USA > Tennessee > History of the Twentieth Tennessee regiment volunteer infantry, C.S.A > Part 10
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We were finally armed with flint lock muskets that would ac- tually shoot (if it was not raining), and they always notified you when they did shoot. Thus armed, equipped, and fairly well drilled, we were put aboard the cars and ordered to Virginia. We passed through Nashville, and were halted long enough to enjoy a splendid dinner, furnished by the citizens and served at the Nashville Female Academy on Church Street near the Chat- tanooga Depot. We then proceeded on our way, stopping at Chattanooga to change cars, then on to Knoxville where we were laid over for some reasons for quite a while, during which time several of the boys got out in town and imbibed most too freely, and got into the guard house.
After everything was arranged we proceeded to Bristol, on the State line of Tennessee and Virginia, and there we received the tidings from the first battle of Manassas, which was a complete victory for the South. We remained a few days at Bristol, dur- ing which time we received our first regimental flag, presented
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH TENNESSEE REGIMENT
by the ladies of Nashville, Capt. A. S. Marks of the 17th Tenn- essee making the presentation speech.
We then boarded the cars and returned to Knoxville and 'camped near the Fair Grounds, and drilled energetically for several weeks.
The right wing of the Regiment was then ordered to Jacks- boro under Col. Battle and Lieut. Col. Moscow Carter ; the left wing remained for a short time at Knoxville, and then started on our first march to join the right wing at Jacksboro, and such a march as we made of it ; as we were going to Jacksboro, we seemed to have the idea that to "get there" was the proper thing to do, and every fellow started out his own way, regard- less of others. The result was that we were soon strung out along the road in squads of any small number ; company forma- tions were lost sight of entirely.
We started out in command of Major Pat Duffy, as gallant an Irishman as ever drew blade. It was on this march that the "grand old man " got a little too much of the " how come you so?" and was lost from the battalion - and also from his sword. Finally he came dashing up on "old roan " exclaiming : - " where in the h -- 1 is the battalion?"
We all reached Jacksboro however, though it was several days between first and last arrivals.
At this point we remained a short time, drilling, and detach- ments were sent out to blockade the mountain passes leading north into Kentucky, and nearly every day we marched through Jacksboro back and forth, our field band playing the " Bob Tail Hoss." Who that was along fails to recollect it ?
We were then ordered to Cumberland Gap, where we arrived one afternoon about five oclock, and were ordered to prepare three days rations, and be ready to move at nine oclock that evening. We marched promptly at the hour, most of us very tired and sleepy. We were starting on our first campaign. We passed through the Gap over Big and Little Log Mountains, and about ten oclock next morning reached Cumberland Ford, the most completely exhausted set of men imaginable. W. E. Brothers was several times prevented from walking off bluffs on the lower side of the road by myself. W. E. Brothers was sound alseep, walking along the road.
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When within a few miles of our destination, Col. Battle or- dered a halt for a few moments saying : - " We must rest a little." We dropped down on the upper side of the road under the shade of some trees. A low ledge of rocks cropped out under a sugar tree, and Brothers sat down on the ledge and leaned back on his knapsack, determined not to sleep, saying : - "twould be too bad to be roused up in a moment." This was about eight oclock in the morning. The next thing he was con- scious of was the rear guard of our wagon train passing by at five oclock in the afternoon. He had slept not changing his po- sition for about nine hours. He bestirred himself quickly and with all dilligence pursued his line of march, expecting to be court-martialed for sleeping in the face ofthe enemy. But when he reached camp he found all as sound asleep as he had been, and when they awoke, by making cautious inquiry, he learned he had not been missed. We remained here at Cumberland Ford ( Camp Buncker ), for some time, drilling, doing guard work, fortifying and picketing the surrounding mountains. We had a false alarm here that excited us very much, and after it was over and we were back in camp, the boys commenced to tell ludicrous yarns on each other which resulted in a number of fisticuffs.
Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer being in command, sent a detach- ment to Barboursville, Ky. under command of Col. Battle. Sev- eral hundred of the enemy were reported stationed there. He had little trouble in dispersing them, killing - an old sow - and losing one man, Lieut. Powell of the 19th Tennessee. We were doing outpost duty now, and made other similar expeditions into the enemy's country ; one to Goose Creek Salt Works. We got the salt, but had no fight.
While stationed here we had quite a number of boys to join us from home as recruits, and our small company was now quite a large one, and had more men for duty than ever before or afterwards. Zollicoffer made the campaign from here against Wild Cat. We passad through Barboursville and London, and after passing London, our advance guard commenced firing, our regiment double-quicked to the right, formed and moved for- ward, but in the timber we made some little confusion in our . line, which caused Col. Battle to scold at us. He said we were
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"excited." This proved to be a false alarm. Next morning we continued to move along cautiously and after a while our skirmishers struck the enemy's pickets and fired into them, kill- ing one man and driving the rest. It was here we saw our first victim of the batte field, and of all who saw him and are yet liv- ing, I suppose not one has forgotten him. He was dressed in citizen's clothes, apparently about twenty-five or twenty-eight years old. He was laid out beside the road, and the boys all showed a disposition to take the other side.
The next morning we moved forward early and were soon within hearing distance of the firing. Company B, under Capt. Wm. Clark was placed on the mountain top and opened up with a heavy volley. Col. Battle now changed his front to meet the expected danger, placing his line near and parallel with the road. The skirmishing continued in our front for a while, but while we were under the skirmish fire and heard many bullets, none of our regiment saw a Yankee, with the exception of Company B, except the dead one the day before ; nor did we lose a man.
Some of the regiments met with some casualities, the 11th Tennessee Regiment having some losses. We dropped back to our encampment of the previous night, gave up the job as a fail- ure and made our way, undisturbed, back to our position at Cumberland Ford. .
A laughable incident occured just before the Yankee picket was killed. The country abounded in summer grapes, which were very palatable. The vines extended from the ground very high before reaching the limbs, and every man that could get hold of the vine would do so, and by a united pull would bring down the grapes. Now just before the picket was killed we were marching through a lane; a cedar tree grew in the fence corner with low limbs, and they were loaded with grapes, but the suspense of the battle was on us, and yet we wondered that no one had plucked a grape. Just as Company E was passing, Segt. Mark Sanders, who could always be depended on to break the record, darted in, saying that was his opportunity, and in he went and out he came instanter, with a swarm of hornets around his head. He darted in and out the files swapping his hornets off, causing quite a disturbance in the ranks. We all now understood why the grapes had been unmolested.
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RALPH J. NEAL, Co. E. See page 436.
SERGT. W. W. BATEY, Co. E. See page 437.
W. A. HAMILTON, Co. E. See page 438.
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J. K. P. RIDLEY, Co. E. See page 438.
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We remained at Cumberland Ford only a short time, when we came south through Cumberland Gap, turning westward along the south side of the mountains, passed through Wartburg, Montgomery and other small places to Jimtown in Fentress Co., Tennessee. We remained here only one night, but it was a memorable one. Some of the boys had met with the oppor- tunity of getting their canteens filled with "Pine Top" - a liquid beverage peculiar to that section that was never known to contribute to the discipline of the Military; they made night hideous, some of their utterances are historical with Company B yet. Wild Cat Wild Cat. Some of the best boys (W. B. San- ders and myself, for instance ) got forty-eight hours extra duty for their jubilee. I did not mind the extra duty at all, but the lecture that Col. Battle gave me was the worst whipping I ever had.
We continued our march through Monticello, Ky., when one of Company E stole an old negro's hound pup. The negro fol- lowed us up, found his pup, but the soldier refused to give it up, claiming that "he found it." The negro appealed. to Col. Bat- tle, who restored the pup and had the soldier put under guard. The soldier, who was full of "Pine Top," crawled under the back of the tent and escaped to his mess. He was quite wrathy, and said " that he stole a hound pup and that Col. Battle had treated him worse than a dog." We continued our march until we reached Mill Springs, Ky., where we camped on the south. side of Cumberland River until flat boats could be built, on which we crossed.
One morning we were formed early, thirty men were to be picked from each company to cross the river, as we supposed, to do some desperate fighting ; we had not time to get breakfast, but marched to the river, crossed over, and were put to work on the road. Imagine our disgust, - the idea was foreign to us, - picked men to work the road, when we considered ourselves the flower of our company and regiment. However, we soon found the Yankees were not near, and then a spectator would have thought we were "picked " to " play off " which we did all the day long. We left camp without breakfast ; no dinner came, and the growling grew louder ; night came on and no supper, and we were getting desperate - being picked men.
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The officers reported the Yanks coming and tried to make us build breast-works, but we declined to work. Lieut. Albert Roberts did his best, the boys would drop down and go to sleep and declined to be waked up. Roberts and some other officer drew their swords and charged down the line ; the boys hopped over the trenches and went to sleep on the other side. About this time Henry Ware came to W. E. Brothers and W. W. Batey and informed them that he had bought a bee stand, and that it was back a couple of hundred yards and was already open. The trio went back together, and not having eaten any- thing in thirty hours, eat honey as long as they wanted it, and then went a quarter of a mile to a spring and drank all the water they wanted, - and then they needed a doctor.
Next morning about two oclock our long-looked-for breakfast arrived, - the one we should have had the morning before. After despaching the breakfast, we scattered around outside of general view and slept till daylight ; our minds fully made up against volunteering as " picked " men again.
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After the army crossed the river we went into camp near by, and built works, and drilled and stood guard, etc. Every few days, a detachment would go out with wagons towards Somer- set for forage; occasionally the cavalry would report a little fight with the enemy's cavalry. In the meantime we built win- ter quarters, but never occupied them. It was a severe winter, mostly rainy weather.
On the 18th of January, 1862, we marched out of camp in the direction of Fishing Creek, on a dark night and a very muddy road. About daylight we formed our line of battle, our regi- ment and the 15th Mississippi forming the front line, the latter on the right and to the right of the road. As we advanced in this manner and when our regiment was about middle of a stalk field the 15th Mississippi was brought under a heavy fire, which they immediately returned and then charged. Col. Battle moved us by the right flank and then moved close up to the left of the 15th Mississippi, and we were in the battle under a terrific fire. We found the enemy in our front in an open field. We opened on them from a low ridge covered with scattering timber and under-growth ; the enemy retired under our fire from the field to a heavy woods. Both regiments (15th Mississippi and 20th
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Tennessee) now charged ; we went to within perhaps twenty or thirty feet of the fence bordering the wood, some of our men reached the fence and the slaughter was simply terrible. Col. Battle, seeing it was useless, ordered us to retire, the 15th Mis- sissippi retiring with us.
When we had re-crossed the field over which we had charged, ยท the enemy was already in our rear on the road, having come around our flank. We marched past them on a parellel road concealed by underbrush, regaining the road near where we first formed our line in the morning. There was little order or dis- cipline from there back to camp.
Many of our regiment and company failing to reach the road, kept down Fishing Creek to its mouth, and then down the Cum- berland River to camp. So close was the pursuit that many of our number passed inside of our works under the enemy's artill- ery fire. This was our first regular battle, and our company and regiment had suffered dreadfully ; it was reported afterwards that in killed, wounded, and captured we had lost forty per cent of the number engaged.
Of the casualities of Company E, Shelton Crosthwaite and Tom Griggs were killed. Capt. Gooch, J. P. Sanders, and R. J. Neal were severely wounded. S. W. Stanfield was wonnded and made prisoner. Our loss was much heavier but the_lapse of forty years has so dimmed the memory of the surviving mem- bers as to render them incapable of recalling more. Capt. Gooch was borne from the field to camp by W. T. Ridley and others. R. J. Neal was picked up by Frank C. Manier of Company E (who is now blind) ,and Jim Polk Edwards of Company E after having been rendered helpless by the loss of blood and carried out to the road, when Lieut. Mark S. Cockrell had him placed on a caisson and hauled to camp. Sanders fell into the hands of the enemy.
When we first received the enemy's fire they were over- shooting the Mississippi Regiment, and it was here Maj. Duffy lost his horse, "Old Roan," the bullet passing through his saddle bags and through the horse; in passing, the ball cut to pieces a pair of new socks some good lady had sent him from home, rendering them useless. When his horse fell he took off the saddle bags and trudged along with them with the rest of
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us; he was buttoning his over coat while the bullets were rattling amongst the corn-stalks, and together with the roar of guns and artillery some of the boys seemed a little nervous. The Major said, "Boys 'tis pretty rough but that is what we are here for." After reaching camp, the Major proceeded to ex- amine the contents of his saddle-bags, and on finding his socks demolished, he said, "he didn't mind losing his horse so much, but hated like the d --- 1 to lose his new socks."
The supposition has always been, that had the day been fair, or had we been armed with precussion guns, the result of that battle would have been far different. It rained nearly all the time and our "Flint Locks" would not fire. Our men lost much time in drawing loads from their guns, the powder having gotten wet in the rain. Many of them never fired a dozen shots. But to their credit, let it be said, - no set of men ever showed more courage on a battle field than the 20th showed at Fishing Cresk ; and the Yankees never forgot the lesson we taught them that day.
That night we abandoned our camp and crossed the river on the steam boat, Noble Ellis, all getting safely across by daylight, the boat was burned and we commenced our dismal retreat. Our wagons, ambulances, and artillery were all aban- doned. It was in the month of January, and raining nearly all the time. Without rations or shelter, we were forced to march to Gainsboro, Tenn., before we could hope for relief. We often afterwards met with disasters and privations, but never with anything equal to the retreat from Mill Springs to Gainsboro. Here we were met by steam boats from Nashville that brought us the much needed relief, and after having rested for a while we continued our retreat, passing through Lebanon and joining Gen. Albert Sydney Johnson's Army at Murfreesboro.
It was hard to convince Company E that it was right and best to abandon their homes and State to the enemy without a fight. After it was known the retreat would be continued South and the State left to the enemy, Col. Battle got Gov. Harris and Sec- retary of State, Gen. Whitthorne, to come around and make speeches, encouraging us all they could ; but the speeches were unnecessary, the men had not even hesitated, but they were sad indeed- At the conclusion of the speeches some one proposed
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"three cheers," but only a few tried to cheer, they were too sad.
The next morning, however, notwithstanding the sadness and gloom which hung thickly over the army, we formed, and to a man marched out, leaving home and all its endearments in the hands of the enemy. We passed through Shelbyville and Fay- etteville, Tenn., Athens and Decatur, Ala., and stopped a short while at Iuka, Miss., and then on to Burnsville, Miss., where we drew new Enfield Rifles, recently brought from England. This was indeed a proud day for the 20th Tennessee Regiment.
We were now as well armed as any troops in the army and felt like we could do as good fighting as the best. From Burns- ville we went to the front at Shiloh. We were now in Breckin- ridge's division, our brigade being in command of Col. W. S. Statham of the 15th Mississippi. On Sunday morning, April 6th, 1862, the battle was begun, Breckinridge in reserve. As we moved along, our advance driving the enemy rapidly before them, capturing their encampment and stores of every descrip- tion, we (the reserve) came to the place where the battle opened ; here we found our own men, the killed, wounded, and their attendants. A little further on, we came to where the enemy's line stood and received the Confederate charge. This showed where their lines had been, many of their wounded not yet cared for ; but sad as it all was we must proceed, for the bat tle was now raging. With our men steadily driving them, we passed through their camps, and found them just as they had left them to form their line of battle ; we moved to tlie right and started forward in the line of battle. We first came in contact with a mule lot, double staked with riders. We could not take time to tear down the fence, and had to climb it on both sides of the lot, and as we went over the second fence the enemy's skirm- ishers opened fire on us.
I don't think they hurt a man, but the climbing of the fence caused some confusion. We now charged, and in about one hundred yards we met the enemy on a thinly wooded ridge. After the first volley they dropped back to a deep ra- - vine parallel with our line, and right here was the slaughter for both sides. We halted, and it seemed a question of who could shoot quickest and best. We charged and they broke, and as they ran up the steep sides of the ravine, our men, at
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close range poured the fire into their backs and their loss was terrible ; many of them laid down in the ravine and did not attempt to escape.
We pursued them through the woods perhaps half a mile when they disappeared from our front ; then being short of ammunition, Col. Battle moved us back a short distance, we being at the time ahead of the line of battle, and re-formed his line ; this was an open woods fight. We now had Enfield rifles and the fight was quickly over, but our loss was terrible. Bob Peyton, Bunk Ridley, and Mclaughlin, who did not be- long really to our company but went into the fight with us, were killed. J. W. Crutcher was also killed. Wm. Vardell, John Neblett, J. T. Shelton, John Espey, Dan. Miller, and Lieut. East were amongst the wounded ; other casualties are not recalled. Wm. Vardell was shot through the head and left on the field for dead, but survived and was exchanged, and re- turned to the company at Vicksburg in the summer of 1862. But if our loss was heavy, that of the enemy was much more so. In the ravine from which we drove them, not one-half of them could possibly have escaped. The bottom of the ravine seemed to be literally piled with their dead. As we came into line and charged, the 45th Tennessee Regiment, coming up on our left, fired by mistake into the left wing of our regiment, and the loss to our left wing was considerably heavier than that of the right.
While the firing was at its heaviest, and the two lines about one hundred yards apart, a small herd of goats, led by a sedate old "billy " showed up about midway between. They did not last long, for when we charged the ravine there were only one or two of them left. The wonder is, why a soldier would shoot at a goat when so many of the enemy were present to shoot. We now moved a little to the left and forward again, reaching the top of another low wocded ridge, when Col. Statham rode in front, waved his sword and dashed forward. The line gave the yell and dashed forward wildly. The enemy had another camp in plain view where they had stacked their arms and surrendered, we never knew how many. They waved their caps and cheered us as we dashed through.
We were successful, and the elation of victory filled us for the
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time to overflowing, we thought the battle over. We passed through their tents a short distance, halted, re-formed our line and moved forward again, and when we saw them again they were re-forming their lines, and for some unaccountable reason to us, we stood there and watched them rally and re-form their lines, instead of dashing right into them while partially pan- icked, and making short work of it. We waited until they were ready, then an artilery duel began, the gun-boats on the river taking a hand. The roar of the cannon on both land and water, to- gether with the screaming and explosions of the shells was simply terrible, the counterpart of which we never witnessed again. But here we remained until after dark, and withdrew a short distance to pass a miserable night in line, for in addition to the sadness caused by the loss of so many comrades, bravest of the brave, and others were missing that we could not account for, either dead, wounded, or simply lost from the command in the confu- sion of battle, or the darkness of the night, it rained one big, hard, thunder storm after another the entire night, the gun- boats throwing their shells steadily all the while. Next mor- ning Apr. 7th, we were moved about several times, finally going forward to support a battery, and laid down, Company E, just on the edge of a woods, the left wing of the Company in the woods the right wing in the field. Here we had an artillery duel at close range, the enemy entirely in the woods with dense underbrush. At length we were ordered to charge through, and on we went like a storm, but we met with a warm reception. Our line was badly confused in struggling through the under- brush, briars and grapevines, and the enemy held their fire until we were close on them before they opened on us.
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'The smoke from their guns was blinding, and while we were right at them, we could not see one of them. Human nature could stand no more. Our men broke nor could we re-form at the battery ; we did re-form, however, about a quarter of a mile back in the woods, not by regiments or companies, but promiscuously, and as we were ready to move again, two regiments of re-enforcements came up, and we ad- vanced to re-take our battery. We would run from tree to tree and fire, getting nearer all the time, until the. enemy broke, and we held the line we had occupied early in the
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morning, having re-taken our battery and capturing several pieces from the enemy, which they had brought up. So far as we are aware the hard fighting at Shiloh was over, there was more fighting through the day but it was desultory.
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