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 42
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loaded faster than he fired, until really the breech became the " business end" of his piece; and with some reluctance he accepted the theory.
That morning at sunup Gen. Jackson was to have made the attack on Cheat Mountain Pass in its front, and that, as we understood, was to be a signal for us to be- gin the attack upon the fortifications in our front at Coonrad's; but for some cause he failed to do so; and about 12 o'clock our command fell back, and marched about ten miles to Snider's Hill and camped. Gen. Anderson's command soon joined us. Our rations that had not been consumed were all spoiled by the drenching rains, and thrown away. We killed beeves here, and broiled meat and ate it without salt or bread for the first time. After some further maneuvering down Stewart's Run in a mile or two of the enemy for a day or two, we fell back to head-quarters at Valley Mountain, and were soon rejoined by Gen. Loring's command, who had been operating on our left.
Thus the campaign of eight or ten days through these pathless mountains and incessant rains ended without any general action, on account of the failure of Jackson to attack Cheat Mountain Pass, which he found to be impossible to carry by storm.
As a badge of distinction by which to tell our own forces from the enemy in emergencies, we were all required to wear a piece of white cloth tacked in front of our hats. This precaution served us a good purpose the morning Gen. Lee and staff came riding up the mountain so early from where he had camped at the hay-stacks. As they approached in the gray twilight some of our guard were sure they were enemies and wanted orders to fire on them, but I waited and was soon relieved by seeing their badges. Riding up to us they halted, and address- ing him, I asked if that was Gen. Lee; he answered that it was, and as I was about ordering the guard to present arms he excused me from that formality, say- ing " he could but sympathize with men who had lain out all night in such a drenching storm." After inquiring the whereabouts of Gen. Donelson's quarters he passed on, picking his way among the trees and cliffs up the steep mountain; and we were certain then we would have that fortification by 12 o'clock. But, as above shown, we went back to Valley Mountain, disappointed, and in fact grumbling, because we were "spoiling for a fight."
In a few days intelligence came that Gens. Wise and Floyd, who were operat- ing on the Ganley River, about one hundred and twenty-five miles away through the Alleghanies, were in a critical sitnation-were retreating and hard pressed by Gen. Rosecrans, with a strong probability of being cut off and ruined. A force was ordered at once to go to their relief. For this purpose five regiments were selected from the entire command-the Forty-second and Forty-eighth Virginia, and the First, Seventh, and Sixteenth Tennessee-and without any baggage or transportation wagons, except for ammunition and flour, we hurried forward at the rate of twenty-five or thirty miles a day, via Frankfort and Lewisburg, through rain, mud, and mountains, on to Little Sewell Mountain, reaching there on the 20th of September. Here we found Wise and Floyd, with their commands stretched along the brow of this mountain. In their retreat they had about-faced, and were throwing up temporary breastworks, while just across a great ravine, about a mile and a half off, on top of Big Sewell, in plain view, stood the army of Rosecrans and Cox and Schenck, panting for their blood.
That night we moved up and took position along the chain of mountains on the
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right of the army. Col. Savage was bere complimented by Gen. Lee placing him in command of a brigade on the extreme right.
Thus the two armies rested for several days, each, as it were, flaunting their flags in the other's face, while their respective. bands alternated in playing from time to time the menacing strains of "Yankee Doodle" and " Dixie." In the deep valley or ravine between them the pickets of both, by tacit consent, were using water out of the same spring; yet no one was allowed by the other to loiter after filling his canteens. Punctuality and good manners were demanded and strictly observed on all sides. One day Colonel Spaulding, of a Virginia regi- ment, being down about our advance piekets, became too reckless, it seems, and - ventured through the undergrowth to within fifty yards of the enemy's pickets; then, coming squarely out into the road, he sat on his horse looking at them for several moments, till they fired and killed him. His horse ran up the road with him and got at a sufficient distance before he tumbled off to enable his men to recover and carry off his body. Three balls had passed through him. He was regarded by all who knew him as a very gallant and brave officer, and his death was much lamented, especially by his command, which seemed greatly attached to him.
We were expecting and hoping daily that the enemy would continue his ad- vance, and attack us; still we saw no demonstrations of that kind. Impatience Fegan to manifest itself among the men and officers of all ranks. We wanted to fight, and that quickly. At last one day, as I was informed. several of the sub- ordinate Generals and other officers went to Gen. Lee's quarters, and in their con- versation manifested considerable desire to attack the enemy on his own ground, and expressed the greatest confidence in our success. He heard them patiently, and then said: "Yes, gentlemen, I believe so too. I believe we could whip the enemy and drive him off, but in doing so we would leave at least a thousand of these brave men dead on that mountain-side vonder [pointing to it], besides the many wounded; and in a military point of view I do not think this part of the country is worth so much as all that to us. Gen. Rosecrans cannot advance, nor can he remain long over yonder. He must abandon these mountains to supply his army. Here the winter is already upon him. Perhaps we had better wait." Sure enough, the second morning after this we awoke to find that Rosecrans had fled. Col. Savage was ordered to reconnoiter and find out the facts, which he did with my company and a few others as skirmishers. When we reached the tall summit of Big Sewell, Gen. Lee, by the aid of his field-glass, could see their wag- ons crossing a mountain ten or twelve miles away. They had traveled all night. Our cavalry picked up a few stragglers and horses, that was all. A few days after this, leaving Gens. Wise and Floyd, we came back as far as Lewisburg, and near there camped a week or two in a heavy forest without tents. While here our regiment received a bountiful lot of winter clothing and blankets from home, together with an inimense amount of letters and nicknacks from mothers, wives, and sweethearts. There were two or three car-loads of these stores sent by the parents and friends at home, under charge of Lieut. Denton, who had been detailed for that purpose. These came in good time, as there was a big snow on the ground and all were scarce of clothes and blankets.
As before stated, on this hurried march to relieve Wise and Floyd we carried nothing in the way of commissaries except barreled flour and salt (for we had
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nothing else), and relied on the country through which we passed for beeves, which abounded in the greatest number and of the finest quality I ever saw be- fore or sinee. Having no cooking-utensils along, it was a little puzzling at first to see how we could manage the flour business in preparing and cooking it. We had rations along for one day only. The second night at dark we came to camp on a wide, rocky creek, and soon had løg fires up and down it for a long distance on either side. The beef and flour soon came up, and were messed out as ustral; and I watched to see what next. But without any halt or concert or questions asked, as if by instinct some commenced washing off the large, flat rocks all along the water's edge, and soon began kneading np dough with the dispatch and car- nestness of hungry beavers, while others prepared sharp sticks from the under- growth and around them twined ringlets of dough in all fantastic shapes and stuck them around to bake before the fire. With these brown rolls and fat beer broiled on hot roek plates we soon had a delicious meal. It rained heavily on this march, and the roads were exceedingly bad. Nothing, however, seemed to dannt the men in their determination to press forward to the assistance of their comrades-in-arms. One day we came to a low stretch of marshy country, through which the solitary road passed, that was covered by a lake more than a quarter of a mile across; and it was truly a sample of their unflinching devotion, as well as a scene most picturesque, to see four or five thousand men stripped to their red shirts, with knapsack and gun upon their shoulders, wading, splashing, and yelling through that cold lake, almost to their armpits in water; but they seemed to regar.1 it as a matter-of-course affair-merely a part of the checkered programme of war.
Winter was now upon us, and we dreaded the idea of passing through it amid those dreary, bleak mountains. Having rejoined our proper commands, it may be imagined with what outbursts of joy our brigade received orders in December to report to Gen. Pemberton, at Charleston, S. C., which we did in due time. We were then stationed at Port Royal, or opposite Beaufort Island, to guard the coast during the winter. This transition, so suddenly, from the snow-storms of the Alle- ghany Mountains to the sunny, palin-covered coasts of South Carolina, seemed almost like dropping into a new world. Our brigade did duty along the coast for eight or ten miles, at various points, to guard against the landing of the enemy and to prevent the negroes from the shore communicating with them on Beaufort Island, which was then in their possession. At first a great deal of this was go- ing on. A great many of them had fled from the plantations across to the Fed- erals on the island, the channel being not more than a thousand yards wide in places. From there they would be stealthily sent over in small skiffs as spies through the country. We had strict orders to stop it. Finally, one night our picket fired and killed one or two as they fled after being halted. After that we had no further trouble from this source with the negroes. But few vessels di -- played themselves along the coast during the winter, and no efforts were made to land troops. On one occasion their gun-boats came near the shore and shelled a South Carolina regiment under Col. Jones, doing considerable damage. One large shell was especially fatal, as it exploded among the men as Col. Jones was moving the regiment off in column through a large cotton-field. It killed eight or ten men and wounded others. One, I remember, was literally blown into small fragments, and scattered over the ground. The largest portion to be found was one of his legs, which I saw a man swinging along by the bootstrap. These gun-
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boats would now and then make feints as though they were going to land troops, shelling the coast terrifically, which often worried us with long, hurried marches through the heavy sand to oppose them, but to find it all a false alarm.
Beaufort Island is about ten miles long, and they had pickets scattered from one end to the other. We could see each other very plainly, and would often talk across in quite friendly terms. Sometimes, though, the social confab would break up with a row and a few shots exchanged at each other, together with a superabundance of cursing and tearing up the sand. At the head of the island, where a bridge had been, we got quite intimate. They had collected nearly all the skiff's and small boats in the neighborhood, and had them on their side; and frequently, under mutual pledges of honor, they would come over and meet some of us out on the far end of the abutment, and talk for an hour, exchange papers, and trade in coffee and tobacco, the former being rather scarce with us and the latter with them. Sometimes we swapped knives, and hats, etc. All this, how- ever, was after awhile found out at head-quarters, and stopped by peremptory or- ders. The pickets on their side at this place staid in an old framed house near the far end of the bridge, and when it was raining one day they chided us for having no shelter, and we had a few pretty saucy words about it. After a bit our men went out a little way from the beach and got the hind wheels of an ok! buggy, tied on a pine log about ten inches in diameter and eight feet long, blacked the muzzle end with powder, and came tearing down the bank in a rush to the level near the water, and wheeled her around; but before we could fire, their sentry, who was stationed near the door, cried the alarm and discharged his piece in the air, while the whole squad came tumbling pell-mell out of the house and scattered in every direction. Some kept running, while others fell flat on their bellies in the sand, till our boys, swinging their hats in the air and shouting "bravo!" broke to cover. It was too good a hoax to fight over, so the Yanks shook their fists and swore at us awhile, and went in out of the weather. We spent the winter almost as a hol- iday, having but little to do comparatively, while we lived sumptuously on fish and oysters.
In April, soon after the battle of Shiloh, we were ordered to Corinth, where we remained in the ditches till the Federals dug up so close that at places we could throw a stone into their intrenchments, then one night we quietly withdrew and left them digging away till next day before they knew we were gone to Tu- pelo. After this our regiment followed the fortunes of Gen. Bragg through Ken- tucky to Perryville, back to Murfreesboro, Chickamanga, Missionary Ridge, Ken- nesaw Mountain, Rocky Face, Resaca, etc .; then under Gens. Johnston and Hood successively at Peach-tree Creek, Jonesboro, Franklin, and Nashville, on up to the surrender in North Carolina.
At this late day it is impossible to give other than a partial list of those of our company who were killed in different battles. Here is a list of their names as I can remember or procure by the aid of others. Killed at Perryville, Ky .: Ma- rion M. Anderson, William F. Grimsley, Capt. I. B. Vance, T. C. Thompson. Killed at Murfreesboro, Tenn .: D. G. Pointer, First Lieut. W. W. Wallace, John Choate, Jacob Choate, J. R. Marry. Killed at Chickamauga, Ga .: William L. Hodge. Killed at Peach-tree Creek, Ga .: R. I. West, Rufus Owen. Killed at Jonesboro, Ga .: Third Lieut. John F. Owen. Killed at Franklin, Tenn .: Will- iam Webb.
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After May, 1862, our brigade remained attached to Cheatham's division to the end of the war. The men all had much confidence in Gen. Cheatham's fighting qualities, and he had the fullest assurance as to the well-proved courage of his men-hence the division, as is well known, achieved a high standard throughout the army. They regarded our Brigadier-general ( Donelson) as a brave and patri- otic man, and one who had our cause much at heart, but perhaps thought him lacking somewhat in military tact and generalship. They much regretted his death. I well remember his appearance when in South Carolina I broke to him the news of the fall of Fort Donelson. I had just got a paper from Charleston as he was riding by our camp, and read him the dispatch while he leaned forward on his horse gazing at me as a man hearing a death-knell. Easing himself back in his seat, with his eyes fixed without object through the long moss drapery of the woods, he said in subdued tones, " Well, well, well! that is the saddest piece of news that ever fell upon my ears during life." He then rode toward his quar- ters through the dark forest of live-oaks. His parental heart was touchel. His home is doomel; his dear wife and defenseless daughters at the mercy of the enemy; his fine estate sacked; and Tennessee subjected to all the ravages of war. He saw all this at a glance, and it weighed down his soul. I was sorry I read him the news.
My company-in fact, nearly the whole regiment-was composed of what you might terin mountain-men. They were healthy and strong; most of them com- fortably situated at home; nearly all young men; some with more and some with less education-not one in the company, I believe, who did not write his own sig- nature to the muster-rolls. They were courageous and prompt to duty in camp and upon the field, and not one ever acted the coward in battle.
At the start, we might with some reason have expected to hear grumbling and discontent among the Tennessee soldiery in being sent off from home to defend the territory of other States; yet they seemed at once to comprehend such a ne- cessity, and went forward as one man for the Solid South. But three years after, when they were forced by the foe to yield up their native State, then indeed was the "winter of their discontent." Fatigued, sore, and sullen, they gave back, inch by inch, till, goaded by his insolence, they turned at Chickamauga, and struck him a disastrous blow. In my opinion there was scarcely a battle ever fought in which men poured out their blood and gave up life more readily an ! resolutely than upon the field of Chickamauga. " Victory or death " seemed to be written in every man's face; and with no design even at apparent criticism 1 must say I believed then, and still more firmly believe now, that if we had been permitted to pursue the enemy on Sunday night after he was routed, on Monday we could without loss have captured the whole Federal army, and had full occu- pation of nearly the whole of Tennessee in fifteen days. Our army was still per- feetly intact. It had not spent near its force. It was solid and in hand, with no signs whatever of disorganization. A mere subordinate, a common experienced soldier in ranks, can see and know this as quickly and as well as any one else. or better. Our division was charging their works near dark, when the corps of Thomas gave way and joined in the general rout. Our whole line was perfect. So was the division just in our rear, over which we had just trotted as they had lain down for us to pass over them. Here we were ordered to stack arms, amid the dead and dying; and here and near by we remained inactive for days, until
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the routed enemy had full time to re-form and plant himself in our own works around Chattanooga. While thus we stood here idle from day to day, there was a universal expectation and desire to be ordered forward. The reason for this de- lay was unaccountable to us, and is to this day ; and doubtless the satisfactory ex- cuse, if one there was, remains a secret in the breast of the commanding General alone. But mere subalterns and the common herd of soldiers have no right to know, much less to question, the propriety or reasons for the conduet of those who command them in war, be they right or wrong, good or bad.
As above said, we remained on the field all night in the midst of the dying ano dead, who lay thick in every direction. "Water, water!" seemed to be the universal cry of the wounded. The gray and the blue were indiscriminately mixed up every- where on the ground, and our men furnished them all alike with all the water they had, and filled canteens and kept them supplied as much as possible. From ex- haustion and loss of blood they complained much of being cold. A great many fires were built all along the line, and the suffering were brought to them by the sol- diers, friend and foe alike. Some that were clad in blue expressed their earnest thanks for such attention. The scene was sad indeed and pitiable. Some talked of their loved wives and children, others were calling for their mothers. Some were praying, some were dying; while the rough, stern soldiers, with hands and faces all black with powder, pitying, stood in groups about them. It was a moon- light night. I rambled about a good deal over the field where we were, and the havoc was frightful. The woods were full of branches and tops of trees, like a heavy storm had just passed through. Some trees more than a foot through were eut down by cannon-balls. The underbrush was shorn off to the ground. One man was squatted by the side of a tree with his gun up, resting against it, cocked and aiming toward the log breastworks about fifty yards off. His head was leaning forward; he was shot through about the heart. He was a Confederate. Another was lying on his face with one hand grasping his gun just below the muzzle and the rammer in his other hand. Another lay on his back with both hands clinched in his long, black whiskers, all clotted with blood. He was shot in the mouth. and I think was a Federal lieutenant. About five feet off was another, with his head gone. I came across a soldier leaning down over one that was dead, and as I approached him he was in the act of spreading a handkerchief over his face. He looked up at me, and said: "This is my Captain, and a good one too. I want to send him home if I can." I think he was a Georgian. I saw a good many looking over 'the dead for a comrade, and when identified would straighten him out, put a knapsack or chunk under his head, and lay a hat on his face: then perhaps cast their eyes up and around for some peculiar tree or cliff or lui !! by which to identify the spot in coming back. Here you might see a caisson with the ammunition-box nearly or quite empty, there a gun with its carriage torn to pieces, here a field-horse dead with saddle on; and in one pile I counted sixteen horses literally piled up together, some in their death-plunges having jumped astride of those dead. They belonged to the artillery, and were in full harness. having been loosed from the guns during the action. In another place twelve were in a pile, and so on. During battle the horses will stand still, pressing up close together till the last one drops. Here indeed was witnessed all the dreadful "horrors of war." I turned and went back, lay down under a tree and fell asleep, listening to the humming, dill roar that pervadel the heavens everywhere
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above our camping, victorious army. When we moved toward Chattanooga, we found the woods everywhere strewn with guns, knapsacks, coffee-buckets, and every other evidence of a thorough ront.
The soldiers were all very inuch pleased when Gen. Johnston took command, and sorry when he was superseded by Gen. Hood. This was certainly a fatal mis- take. There was no comparison between the military abilities of the two men, and the army knew and felt it.
Col. Savage continued in command of the regiment until some time after the battle of Murfreesboro, and was a faithful and gallant officer. He paid strict at- tention to the condition and welfare of his men, and had their fullest faith and confidence. When it became necessary to appoint a Brigadier-general over them in place of Gen. Donelson, they were surprised and mortified to see Col. Wright receive promotion over Col. Savage, who was his senior in rank, and entitled to the promotion on the further grounds of merit and superior qualification. He was an officer in the Mexican war throughout its duration, and served with credit to himself and to his country. He had been twice wounded-once in Mexico, and again at Murfreesboro, while gallantly leading his men; and these men did not and could not comprehend why it was that the reiguing powers should ignore the claims of the brigade, go outside of it, and take a stranger to it, a junior in rank, and place him in command as Brigadier. I say these men could not see any plausible reason for such a strange, unusual course, against their wishes and hopes, and they never did like it. This was regarded by Col. Savage as an un- merited indignity and a complete ignoring of all just claims to which meritorious service may have entitled him, and he thereupon tendered his resignation and quit the service.
During the war my original company was consolidated with other companies of the regiment and of other regiments, and I ceased to be its Captain, and after that to the end of the war served in other departments, and sometimes in battle acted as Major of our regiment. It is now impossible to account for all of the men I took out, or for the casualties that occurred among them. Many were wounded, some disabled for life; and some of the wounded have since died, as is thought, from the effects of wounds they received-quite a number of them died from sickness. I think that three-fourths of those who were left with me in the company were killed, wounded, and died from sickness. As a class, I notice that those who were soldiers-at least those who made good and true soldiers-are a thrifty, progressive part of the community since the war, and almost without exception a law-abiding people.
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