced works, extending for some distance to the left of the pike, and occupied by a line of infantry. These opened fire on our front line as soon as it came within range. Cheatham's first line hardly took time to return the fire, but raised the "rebel yell" and charged at double-quick. When the Federals saw them nearing the rifle pits without any sign of halting, they abandoned their defenses and fled toward the second line of intrenchments. Soon after we passed the first line of rifle pits, Capt. B. F. Pee- ples said to the writer : "Look how thick the Yankees are coming." I replied : "But they are unarmed, Captain." He took a second look, and said: "That's so." The charging Tennesseeans had overtaken many of them, demanded their surrender, ordered them to throw down their arms and started them to the rear. The fear of being killed or wounded by the fire of their own men lent wings to their feet, and they rushed through our ranks wherever they could find an open- ing.
By this time our lines had become broken, and the men rushed onward regardless of order, converging toward the pike till they became solid masses, all anxious to reach, as soon as possible, the breastworks, where their comrades were engaged in a hand-to-hand fight. The first men of our front line reached the works, and fought their foes across them, others reaching the ditch in front scrambled across it, and fell down exhausted and out of breath. Others, as they came up, followed their example, till they soon extended several yards wide along the outer side of
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the works. When the Federals saw the second line of Confederates (or, more properly, masses of men) approaching, they abandoned the position in our im- mediate front. Ensign -. -. Flowers of the Fourth mounted the parapet and waved his flag. W. D. Street, Seth Speight, Jeff Olive and a few others of the bravest spirits crossed the entrenchment and ad- vanced a few yards, but finding themselves almost sur- rounded by Federals and facing a deadly hail of min- nie balls they retired behind the entrenchment, but kept up a fire on the enemy. In vain did the officers urge the men on to cross the breastworks; they were too nearly exhausted and the fire was too deadly even for the bravest to face.
Just across the pike, about thirty yards away, the works obliqued slightly to the front, and just in their rear stood a large cotton gin. A heavy force of Feder- als was posted in this building, thus making the strength of the defending force much greater here than elsewhere. The heavy firing from both the works and cotton gin, supplemented by a battery, rendered it utterly impossible for Cleburne's Division to carry the position, though composed of as brave men as were ever enlisted. Many of this heroic band, including their indomitable Irish leader, went down before the murderous fire, grape and canister aiding the rifles in the deadly work. Those who escaped finally re- tired. This heavy force then turned their fire upon Cheatham's Division, across the pike. Those who were nearest the works fired at the Federals wherever seen and passed their guns back to their comrades to be reloaded. General Strahl and other officers as-
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sisted in passing the guns back and forth. General Strahl was severely wounded, and while some of his men were trying to remove him, was struck in the head by a minnie ball and killed.
A braver or more gallant or chivalric man never poured out his blood in his country's cause. For three or four hours the brave men of Cheatham's Division fought in the face of death. Seeing their comrades killed or wounded in great numbers, those that had escaped the
deadly fire began, singly and in groups, to seek safety in the rear, until after awhile most of them were gone.
BRIG .- GEN. O. F. STRAHL.
When the writer saw that all the men able to travel, on his right, front and rear, and many to his left, were gone, he, too, thought it time to seek safety in flight. The enemy in and around the cotton gin were firing heavy volleys at every man, and group of men, whom they could dis- cern in the smoky moonlight. Watching for a lull in
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the firing, I started at a rapid gait, but had not gone more than fifty yards before one of the heaviest vol- leys was fired, and the whizzing balls flew thicker than I had ever heard them. My speed was increased to the highest possible limit, but several more volleys were fired before reaching the enemy's first line of works, to say nothing of the continued whirr of min- nies in lesser numbers. Reaching the rifle pits, I fell over the embankment utterly exhausted. How any one could escape in such a hail of rifle balls is most wonderful. The god of battles only could direct the steps of anyone safely through such death-dealing mis- siles. Others had similar experiences. The enemy evacuated the works and town before morning, and retired to Nashville. Some of the Confederates who had remained close under the protection of the breast- works, when the firing ceased, crept out and cau- tiously followed them through the town.
Next morning we found the dead lying so thick that we could have walked on them without stepping on the ground, a sight I never saw elsewhere. Ex-Gov- ernor Porter says: "I looked down upon the up- turned faces of 1,000 dead Tennesseeans." Our killed were, W. J. Edgar and W. W. Ridgeway. Lieut. N. C. Howard, W. D. Hendricks, -. -. Ellis and others were wounded. The writer found himself the only one of his original company present for duty. Cap- tain Johnston and Lieutenant Marsh of General Strahl's staff were killed on their horses as they rode up to the works. Franklin was the Gettysburg of the West.
We spent the day after the battle in burying the'
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dead and caring for the wounded. On the second day we buried the Federal dead, and at 9 a. m. took up our line of march toward Nashville, marching seven- teen miles.
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CHAPTER XIX.
BATTLE OF NASHVILLE.
From December 3 to 15 we remained in front of - Nashville fortifying, picketing and moving from place to place. Part of the time the weather was quite se- vere, with a smart fall of snow, and as wood was scarce we suffered a good deal with cold. We burned Mrs. Aaron V. Brown's cedar rails that cost Governor Brown 10 cents each. At first our rations were quite short and rather rough, but later on the Nash- ville & Decatur Railroad, having been patched up and some captured trains brought into use, they became better. The enemy annoyed us a good deal by almost continual shelling.
December 15 the enemy turned our left flank by passing between it and the river, and on the night fol- lowing General Hood retired to a new line across the Franklin and Granny White pikes and fortified it. This line stretched across open cornfields to a ridge on the left, and then turned back almost at right angles along this ridge. About a quarter of a mile from this angle, in a depression of the ridge, the remnant of Strahl's Brigade was posted. It was now in command of Col. A. J. Kellar of the Fourth Tennessee, and Lieut .- Col. L. W. Finley of the Fourth commanded the consolidated regiment.
The writer was put in charge of the regimental picket line about daylight, and was posted in some woodland about 200 yards in front of the fortified line
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and protected ourselves by trees and such other ob- jects as were available. The enemy drove back our cavalry on the extreme left, and we could tell by the sound of the firing that they were gradually getting into our rear.
They concentrated an artillery fire on the breast- works occupied by Finley's Florida Brigade and partly demolished them, driving the men out, and then about 4 p. m. charged with several lines of bat- tle. The other troops, seeing Finley's troops were falling back, lifted from the works and streamed across the fields, intent only on making sure that they would not spend the winter in a Federal prison. The pickets to our right were driven in, and as we were thus flanked on both sides, I ordered the picket line to retire. As I mounted the breastworks and looked across the valley and noted that as far as I could see our troops were in retreat, I said to Capt. B. F. Pee- ples, who I met just behind the works: "If you ever expect to get out of here, it is time you were going. Look yonder," pointing to the fleeing Confederates. He glanced in the direction indicated and ordered a retreat. At the same time Lietuenant-Colonel Fin- ley's attention was called to the situation and ordered the regiment to retire. And now began a race for liberty between the enclosing wings of the Federals. The ground was just thawing out of a smart freeze, and the sticky mud which, with the crabgrass, ad- hered to our shoes and soon loaded us as with weights, and fast progress was impossible, and so ever and anon we had to stop and kick off these impediments. To avoid a high ridge in our rear it was necessary to
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take such a direction as brought us continually nearer the pursuing enemy in converging lines. Soon the foremost of our pursuers came within range of the fleeing Confederates and they kept up a desultory fire on them as they ran. Some of the bolder Confederates would occasionally stop and fire back at them and then continue their retreat. We soon came to a gap in the ridge, through which ran a road, and through this gap the demoralized Confederates poured to the rear. Lieutenant-Colonel Finley took a stand in the gap, and, with pistol in hand, tried, by ordering and threatening, to induce the men to halt and make a stand, but the sound of rifles coming nearer and nearer to the line of retreat, rendered it impossible to en- thuse any but the bravest, and soon it was found best to resume the retreat: The road we were traveling led into the pike at an acute angle, but upon nearing this point it was found that the rear of those troops using the pike as a line of retreat was just passing and a Federal battery was throwing shells into the fleeing fugitives, and so we had to change our direction and enter the pike further on. Night soon closed in upon us, and after marching a few miles the different com- mands began to halt and bivouac, the passing men con- tinually calling out : "Where is such and such a divi- sion?" or "Such and such a brigade?" By this means they were most of them able to locate their commands. Next morning as the march was resumed it was a sad sight to see how few men formed on the colors of the different regiments. Our loss was mainly confined to missing, but they comprised about half the regiment. Joe J. Adams of the One Hundred and Fifty-Fourth
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Tennessee relates that the prisoners were huddled in an old rock quarry at Nashville, without protec- tion or wood in a freezing rain, and next morning him- self and twenty-one others, with frozen hands and feet, had to be hauled to the penitentiary on wagons.
At Columbia General Hood organized a provisional division under Gen. John C. Brown as a rearguard to assist General Forrest. No higher compliment could be paid to Henry County's gallant soldiery that that both the Fifth and Forty-Sixth Tennessee were se- lected to form part of this heroic band, that day and night stood as a stone wall between the remnant of Hood's army and their victorious pursuers. Several times they halted, faced the enemy and dealt him a blow that caused him to recoil and be careful how he ventured too near these tried and true soldiers of a "Lost Cause." General Brown's report speaks in the highest praise of their bravery, endurance, discipline and patience in suffering.
8
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CHAPTER XX.
THE CONFEDERACY'S COLLAPSE.
We reached Corinth, Miss., on our retreat from Ten- nessee January 2, 1865. We found Lieut. J. L. Le- monds awaiting us with wagon loads of clothing, etc. which he had collected in Henry County for us. As the boxes were opened and the names of the fortunate ones were called out, many of us were made happy by the sight of warm clothing, so sadly needed, and made doubly valuable because we knew that the hands of loved mothers, sisters and wives had toiled to pre- pare it for us. But some who were less fortunate looked on with longing, if not with envious eyes.
Nearly all the West Tennessee soldiers were granted thirty days' furlough, and in groups, small and large, we turned our steps homeward. The country through which we passed had so long been in an unsettled con- dition, and been held alternately by both belligerents, that we were often at a loss to know whether those we met were friends or foes. However, we failed to meet any bushwhackers, and all reached home safely. Here we met a royal reception and were treated like lords. Dinners and parties were the order of the day, and mothers, sisters and sweethearts vied with each other in making our stay pleasant. But, alas! all earthly pleasure must have an end, and all too soon we must turn our faces toward the post of duty and say farewell to loved ones. So, some on foot and some on such ponies as our relatives and friends
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could furnish us, we started for our place of rendez- vous (West Point, Miss. ).
Some thought the fate of the Confederacy already sealed and remained at home. Thirty or forty assem- bled at Corinth, and, finding that the army had gone to North Carolina, returned home. Others stopped with Forrest's Cavalry, in Mississippi. Others still pushed on to join our comrades, who were again facing our old enemies under Sherman. We went by rail to Selma, by steamer to Montgomery, by rail to Sparta, Ga., walked to Barnett, and by rail to Augusta. A "camp detention" had been formed at Hamburg, S. C., of which John R. Peeples was adjutant. Here we were organized into provisional companies and regi- ments for discipline, convenience in issuing rations and for order in marching, and a sufficiency of officers assigned to these. Capt. B. F. Peeples commanded a company and the other officers of the Fifth were supernumeraries.
The "provisional brigade" marched from Hamburg to Chester and again boarded the cars, going to Ral- eigh, and at Smithville rejoined the army and rejoiced to find it again under Gen. Joe Johnston, who was re- treating, still followed by his old foe, General Sher- man. We continued to retreat to Greensboro, and here we were permanently consolidated with other commands under a general law recently enacted by the Confederate Congress. The Fourth and Fifth Regiments formed one company. The captain and sec- ond lieutenant were selected from the Fourth, and First Lieut. A. W. Sidebottom from the Fifth, the latter being technically the last officer of the old regi-
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ment. Lieutenant Sidebottom was returning from prison and did not reach the regiment in time to as- sume command. But the doom of the Confederacy was already sealed, and as Sherman and Grant closed in around the outnumbered, but still unconquered, remnant of the Army of Tennessee, reinforced by the coast garrisons, General Johnston saw the futility of further resistance and surrendered his army.
I have never witnessed such a scene as that which presented itself, when it became fully known that we were to lay down our arms. All phases of human feel- ing were exhibited. Some raved and swore that they would never submit to it. Some paced back and forth like caged lions. Some seated themselves on logs and buried their faces in their hands. Some wept like children, and the faces of others took on a look of stolid and stoical submission, and others still looked on at this unusual exhibition of emotions with feel- ings of wonder and astonishment.
Of the 1,300 men who followed the flag of the regi- ment to the front only thirty stood under its folds at the last sad scene of all. We were glad that our colors had never been captured, and we felt that our fallen comrades who had shed their blood on fifteen battle- fields and numerous skirmishes were at least spared the mortification of seeing it surrendered to the foe who had never been able to capture it on the battle- field. The following are the names of the fortunate ones who had lived to share all the regiment's cam- paigns :
Capt. B. F. Peeples, Company "I."
Adjutant W. D. Kendall.
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Ensign John W. Crutchfield.
First Lieut. S. W. Alexander, Company "E." First Lieut. James P. Tyler, Company "K." Second Lieut. N. C. Howard, Company "A."
Second Lieut. Thomas C. Neal, Company "B."
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