USA > Tennessee > The military annals of Tennessee. Confederate. First series: embracing a review of military operations, with regimental histories and memorial rolls, V.1 > Part 36
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About this time the Eleventh Regiment was reenforced at the Gap by three other regiments under the command of Brigadier-general C. L. Stevenson, and in the early summer following we evacuated the post in consequence of a formidable flank movement to our rear by Federal forces under command of Gen. George W. Morgan. The Gap was immediately occupied by these forces, and the Confeder- ates retired south to the vicinity of Clinch Mountain, whence in August following, under Gen. C. L. Stevenson, with three brigades, we began a forward movement, and encountered and routed a Federal regiment-the advance-guard of the ene- muy, who were in force in the town of Tazewell-at Waldron's Ridge. In ascend- ing the mountain, or ridge, to engage in this fight, Lieut .- col. Gordon, command- ing the Eleventh Regiment (Col. Rains being in command of a brigade), preceded his command to the crest of the mountain to confer with the commander of an- other regiment that was in advance of him, and was captured by the enemy on his return to bring up his command. Gordon was captured by straggling forces of the Federals, who had been routed by the Confederates on our extreme left flank. Lieut. J. H. Johnson, of Company H, Eleventh Regiment, in search of Gordon with eighteen men, encountered forty-two of the enemy, and after a sharp fight succeeded in capturing the entire party. Gordon remained a prisoner about ten days, and was exchanged on the field for some of the officers and men capt- ured by Lient. Johnson. The Federals retired to their stronghold in Cumberland Gap, Gen. Stevenson pursuing, and investing the Gap on the south, while Gen. E. Kirby Smith made a movement in force to its rear. After Gen. Smith's vic-
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tory at Richmond, Ky., Gen. Morgan, in command of the Federal forces at the Gap, evacuated the place, Gen. Stevenson pursuing till it was obvious that Mor- gan could not be captured. We then joined the army of Gen. Bragg, at Harrods- burg, Ky .; thence we moved to Frankfort, whence we began a retrograde move- ment to Tennessee by way of Cumberland Gap, and arrived at Bean's Station, Tenn., the latter part of October, 1862. Though we did but little fighting ou this campaign, it was in some respects very severe, especially on account of forced marches. scarcity of commissary stores and quartermaster supplies. On our retreat we were three days without bread, and lived on the beef-cattle we had gathered in Kentucky. Some of the soldiers of this regiment marched from Cumberland Gap to Frankfort, Ky., and back to Bean's Station, Tenn .- a distance of four hun- dred miles-entirely barefooted. In this condition they marched through burn- ing sands in the beginning of the campaign and through snow at its close. These hardships were endured heroically-only as brave and true men could endure.
From Bean's Station we proceeded to Knoxville, where we were supplied with shoes and other quartermaster stores, and thence to Lenoir's Station. While here Col. Rains was promoted to Brigadier-general, Lieut .- col. Gordon to Colonel, Maj. Thedford to Lieutenant-colonel, and Capt. William Green to Major. In the meantime Capt. J. S. Ridley had been made division Commissary, and Gabriel Fulkes appointed Commissary of the regiment. From this camp we proceeded to Readyville, Middle Tennessee, and thence to Murfreesboro, where we partici- pated in the battle of Murfreesboro, or Stone's River, December 31, 1862. This was our first real battle, and the regiment displayed admirable dash and courage. We charged the right flank of the enemy-who were at breakfast and surprised -at daylight, routed their first line, and drove it in wild disorder and confusion for several miles, when suddenly we encountered a new line, hurried from the enemy's left -- which had not been attacked-well posted in a cedar-brake, and from which we received a deadly fire. In charging this line, Gen. Rains, former Colonel of the Eleventh Regiment, while valiantly leading his brigade and far in front, was instantly killed amid a terrific fire-his horse, from which he fell, plung- ing into the lines of the enemy. Immediately after the fall of Gen. Rains, Col. Gordon, commanding the regiment, was dangerously wounded, and taken from the field. His command then devolved upon Lieut .- col. Thedford, while that of the brigade devolved upon the senior Colonel present. The fight was continued. and after a severe contest and heavy losses on both sides, the enemy were driven from this position, and our forces occupied the field for the night. The subse- quent actions in this battle were disastrous to the Confederate arms, and the Con- federate commander retreated to Shelbyville, Tenn., on the night of the fourth day after the battle was begun, unavoidably leaving many of his wounded, who were captured-among them Col. Gordon, of this regiment, who recovered, was exchanged, and rejoined and took command of his regiment at Shelbyville in the latter part of May, 1863.
In concluding the account of the part taken by the regiment in this or any other battle, the writer deems it due to himself to say that, owing to the want of the company rolls and to the deficiencies in the memory of the writer, it is im- possible to give in detail the casualties that occurred in or the action that was taken by this regiment in the various engagements in which it participated. For the most part we can only deal in generalities; but in leaving the field of Stone's
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River, where the gallant and gifted Rains gave his life to his country, it seems but a feeble tribute to his memory to say that he was an ardent patriot, a brilliant orator, and a brave soldier. An impulsive exponent of Southern chivalry, he threw his whole energies and abilities into the struggle for Southern independ- ence. With his high ambition, reckless courage, and impetuous eclat, it was hard- ly possible that he should survive the casualties of many battles. He fell in the first. If the writer ever knew a man of whom he could say, "He was fearles-," he thinks that man was Gen. Rains. This term, in its application to most men of conspicuous courage, is but relative; but when applied to him it seems abso- Inte. He appeared rather to invite than to avoid danger; and at the time he was killed he was several hundred feet in advance of his line, and in the immediate front of the Eleventh Regiment-as if his best hopes and highest confidence were in his old command. In contemplating his death, the writer is reminded of the concluding words of an eloquent speech he made at Nashville as we started to the seat of war, in accepting a beautiful flag that the ladies of Nashville there presented to the regiment. He said:
' With a look at the sun and a prayer to the sky, One glance at our banner that floats glorious on high, Rush on as the young lion bounds on his prey ; Let the sword flash on high, fling the scabbard away, Roll on like the thunder-bolt over the plain --- We'll come back in glory or we'll come not again."
After the retreat of the Confederate army from Murfreesboro to Shelbyville, Gen. Rains's brigade was disintegrated and the several regiments assigned to duty with other commands. The Eleventh Regiment was placed in the Tennessee brigade of Gen. Preston Smith, of Cheatham's division. The Thirteenth and One Hundred and Fifty-fourth, the Twelfth and Forty-seventh, and the Eleventh and Twenty-ninth regiments now composed the brigade, and remained together till the close of the war. From Shelbyville we moved with the army to Chat- tanooga, where we passed an uneventful summer. When this position was about to be flanked, we retired to La Fayette, Ga., whence we moved to Chickamauga, where we participated in the memorable battle that occurred there, Sept. 18-20, 1863. Only heavy outpost fighting occurred on the first day of the battle; on the second day severe engagements by brigades and divisions were had, but not. a general engagement by the army. The Eleventh Regiment was in two of these engagements with Smith's brigade-one in the afternoon, in which it sustained a severe loss; and the other a night fight, in which Gen. Smith and two of his staff were killed, and in which the Eleventh Regiment captured about two hundred of the enemy and a stand of colors belonging to the Seventy-fourth Pennsylvania. The fall of Gen. Smith-who was a self-possessed and discreet but efficient and daring soldier-was deeply lamented by his command, upon which it had a very solemn and depressing effect. On the morning of the third day the battle was renewed in a general engagement. Our brigade, now under command of senior Colonel A. J. Vaughn, was held in reserve on account of its engage- ments the previous day. But our position in reserve was so near the contending lines that we were all day within range of and exposed to the fire of the enemy's artillery, by which we had several men killed as we rested on our arms. This was a day of painful suspense to us. Besides the artillery to which we were ex-
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posed while thus disengaged, our position was in front of the enemy's fortis. 1 center, where the heaviest fighting Geenrred, and where we could see the wort. I- ed, the dead, and the dying taken to the rear, and where we could hastily est h unsatisfactory, sometimes adverse, reports from flying couriers, as they swept with dispatches from one part of the field to another. Superadded to this, the very earth trembled with the concussion of three hundred guns, while the rear and rattle of a hundred thousand rifles told that a mighty struggle was in progress. All day the battle raged; but late in the afternoon, just as the sun, reddenel with the smoke of battle, was sinking beneath Lookout Mountain, that towered on war left front, news came to the center-where the Federals under Gen. Thomas ha ! stood firm all day under the repeated assaults of the flower of the Confederate army -- that both wings of the enemy were in full retreat. Under the inspiration of this news, orders were here given for the last grand charge; and with a .. it that inspired terror, and an impetuosity that was irresistible, the Confederates dashed into the enemy's works and poured a volley into his flying forces. Por- suit was brief. . Night was upon us. The firing ceased. For a brief interval a strange silence reigned amid the deep and darkening forest; but suddenly there could just be heard, far to the left, the faint sound of shouting troops; louder an. l louder it grew, nearer and nearer it came, till it passed the center and swept on to the extreme right wing of our army; thence it returned, and shout after che st from forty thousand triumphant troops rolled and re-rolled from wing to wing, proclaiming victory to the Confederate arms. That moment the writer can never forget. Perhaps the sublimest emotion that ever thrilled the human heart is that inspired by the shout of victory after a long and doubtful struggle. In the exultation of that hour every man felt that he was more than compensated for all the toil, all the effort, and all the danger the three days fight had cost him. The shouting ceased, and "there was a time for memory and tears." The wearied army sunk down to rest, while silence and moonlight wrapped the battle's bloody scene.
On the second day after the battle of Chickamauga, our brigade, under com- mand of Gen. A. J. Vaughn, attacked and dislodged a heavy picket force on Missionary Ridge, and took possession of the heights overlooking Chattanooga. Some days afterward we moved a half mile forward to the foot of the ridge, and there eunstructed a line of works, which we occupied till the battle of Missionary Ridge, Nov. 25, 1863. The night previous to the day of the battle, one-half of the troops of each regiment at the foot of the ridge were ordered to its crest, to construct there another line of works. The battle opened the next day with our forces thus divided. In the forenoon, while the enemy were unsuccessfully attacking our right, where they were repeatedly repulsed, we on the left were ordered to hold our position at the foot of the ridge at all hazards. Some hours afterward this order was countermanded, and we were then instructed to deliver one round, if attacked !. and then retire fighting to the top of the ridge, and there take position in the works and hold them to the last extremity. Some hours later the first order was re-given and the second countermanded. Soon after the last of these conflicting orders was given, we were assaulted by the enemy in heavy force, with three lines of battle. The charge of the .Federals in their action was gallant, brilliant, and imposing. The Confederates on our extreme left, seeming not to have underst.xd our last orders, and at the same time being outflanked, delivered one round and
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retreated. This soon necessitated the abandonment of our entire line at the foot of the ridge. Thus successful, the enemy pressed us with great vigor, both sides fighting desperately to the top of the ridge. When our command entered the works there, the enemy were in close pursuit. We turned upon them, and with the aid of the troops already in the works, successfully resisted and checked thelu in our immediate front. But the enemy, again outflanking us on our extreme left, came down the crest of the ridge, flanking regiment after regiment till they reached our position, when we had a desperate and, for the first time, a hand-to- hand encounter. At last, being overpowered by superior numbers from both front and flank, we were forced to give way, and retreated in some confusion.
In this battle-a disaster to the Confederate arms-the Eleventh Regiment suffered severely. It had four different men shot down with its colors in hand. the fifth carrying them from the field, the staff of the colors being shot in tw .. places. Five men fell dead in one pile in defense of our colors. Our gallant Major, Wm. Green, was mortally wounded, captured, and died a prisoner in Chattanooga. Lient. A. Y. Brown, of Company E, was wounded and captured. In addition to its loss here of many of its best and noblest men, the regiment als) sustained a greater loss in the death of Maj. Green, who was one of the braves :. knightliest, and most efficient soldiers the writer has ever had the honor to know.
From Missionary Ridge the Eleventh Regiment retreated with Gen. Braci's army to Dalton, Ga., where we remained during the winter of 1863-64, without activity, save a rapid move by rail to, and return from, Demopolis, Alabama, to reenforce Gen. Polk, who was threatened by Gen. Sherman on his way from Vicksburg.
While at Dalton, the Eleventh Regiment reenlisted for the war. Capt. J. A. Long, of Company F, was here promoted to the rank of Major, to fill the vacan- cy caused by the death of Maj. Green; an.l Lient. J. H. Darden was promoted to the Captaincy of that company. While at Dalton, Lieut .- col. Thedfont re- signed, and Maj. J. A. Long was promoted to be Lieutenant-colonel; Capt. P. V. H. Weems, of Company HI, was promoted to be Major; and Lieut. J. H. John- son was promoted to the Captaincy of that company.
About the 7th of May, 1864, the enemy advanced on our position at Dalton. and engaged our outposts at Rocky Face Ridge, thus opening the famous North Georgia campaign under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, who had superselel Gen. Bragg soon after the battle of Missionary Ridge. The Eleventh Regiment par- ticipated in a number of the partial as well as general engagements that occurred during this three months campaign from Dalton to Atlanta, especially in th. ~ e at Resaca, Calhoun, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Peach-tree Creek in front of Atlanta, July 20th, and Sugar Creek on the east of Atlanta, July 22.1. 1864. On our picket line near New Hope Church, the Eleventh Regiment ha ! six noble soldiers killed outright within the space of an hour by the fatal fire of the enemy's sharp-shooters. Among these were private Sterling Capps, of Com- pany K, and Jasper Rochelle and Harry Gordon, of Company H. The latter had been recently transferred to this regiment from the Eighth Texas Cavalry, and when shot said to his brother, "Tell father that I died in a glorious cause." Fit language for a dying hero! The names of the other three the writer cannot now recall, but he remembers with painful distinctness the fatal fall of the noble six.
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The Eleventh was one of the regiments that occupied the "Dead Angle," near Kennesaw Mountain, when this salient in our line was so gallantly charged by the enemy with a column of three or four lines, one brigade front. June the 27th, 1864. In this charge the first line of the enemy came with guns uncapped, to take us with the bayonet; but when it reached our dense abatis, extending thirty paces in front of our line, well fortified and provided with head-logs, they halted and staggered with considerable confusion. Their other lines closed up on their first, and in this condition we swept them down with great slaughter, although our line had been so attenuated by being extended that we had not as much as one full rank in our works. The assault was brilliant, but the battle was brief. The enemy retreated for a short distance, and effected a lodginent at the foot of the hill on which our line was located, and from this position finally compelled the abandonment of our line by the process of undermining. In this attack the enemy were severely punished. They were exposed to a flank as well as front fire from our lines, which being provided with head-logs, the men were not only protected from actual danger, but being also free from the fear of it, delivered their fire with terrible accuracy. Some days after the battle, during a truce asked by the enemy to bury his dead, a Federal officer told the writer that their killed numbered about eight hundred, including two general officers. Certain we are that we had never seen the dead so thick as they lay on this field, which now presented a sickening scene of fermenting humanity, and impressed us anew with the awful horrors of war. Around one large tree a short distance in front of our line-perhaps fifty paces-we counted eleven dead Federals, who evidently had here sought shelter from the deadly fire in front, but were vet exposed to a scarcely less fatal one from the flank. Owing to our excellent works, our loss in this fight was inconsiderable. The Eleventh Regiment covered the retreat of the Confederate army from this position. Being deployed in the "Angle," and ex- tending a considerable distance on either side of it, we began a brisk fire at dark on the night of the retreat-about five days after the fight-and kept it up till 2 o'clock in the morning, to prevent the enemy from hearing the movements of our retiring army. At this honr we rallied on our center, silently moved out, and left the enemy still digging in his mine but a few paces from our works.
Our next engagement was at Peach-tree Creek, in front of Atlanta, July 20th, and two days after Gen. Hood had superseded Gen. Johnston in command of.the army. In this our losses as a regiment were not great. But in the battle on the east of Atlanta, July 22d, two days afterward, the regiment suffered severely. Maj. P. V. H. Weems was mortally wounded, and died in a few days. He was a genial and generous comrade, a brave and admirable soldier. Capt. J. H. John- son, of Co. H, and Lieut. Diviny, of Co. G, were killed on the field. All of these were popular and daring officers, and in their fall the regiment sustained a great loss. This was our last battle around Atlanta.
Capt. J. E. Binns, of Co. D, was promoted to Major to fill the vacancy cansed by the death of Maj. Weems. Col. G. W. Gordon, commanding the regiment, was promoted and commissioned Brigadier-general and assigned to the command of the brigade in which he was serving, vice General A. J. Vaughn wounded and retired. Lient .- col. J. A. Long was then assigned to the command of the Eleventh Regiment.
From Atlanta the Eleventh Regiment retired with Gen. Hood's army to Jones-
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boro, where it was engaged in the battle at that place the Olst of Angust, 1864. In this action, and especially in the charge made by Gordon's brigade to drive back the enemy and retake the work- in which a portion of Govan's brigade had just been captured, the Eleventh Regiment suffered severely. In this charge Col. J. A. Long, commanding the regiment, was mortally wounded, and Capt. J. H. Darden, of Co. H, was killed. Both were true and faithhill soldiers, always ready for doty; attentive to the wants and careful of the lives of their men, they were greatly beloved and deeply lamented. The charge was successful in that it met and drove back a column of the enemy in heavy force, coming through the breach made in our works where he had stormed and captured a part of Govan's Arkansas brigade, after a desperate fight on the part of that gallant comniand. After driving the enemy back to the works, we there, with great effort, held them in check till night closed the battle, when the Eleventh Regiment, in connection with the other regiments of Gordon's brigade, covered the retreat of the army to Lovejoy's Station. Thence we moved to Palmetto, from which position Gen. Hood began, Sept. 28, the movement to Gen. Sherman's rear, that resulted in his ill-starred campaign to Middle Tennessee. About the beginning of this campaign the Eleventh Regiment was consolidated with the Twenty-ninth Tennessee Reg- iment of the same brigade, and placed under command of Col. Horace Rice, of the latter regiment; Maj. John E. Binns, of the Eleventh, being second in com- mand. The regiment was with the army when it captured the Federal post at Dalton, Ga,, and participated in tearing up the railroad at that place. Thence we proceeded to Gadsden, Ala., whence, after a few days for rest and recuperation, the army moved on to Decatur, Ala., while this regiment, with the brigade, was detached and sent to Blountville, Ala., where it was ordered to meet and convoy a supply-train of seven hundred wagons across Sand Mountain, and with it to re- join the army in the vicinity of Decatur at a stipulated tin:e.
While at Blountsville awaiting the arrival of the wagon-train, a circumstance occurred that caused much merriment at the time and was afterward alluded to with lively interest by the command. An unusual supply of "John Barleycorn " had found its way into camp, and one of the Colonels commanding a regiment had imbibed a little too freely, and while passing the road near the camp lost his equilibrium and staggered into a smail mud-hole, perhaps two feet wide and six inches deep. Whereupon the generous effect of the fluid seemed to culminate and to render the Colonel exceedingly careful of the lives of his men, and he thereupon ordered a guard to be placed at the little mud-hole to prevent the sol- diers who chanced to pass that way from falling into it. To men who had been acenstomed to plunge through swollen streams and deep morasses when emergency required, this circumstance was extremely amusing, and often caused a hearty laugh as it was recalled aroand the camp-fire.
The wagon-train arrived, being from fifteen to twenty miles in length when on the move. The brigade was deployed to correspond therewith, a certain number of men being assigned to each wagon to see it through. Most of the teams in this train were poor, jaded, and apparently half-starved; but after several days of hard marching, the men often pulling and pushing the wagons through creeks and bogs, over hills and the mountains, we successfully rejoined the army near Courtland, and on time. From Courtland we moved to Florence, whence, with a snow-storm beating us in the face (as if to say, "Go back"), we started for Middle
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Tennessee, "one of the fairest portions of the Confederacy," as it was denominated in the order of the commanding General, read to the troops on leaving Florence. We next encountered the enemy at Columbia, Tenn., flanked his position here. and struck his rear at Spring Hill. The general chagrin felt by the army at the failure to capture the enemy at this place is believed to have augmented the fierce- ness of the bloody battle that occurred at Franklin the next day, Nov. 30, 1864.
The Eleventh was one of the regiments that composed the left flank of Gordon's brigade, which was placed in the front line of the assaulting column of Cheat- ham's division (now commanded by Maj .- gen. John C. Brown, Gen. Cheatham being in command of a corps), with the turnpike leading into Franklin as the right guide of the brigade; Gen. Carter's brigade of this division being on tior- don's left in the front line, while Gen. Strahl's and Gen. Gist's brigades consti- tuted the rear line of battle and supported Gordon and Carter. After charging and taking the enemy's advanced line, five to six hundred paces in front of his main line, a furious charge was made upon the routed enemy as he sought shelter in his main and strongly fortified line of defense. In this charge the left regi- ments of Gordon's brigade broke the enemy's main line, passed over it, and had men killed fifty to a hundred paces within his works. But just at this critical juncture a fresh brigade of the enemy's reserve appeared, advancing in front of the breach thus made in his line, and drove back our already shattered column to the works it had taken, and where it halted and held the works, the enemy not recovering his lost position. The contending forces maintained the positions they now occupied till night, during which the enemy retreated upon Nashville. The writer, with the extreme right wing of his brigade, struck the enemy's works a short distance to the right of the turnpike, facing north and near the famous old gin-house, but unable to break their line, took position in the ditch on the outside of their works, where, after being subjected to a fierce fire from front and left flank, as well as diagonally from our right rear (probably from Gen. Stewart's command), we were forced to surrender. This was a desperate conflict. The writer was in the battles of Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Ken- nesaw Mountain, all of Hood's and Sherman's battles around Atlanta (except that of July 28, 1864), and at Jonesboro, Ga., and does not hesitate to say that the battle of Franklin was far more desperate and destructive than any of those men- tioned, considering the time and the numbers engaged. And it doubtless would have been more destructive to our troops but for the fact that when we had charged and routed the enemy's advanced line, some one-probably Maj .- gen. Brown, commanding the division-shouted, "Go into the works with them!" This was vociferously repeated by myself and others, and a full run ensued, in which we overtook many of the enemy, and were so close on and mixed up with others that the Federals in their main line were compelled to reserve their fire for the protection of their own men until it was no longer safe for themselves to do so. So that when perhaps within less than a hundred paces of their main line, Federals and Confederates promiscuously rushing toward it, the enemy opened a deadly fire that indiscriminately slew friend and foe. It then seemed as if the air was literally filled with riffe-balls, grape-shot, shrieking shells, solid shot, bursting shrapnel, and every conceivable missile used in modern warfare. It seemed that if a hand had been thrown out it might have been caught full of the mad messengers of death. And it is a mystery how any man ever reached!
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