USA > Tennessee > The Annals of the Army of Tennessee and early western history, including a chronological summary of battles and engagements in the western armies of the Confederacy > Part 21
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south by a minnie bullet, leaving the command half uttered, but un- derstood.
Affairs on the hill to the left of the pike were not progressing so favor- ibly. The battery ordered to this spot had the misfortune to unlimber n short range of a concealed force of the enemy, and in a few minutes was badly cut up and forced to withdraw with the loss of its comman- der, and also of that splendid officer, Captain Newsom, of the sup- porting company. Whereupon Company K, of the Second Tennes- ste, nearest the place, was hastily ordered up the hill in support, where it found a scene of no little confusion, consequent on the ina- bility of the artillerists to hold their ground. But, at this juncture, a rattling volley over in the woods to the right, and an unmistakable "rebel yell," told that Preston Smith's gallant Brigade was perform- ing its allotted task. A general advance of the whole line was now made and swept the field with little resistance. The charge of Smith's . Brigade on the right had left nothing for the rest to do, and the first combat had been won with a trifling loss among the rank and file, but severe among the officers. As related before, General Cleburne had been disabled by a painful wound in the mouth at the moment of ad- vance. Colonel Fitzgerald, of the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Ten- nessee went into action with a presentiment of death, and fell at the first volley, though few of his men were hurt. His tragical fate caused a deep grief in his regiment and brigade. How Colonel Hill escaped, is a wonder. He sat on his horse in rear of Douglass' Bat- tery, and in a loud voice (which, by the way, was not a treble) com- mented on passing events, to the amusement of an in hearing. He omitted no opportunity to give the most favorable aspect to every turn of the wheel of fortune. This trait of the brave old soldier will be the last to fade from the memories of his comrades. Colonel Butler, of the Second Tennessee, was also conspicuous for His disregard of dan- ger, and, while the battle has paused. a pes and ink sketch of him may not be out of place here. He was a genuine soldier, and his ca- limitous death a few hours later alone p. Bien from taking high tank as a commander. Quick almost to: perception of those matters which affected the safety and efficiency tf is zegiment ; young, ardent and brave ; of a stalwart form, which could endure any amount of fatigue; of swarthy skin, gray eyes, and Black hair, with the Indian type of face in its angularity and wins of effeminacy ; thin lipped, and with a mouth wide enough to the ance to a clarion
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voice ; with a determined, impetuous stride in his gait; such wa John Butler, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Tennessee Regiment. He could have held his men bayonet to bayonet with his enemy, and at sea could have fought his ship yard-arm to yard-arm and muzzle to muzzle. Men yielded to him by a natural deference which was no: constrained or resentful of the influence. Though he seemed harsh a: times, it was only in the line of his duty, and the victim of his displea .. ure owned to its necessity. With his dearest friends he was as exact ing as with others. Shot through the brain at the Richmond Ceme- tery in his last charge, strong men wept over his fate while the stort: of battle still raged over and around them. In his death,
A ruined arch, A shivered bow, A broken sword, An oak laid low.
The Second Act in the Drama.
On the line lately held by the enemy, the Confederate array was es- tablished in the same order as in the first engagement; that is, Pres- ton Smith's Brigade on the right, and Cleburne's, now commanded by Colonel Ben. Hill, Churchill's and Ector's in succession to the left. The battle was not yet over. "Old Ben's" "Forward in line " could have been heard a mile, and, as the brigade cleared the fence into a: large blue grass field, the enemy's guns, this time on the alert, opened fire at the distance of nearly a mile. "Steady, men, and keep in line," was Colonel Butler's order to the Second Tennessee, and once he required time-movement in order to keep the men from crowding together while the artillery was playing on them. The day was hot. and the grass so dry that the men's feet slipped on an incline as if on ice. The enemy's guns were rapidly served, and fired, at first, with a good deal of accuracy. Balls struck in front of the line and bounded over or skimmed just above, unpleasantly near; but, as the line strode forward without halt or waver, the gunners became disconcerted and their aim grew wild ; and when at last the "rebel yell" was raised. and the men broke impetuously forward at a double quick, the battery hastily limbered up and disappeared from view. Not a shot had been. fired, and the brigade rose the slant with loud cheers, to find no enemy in sight in front. The movement had been embarrassed so little by hostile opposition or the nature of the ground, that Hill's line had per-
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formed the office of an entering wedge at the center, and now found a force of the enemy about five hundred yards to its left and rearward, ensconced behind a corn-field fence, and evidently watching the move- ments of Churchill's Brigade, at that instant bearing down upon its "ont. A rifle battery at its rear immediately turned its guns on Hill's line, and at the second fire lodged a solid shot about the head of the left company of the Second Tennessee, knocking down one man by concussion and filling another's face with dirt and gravel. The atmos- phere was so clear that the balls could be seen very readily in their flight, and this fact furnished a vindication to the writer, in which he felt no small exultation. At the first Battle of Manassas, he happened to catch sight of one of these missiles as it came over the regiment from a battery beyond Bull Run, and when he mentioned the fact, his comrades received the statement with such emphatic averments of dis- belief that he was really sorry he said any thing about it. Now he could see their blind and raise them several better.
The line of the enemy at the corn-field fence and the battery now began to have something to do at their front, and at this juncture Col- onel Hill detached Company K, of the Second Tennessee, to operate as skirmishers on their flank. The order was obeyed on the run, amid a wild excitement, as our adversaries now began to file off by regiments to the rear in pretty good order, under the direction of an officer who seemed to understand his business. The fire of the skirmishers was quite effective, but the appearance of Churchill, many of whose regiments were armed with double-barrelled shot-guns, on the other flank, threw them into confusion, which soon became a rout, as the several columns converged toward the pike for escape. Great havoc was made on the throng at this point, and a number of prisoners taken by an opportune charge of General Kirby Smith's escort. The fight now became a chase, and Company K pushed, with indiscreet ardor, far in advance of the main line, capturing prisoners and picking off individuals at every turn. At length it met, face to face, with a regiment of the en- emy's cavalry, and as this body showed no disposition to fly at a flash, it wisely concluded to keep on its own side of the high fence which separated the combatants. Company K now had another revelation, which shook its faith in its loudly expressed ability to "run rough-shod over the whole Yankee army." It was nothing more nor less than that of a large brigade of the enemy which was seen filing off to the rear no great ways from its right flank. A fine view of the feld was ob-
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tained from this advanced position, showing that the enemy had heavy forces still intact. The line in front of Hill had withdrawn with the artillery from a good position behind a fence, whence it might have inflicted great damage on him as he advanced through the open field. This force still kept its organization, but was, doubtless, shaken some- what in morale. The failure of the enemy, thus far, to make a firmy stand, was due to the rapid, bewildering movements of the Confeder- ate commander, whose coup sur coup left the enemy no time for a de- liberate arrangement of his line. His plan was quickly taken on a rapid survey of the field, and the details were carried out without balk or hesitation in any of its parts. He was, without question, possessed of the qualities which make the successful general, and we challenge the records of this war to produce finer strategy or better tactical exe- cution than his Kentucky campaign affords.
The Third Act in the Drama.
Prata arida sunt. While exultation filled every breast, and the re- sults, thus far, were glorious, the battle was yet to be won at the cost of many noble lives. Colonel Butler remarked to the writer, as we marched along together, that the hardest fighting was yet to come. The tone of seriousness with which he uttered these words arrested my attention at the time, and seemed prophetic of his own sad fate a half hour later.
A quantity of quartermaster stores had fallen into our hands in these engagements, but there was little plundering by the men, many of whom were barefoot and ragged ; however, they deserved no credit for this, as the captured material was quickly taken possession of by staff-officers. who sternly ordered off any applicant who was not en regle. A tow- headed captain ordered "Vieux Seconde" away from a pile of shoes and commanded him to report to General Kirby Smith under arrest the next day, because he protested against the act and exhibited his shoe- less foot in substantiation of his crying need. But, while this parley was going on, it was fun to see Prince Polignac tugging at different pairs of boots for a fit. The prince had a princely foot in length and of a peculiar shape, and we doubt whether he got fitted, as we saw him riding into the thickest of the fight at the meadow with the same old pair on.
So, then, there was no regimental disorganization for the purpose of plunder, and, consequently, no time was lost in arranging the advance
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upon the enemy, who had now taken up a good position in the suburbs of Richmond, selected by General Nelson, who had arrived with rein- forcements. The Confederate order of battle was the same as in the preceding engagements. Hill advanced in, column along the turn- pike until he reached an elevation to the right of the road and five or six hundred yards from the enemy, who was posted in the cemetery and along a plank fence overlooking a shallow valley, through which the road bore to the right to enter the town. Two or three trees, some stacks of hay next the cemetery, two fences and a slight em- bankment of the road, afforded the only shelter to the attacking force. At the elevation above-mentioned, Colonel Hill filed to the right, and, as the last man cleared the road, he gave command, in a loud voice, "By the left flank," which threw the brigade in line of battle fronting the enemy. No halt was made to rectify allignment, and the unfortu- nate movement began at once under the fire of artillery and musketry. General Kirby Smith, who had preceded this brigade and personally inspected the enemy's position, sat on his horse, amid the flying mis- siles, and watched the action. The advance was splendid and inspir- ing in the extreme ; and the bearing of the men, striding, without halt or waver, adown the grassy slope, the list of victims swelling at every step, was truly sublime; for such is the nature of an action which casts life itself into the scale against death and leaves the issue to fate.
Cleburne's Brigade, at this time, consisted of the following regi- ments, in order from right to left, viz. : Fifteenth Arkansas, Forty- eighth, Thirty-fifth and Second Tennessee regiments, numbering, probably, twelve hundred (1,200) muskets. The left company (K) of the Second Tennessee was doing duty and hotly engaged as skirmish- ers at the toll-gate. Colonel Butler, in his shirt-sleeves, and with a silk handkerchief suspended from his neck, rode at the heels of his regiment, mounted on a beautiful sorrel mare. Near him was his fiery adjutant, Wm. Hale, a man after his own heart and fit coadjutor for the bloody work at hand. On the left rode Major Wm. Driver, animated with the spirit of the occasion. At every step the fire in- creased, and by the time the fence was reached, a converging flame of wrath was being poured into the devoted little brigade from every available quarter of the enemy's lines. This fence was crossed, then the embankment of the road, and then the opposite fence, and not a man, save the wounded, had sought their shelter. Over into the meadow the line leaped with a common impulse, and here Death set
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deepest his sickle into the ranks of lusty life and reaped his riches: harvest. Up the slope the battle was pushed against the fearful odds until the place was thick with the dead and wounded. At last the dec- imated line could go no farther, and threw itself on the ground to escape utter destruction, but still plying its rifles. By this time the lion-hearted Butler had fallen with a shot through the brain, and his clarion voice was stilled forever; Captain Dennison, of Company D, Captain Wynne, of Company E, Lieutenant Watt Wendell, of Company A, Lieutenants Barksdale and Sutherland, of Company H, of his officers. lay dead and dying on the field with him, and Lieutenant Sindel, of Company I, and others, whose names are not remembered, had re- ceived disabling wounds. In the line, a large number of the best and bravest of the men had fallen ..
In the course of a few minutes, more than half of the line was hors du combat. Some haystacks on the right and a few trees on the left afforded a little uncertain shelter, while the dead and the wounded were repeatedly struck by the pitiless hail which still swept over the field.
The enemy had been driven, without halting, from the cemetery, a very strong position to the rightward, but still lay in heavy force along the plank fence at the front. At this supreme moment, when endu- rance seemed to have reached its hardest test, Colonel Hill dashed across the field to the left, running the gauntlet of fire from the ceme- tery and the main line, and bore the news of the distressed condition of his brigade to General Churchill, with a request for him to move forward at once. General Churchill instantly ordered the movement. and soon a rattle of musketry and the dear, old rebel yell were heard on the left, and at the next instant the gallant Texans and Arkansians emerged from the woods and closed in on the enemy at a double-quick. To the remnant of Cleburne's Brig- ade, we dare say. these were the sweetest sounds to which it had ever listened, for they told of a rescue from almost certain death. Up, with a new defiance and yell of vengeance, it arose and charged the fence. The enemy gave way, pell-mell, along the entire front. and the agony was over. General Nelson sabred his men, in a vain attempt to make them stand, until he was finally wounded by Jimmy Blackmore, of Company I, Second Tennessee, when he quit the field, and, with difficulty, made his escape.
It is singular fortune that nearly the entire loss of General Smith's
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army should fall upon Cleburne's Brigade, which had already been greatly reduced by heavy losses at Shiloh. All of the movements of General Smith were admirably timed, except the attack by this brigade in the last engagement. Ten minutes farther delay on its part would have enabled Preston Smith, on the right, and Churchill, on the left, to have taken the enemy in flank, and thus it would have escaped the terrible and undiverted fire which it caught on front and flank. On equal terms, no force of the enemy could have withstood its ardor on that day, flushed, as it was, with two easily won victories. From Gen- eral Cleburne down, its officers could not be surpassed in the Confed- erate Army for bravery. Colonel Butler could have held his regiment under fire as long as there was a man left, and he had the support of some excellent line officers, while the men, in pluck and spirit, were equal to any. In recalling the events of this battle, and comparing it with other engagements of the war, I feel willing to assert that the bearing of Cleburne's Brigade in the three engagements on this day · was not surpassed on any of the great historic fields of the Confed- cracy ; nay, more, I express my candid belief that there were few brigades which could have been scorched in the fiery furnace of battle and held there as this one was, without flinching or yielding the field.
Soldiers were rarely cheered by such examples as these men had in the conduct of most of their officers. Colonel Hill, for instance, rode along with the line, and his words of cheer could have been heard far into the enemy's line. Even in the fatal meadow his voice boomed like a big gun with such expressions as these : "Talk about conquer- ing such men as these! We can whip the whole world full of Yan- kees." These he would deliver point blank at the enemy, as if they were so many missiles of offense, like hot shot or quarter second bombs. Fortune favored the brave in his case. Although his horse was wounded and his clothing was cut by balls, he was not sufficiently disabled to make him relinquish command.
It was the writer's fortune to occupy a position to the left of the brigade, and he saw, as soon as it was faced to the enemy and started forward, that it was devoted to a terrible sacrifice; but its steady, un- broken stride into the vortex of battle was the grandest, the most im- posing spectacle that humanity, with its sentient flesh and blood envi- ronments, could furnish. I dare say all battles have this aspect to the spectator, but to the writer, who saw his comrades and friends giving their bodies to the battle and melting away beneath its merciless
VOL. I, NO. V .- 2.
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strokes, it was eminently a scene calculated to awaken the strongest emotions of the human breast, and thrill the heart even now with its moving recollections.
This is becoming a most, personal narrative; but "my heart is in the coffin there with Cæsar," and I crave the indulgence of the reader for lingering so long at the graves of these men and mingling praises and laments over their immortal shrines. But who has told of them or asked from the living the tribute of a tear to their memories ?
After the Battle.
"Prata satis bibunt." The little meadow adjoining the cemetery, which had drunk so much precious blood, was now the very picture of desolating war. Of the bodies lying thick where the line had halted longest, some still survived. Captain Pat. Wynne, of Company E, a splendid specimen of physical manhood, lay on his face, while his chest heaved violently for air. Blood was trickling from his mouth and a wound in the side, and by the great pool in which he lay, we knew that the vital current had been tapped at the fountain, and that " Big Pat." would soon be no more. He had enlisted with Company K, and after the return from Virginia, was made Captain of Company E. The disasters at Fishing Creek and Donelson so preyed upon his mind that he became despondent and his conversation was filled with the gloomiest forebodings. Up to that time, he was the soul of the regiment, and his ready wit' and geniality always drew around him a circle of attentive listeners. He claimed to have belonged to the Brit- ish Cavalry, and to have served in the Sepoy Rebellion in India, where he received a sabre-cut on the cheek; at any rate, he handled the broad-sword with skill and grace. Where Company H fought, lay two of its Lieutenants-Barksdale and Sutherland. Of these two young men, words of praise are insufficient to convey a proper estimate of their worth ; in the hearts of their comrades there is a sorrow for their un- timely fall which time can never heal. And so of all the noble spirits whose bodies strewed this bloody field ! Their memories will be held in sacred trust as long as a member of Cleburne's old Brigade survives to tell the story of Richmond, and then Tradition will carry along their story of valor, and History, Poetry and Romance will give elo- quent tongue to the blood that watered this thirsty plain.
To me the agony of the day was yet to come. Some one said, in a subdued voice, that Colonel Butler was among the killed. The reve-
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lation came like a thunder clap. I glanced to where his stalwart form lay still in death. Tears of bitterest anguish gushed from my eyes, and I turned from the gory field to see it no more. "Prata satis biberat." The meadows had drunk of the blood of nearly two-thirds of the men of the Second Tennessee, while the rest of the brigade had suffered heavily enough. The splendid victory had a dear atonement.
The results of the battle are told in a few words. Nearly five thous- and (5,000) prisoners, some artillery, and a quantity of army stores, were among the fruits of the victory, and Central Kentucky, as far as Louisville and Covington, was freed by this single stroke of war from the presence of Federal troops. It was the completest victory of the war in every respect. General Smith, at the beginning of the battle, had sent Colonels Scott and Starnes with the cavalry to gain the enemy's rear beyond Richmond, and this mission they performed with brilliant success, capturing nearly all of the enemy who had made their escape from the battle-field. VIEUX SECONDE.
EX-PRESIDENT DAVIS.
His Reply to Colonel Colyar's Article-He learns for the first time of the Secret Action of the House of Representatives-Expressions of his Sentiments upon the Propriety and Legality thereof.
Dr. E. L. Drake -- My Dear Sir :---
I HAVE received your courteous letter of the 9th ult., and also the July number of THE ANNALS OF THE ARMY OF TENNESSEE. In regard to the article by Colonel A. S. Colyar, and the introduction connected with it, I can only say that the representations made of the opinions of General Lee do not accord with the full, and, I must be- lieve, frank conversations he held with me about the period referred to by Colonel Colyar.
Of the proceedings in secret session, I have no knowledge; but must express my surprise that the Congress, should have held such de- liberations, and concealed their action from the Executive, who had a right to expect their co-operation in his efforts to save the people, whom they and he alike represented; or that the House of Repre- sentatives should assume to itself the appointing power, which the Constitution vested in the Executive and Senate. As to the rest,
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which puts me in the attitude of staying proceedings directory of my conduct as Executive, by assurance of compliance with the will of the House, even as to the persons to be appointed, I will say that it is utterly unwarranted by anything I ever said or thought.
The incentive to the appointment of a peace commission at that time was the assurance by Mr. F. P. Blair, Sr., a confidential friend of President Lincoln, that if I would send such a commission it would be received by the Government at Washington. It is not to me surprising that Mr. Stephens did not, in his work, refer to the pro- ceedings described by Colonel Colyar, in connection with the account of the appointment of that commission, because I early conferred with Mr. Stephens on the subject of sending a commission, as well as in regard to the persons who should constitute it. Subsequently, after conferring with my Cabinet, I changed the personel of the commis- sion, and Mr. Stephens, not originally intended, was made one of them, not because he desired it, for the reverse was known to me to be the fact. It will be remembered that I had, on a previous occasion, sent Mr. Stephens on a mission to President Lincoln, especially in regard to prisoners of war, and that he had been refused permission to go to the Federal Capital. Like considerations to those which had caused me to select him on the first occasion prevailed on the second.
Colonel Colyar states that "great astonishment" was felt when, " for the first time, after the commissioners returned," the character of their instructions was learned by himself and others. One cogni- zant of the relations of the House of Representatives to the treaty- making power, would justly be astonished if the Executive were to communicate to the House of Representatives the instructions given to commissioners sent out for purposes of negotiation, before their mission was closed. But after the return of the commissioners, when for the first time it was consistent and proper, the instructions were communicated by the Executive to the two houses of Congress, and as they were very brief, covering little more space than Colonel Col- yar has employed in giving his interpretation of them, I will here in- sert them :
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