USA > Tennessee > The military annals of Tennessee. Confederate. First series: embracing a review of military operations, with regimental histories and memorial rolls, V.2 > Part 44
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Meanwhile the main body of the regiment marched with the brigade, and par- ticipated in the general engagement, taking part in the first skirmishing that oc- curred on the morning of the 11th about two miles south of Pontotoc, at Pinson's Hill, and about two miles south on the 12th. The main battle commenced on the 13th, in which our Color-bearer, Geo. Dunn, of Co. G, a daring Kentuckian,
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was killed with the colors in his hands flying in the air. About S o'clock on the morning of the 14th Crossland's brigade, with loud and hearty cheers, drove the Federal skirmishers across an open field, directly upon the strongest point in the enemy's position. The estimated strength of the enemy, the larger portion of whom were behind their temporary fortifications, was from thirteen to sixteen thousand, with twenty-four pieces of artillery. . They withheld their fire until the brigade was half across the field, when they opened a furious fusilade and in- cessant discharges of canister from many guns. Being uncovered on the right, the brigade was exposed to an oblique fire, under which it was forced to give way. Col. Faulkner's horse was shot under him, and he was severely wounded twice, being within sixty paces of the Federal intrenchments. The attack proving a failure, the command withdrew from the field. The enemy, being satisfied to foil the attack, adventured no offensive movement. Thus the battle ended. Only occasional skirmishing took place. The enemy withdrew, moving back to Mem- phis. The loss of the regiment in killed and wounded was very heavy, and we were now left without an original field officer.
It will be remembered that the weather was very warm during the battle of Harrisburg, many of our men actually dying from sun-stroke; others, utterly ig- noring orders from their officers, in consequence of thirst, scattered in different directions in search of water, while the wounded lay upon the field moaning and pleading with their comrades for water. The detachment under Capt. Tyler was also terribly fatigued upon its return, having slept little for five nights and mor- ing in quick time the last five days. Their horses were much jaded, the writer's horse having fallen completely exhausted in a skirmish near Verona on the morning of the 15th.
The regiment was now left in command of Maj. Tate again. However, Capt. Clanton, of Co. C, took command before it marched on the Middle Tennessee raid, which was the next move of consequence. In it the regiment was an active par- ticipant. In the meantime it had been engaged in several lively skirmishes around Oxford when Gen. Forrest entered Memphis.
Having camped at Verona for a short time, thereby enabling both men and horses to rest to some extent, the regiment marched with the brigade from Verona on Sept. 16, 1864; forded the Tennessee River at Rocky Ford, or Smith's Ferry, on the 21st; participated in the engagements at Athens, Ala., on the 24th and Sulphur Trestle on the 25th, resulting in the capture of both forts, with strong garrisons and their equipments, quartermaster and commissary stores; also in the capture of several block-houses, with their garrisons, etc., along our march: a large Government saw-mill near Spring Hill; the engagement about seven niiles south-west of Pulaski; and the attack on the main force around the fortifications at Pulaski on the 26th, and in numerous skirmishes, including Columbia, on the 2d of October. Meanwhile Capt. Clanton was sent back in an ambulance sick, and this left Capt. Kellehar in command of the regiment. A detachment of about one hundred men was placed under his command at Columbia, to act in conjunction with a detachment from the Seventh Tennessee, in command of Capt. H. C. Mccutchen, as rear-guard to cover the rear as the main command at Co- lumbia withdrew. The enemy pursued, pushing the entire command closely at Florence and Colbert's Ferry, on the Tennessee River, where it crossed the river. Heavy skirmishing ensued for six days at intervals. When the detachment
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reached the ferry the enemy was pressing so closely, and the command having about crossed, the situation was hazardous; hence Capt. Kellehar was ordered to do the best he could to escape capture. Thereupon the battalion, in quick time, mioved down the river, finally succeeding in crossing it on the 9th, at Cotton's Ferry, I think. We crossed into West Tennessee, and, finding we were cut off from communications and the enemy had crossed the river in strong force, Capt. Kellehar marched to Parker's Cross-roads, in Henderson county, and disbanded the detachment. I think this was on the 11th of October.
Meanwhile the other part of the regiment marched with the brigade, and crossed with the main command at Florence or Colbert's Ferry. The regiment was now reduced to such an extent that it was really discouraging, especially when we con- sider that our Colonel and Lieutenant-colonel were both absent with severe wounds; the Major in prison; at least three hundred killed, wounded, and captured; prob- ably as 'many as fifty old infantry soldiers who belonged to the different compa- nies sent back to their commands; some absent with Surgeon's certificates; others absent without leave; and Kellehar's detachment cut off, narrowly escaping capt- ure. The most of them afterward rejoined their companies when Gen. Forrest came into West Tennessee in the latter part of October.
The regiment, in command of Capt. Clanton, participated in the capture of the gun-boat "Undine" and three transports-" Mazeppa," "Venus," and "J. W. Cheeseman"-October 30th, near Fort Heiman, on Tennessee River; and in the engagement at Johnsonville on the 4th of November, which resulted in destroy- ing three gun-boats, eleven transports, a number of barges, commissary and quar- termaster stores, ammunition, etc., estimated to be worth millions of dollars, which was accomplished with no loss of consequence to the Confederates. The weather was very bad, a cold rain having fallen during the previous week, making it almost impossible to travel with artillery along the river-bank, and it was very trying on horses and men.
Hood's raid is too familiar in the history of the late war to require minute men- tion of events in connection with the regiment. Suffice it to say that the regi- ment was an active participant in the numerous battles in which Gen. Forrest's cavalry took part, including Franklin and Murfreesboro, and it sustained a heavy loss in killed and wounded. Among the killed was the daring Capt. Kellehar, he and his horse being blown to pieces by a shell November 26th at Columbia. During this terribly disastrous raid, in which thirty-five or forty days were con- sumed, some of the hardest and most destructive battles took place, in which the Confederate loss was beyond computation. The regiment marched back to Corinth, Miss., where the men were furloughed about January 1, 1865, and allowed to visit their homes to procure fresh horses and add new recruits to our diminished ranks. Col. Faulkner was able to join the regiment in Kentucky or West Tennessee in the early part of February, but was killed at Dresden, Tenn., by some of his men who were absent without leave, and whom he proposed to take back with the com- mand. They were desperate men who resisted him, and killed him during the affray. This left the regiment without a field officer, but Capt. Clanton took conimand again, and the regiment marched south and joined the main army and camped at Waverly, Miss., for a few weeks. Being without a field officer, and our numbers reduced to such an extent, we were unable to maintain an organization as a regiment; therefore Faulkner's regiment was merged into the Eighth Ken-
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tucky Cavalry, Col. A. A. R. Shacklet commander. During the month of March transfers were granted all Tennesseans in the regiment who desired transfers to Tennessee regiments, and quite a number availed themselves of this privilege. among whom was the writer, who was transferred to Co. B ( W. H. Hawkins, of Huntingdon, Captain), Nineteenth and Twentieth Tennessee regiments (R. M. Russell, of Trenton, Colonel). Quite a number of Tennesseans, however, still re- mained with the regiment after this, and were participants, along with the Ken- tucky brigade, in the disastrous combat at Selma, Ala. The members of the Eighth Kentucky were paroled at Columbus, Miss., as members of that regiment, while those who had received transfers to Tennessee regiments were paroled with their respective regiments at Gainesville, Ala., May 9th, 1865.
This ends my sketch of Faulkner's (Twelfth Kentucky) Regiment of Kentuck- ians and Tennesseans; and in bringing it to a close my mind runs back to those days and calls up the faces of numbers of brave comrades who fell upon battle- fields, and it produces a feeling of sadness indeed; while upon the other hand it has the effect to strengthen that cord which has for more than twenty years held the attachment that was formed in those days not only toward the members of my company, but of the entire regiment. Yes; I will not confine it to the Twelfth Kentucky Regiment, but the same applies to the Nineteenth and Twentieth Ten- nessee regiments, in which I spent my last few months in the service for the Lost Cause. Under the circumstances it has been impossible for me to procure complete muster-rolls and memorial rolls of all the companies. A number of the events in the foregoing sketch have been gathered from Gen. Forrest's "Cam- paigns," which were based upon notes from regimental, brigade, and division of- ficers. It is not impossible that some minor mistakes may appear, although the writer has been very careful not to note any thing that could not be established as fact; and should there be mistakes, I hope my comrades will consider that they are errors of the head, and not of the heart.
WOODWARD'S SECOND KENTUCKY CAVALRY. BY HON. AUSTIN PEAY, GARRETTSBURG, KY.
AT Oak Grove, Christian county, Ky., on the 9th of April, 1861, a company of cavalry was organized, with Thomas G. Woodward, a West Point graduate, as Captain. Oak Grove is near the Tennessee line, and many Tennesseans anxious to become soldiers united their fortunes with this Kentucky company. The citi- zens around Oak Grove were ardent Southerners, and gave liberally of their means to mount, arm, and equip the company. Lient. Darwin Bell and Orderly Wm. Blakemore were sent on a secret mission to Cincinnati for arms, and suc- ceeded in purchasing enough fine Colt's revolvers with which to arm the com- pany.
It was the intention for the company to unite with the Kentucky State Guards, but the action of the State was so dilatory that on the 25th of June, 1861, it was mustered into the Tennessee service as an independent organization. It numbered one hundred and eight men and officers, and no finer body of men, or better equipped, ever sought or obtained service anywhere. It saw no active service for
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some months, but was drilled in the camps of instruction at Boone, Cheatham, and Trousdale.
When the army invaded Kentucky this company led the van-guard, and pene- trated as far as Hopkinsville, the home of many of its members, returning to Bowl- ing Green in the early winter. At Bowling Green the company grew to such proportions that it was divided into two companies, and then merged into the First Kentucky Cavalry as companies A and B; Capt. Darwin Bell commanding Co. _ 1, and Capt. Wm. Caldwell Co. B. Woodward was promoted to Lieutenant-colonel. Ben Hardin Helm, a noble gentleman and chivalrous soldier, who gave his life for his country on the field of Chickamauga, was Colonel of the regiment. The regiment was twelve hundred strong.
Hard service, picketing, and scouting through the winter of 1861 and 1862 char- acterized the company's history, and a few skirmishes, in which the men bore them- selves well and gave promise of the valor which they afterward displayed upon many a hard-fought field. When the army retreated from Kentucky the regi- ment was its rear-guard, and with sickening heart followed its dreary march through the whole State of Tennessee, until once again it formed its lines and con- fronted the enemy at Shiloh. Then it was stationed at Florence, Ala., and gave Gen. Johnston accurate information of the advance of Buell's army, which pre- cipitated the attack at Shiloh. After the battle-which, but for the untimely death of that great soldier, Gen. Johnston, would have been the most complete victory of the war -- the command followed the varying fortunes of the army in Mississippi and Alabama until, in May of 1862, under Gen. Adams, it was sent on a raid into Middle Tennessee. Here it was engaged in several hard fights. At Winchester, Tenn., companies A and L, with a fool-hardy courage, under orders of Capt. Cox, of Adams's staff, who was in coramand, charged the court-house, filled with Federal infantry, halted in its front, fired their guns and revolvers in its doors and windows in the faces of the astonished foe, and then retreated under a murderous fire, which left many of the best and bravest of their men dead and wounded.
At Hney's Bridge the First Kentucky and some companies of the Eighth Texas charged a Federal regiment intrenched in camp, and killed and captured every man of them, but with fearful loss of life among its officers and men. The ad- vance of the Federal infantry drove Adams's command from this portion of Ten- nessee across the river to Chattanooga. Here, on the 25th of June, 1862, the time of enlistnient of companies A and B expired, and they were mustered out of the service. Some of the men reenlisted at once, and joined a command which For- rest was raising for a raid into Tennessee and Kentucky, but the greater number returned to their homes, situated within the Federal lines, in the two States men- tioned.
On the 12th of July, just seven days after disbandment, Woodward had re- turned into Kentucky, and in Christian county began the organization of a new command. His old men almost to a man gathered around him, new recruits flocked to him from Kentucky and Tennessee, and he soon had a large regiment in the field. The men were generally not well armed, and, like all raw recruits in the beginning, wanting in discipline; but under Wocdward's fine system of military tactics they soon became disciplined and hardened to the usages of war. They met the enemy often, and with varying success. Clarksville, Tenn., with Col. Ma-
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son and its entire garrison, was captured with but little loss. Fort Donelson was attacked, but the attack was repulsed with severe loss. The next morning the en- emy, presuming upon the repulse of the day before, followed to the rolling-mills, and charged with a regiment of cavalry. Woodward had had warning of their approach, and was ready for them. The command was placed in position under the river-bank and in the demolished works of the old mill, while the small four-pounder was in position at a bridge which was a little was in front. The Federal cavalry scarcely gave the command time to get into position before it charged in column down the road. Ou they came with headlong courage. The cannon was overturned after one discharge, and the cavalry, with drawn sabers, swept down upon our position. The tale was soon told. The men poured a ter- rible fire from both sides of the road into their serried column, and the road was soon choked with dead and wounded men and horses. Two front companies were annihilated, not a single man escaping to tell the bloody fate of his comrades. The rear companies never came through, but turned and fled. The command lost not a man in the action, and its retreat was in safety to Clarksville.
Woodward remained in Kentucky drilling and enlarging his 'command until after the battle of Perryville and Bragg's retreat from Kentucky. The Federals then sent Gen. Ransom, with a large command, into Southern Kentucky to drive Woodward out. Near the little town of Garrettsburg, in September, 1862. the Federals struck Woodward's regiment in line of battle. The conflict was sharp and brief. Overpowered by numbers, armed only with shot-guns, and upon ground unfitted for cavalry fighting, the men were no match for the long-range rines of the trained infantry and artillery of the foe, and broke into disorder and fell back in great confusion, leaving a good many dead on the field, and carrying off as many more wounded. The next day Cumberland River was crossed, Kentucky faded in the distance, and the homes of our birth were left to the possession of the foe.
Near Charlotte, in Dixon county, the command was camped for some time. The regiment was enlisted for one year's service, and here came the tidings that the Confederate authorities would receive no enlistments for less than three years' service, and it came coupled with the command to swear the men in for three years and place the regiment under Forrest, who was then preparing to invade West Tennessee. At this time Forrest was as much feared and despised as he was afterward appreciated and beloved. So the men refused to submit to the terms proposed, and the regiment went to pieces, as the night-gathered clans of Mac- gregor dissolved before the light of the morning. Woodward's work had come to naught before its full fruition. His disappointment was great; but, nothing daunted, he gathered around him a company of a hundred men, followed Forrest into West Tennessee, and did yeoman service, participating in every engagement of that hard campaign, and winning the highest commendation for himself and men from his chief-that glorious old dead hero, who never said to his men. "Go," but, "Follow me!" In this campaign Lieut. Joe Staton was killed. He was a man of great vanity, but of courage true as steel, of brilliant mind, and as gallant an officer as ever drew saber or buckled a spur.
When Woodward returned from the campaign in West Tennessee, his commind was camped for weeks in the neighborhood of Columbia, Tenn. His oldl com- rades again flocked to his standard; there was no peace for them while their be-
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loved South writhed in the grasp of the foc and fought for liberty. They came in troops and companies; to-day in squads of three or four, to-morrow in organ- ized companies, mostly from Kentucky, but a goodly sprinkling of Tennesseans, most of whom joined Company A, commanded by Will A. Elliott, himself a son of Tennessee. Company C was composed entirely of Tennesseans, and its Captain, Tom Lewis, was as noble a gentleman and brave a soldier as ever lived or died.
Soon once more by his indomitable exertions Woodward had organized a fine, serviceable body of men. Seven full companies answered at his roll-call, and stood ready to follow him to battle-not sufficient for a regiment, yet it was received as such. Woodward was elected to the command, with the rank of Lieutenant- colonel, and Tom Lewis as Major. Its companies were commanded and distin- guished as follows:
Co. A : Will A. Elliott, Captain-about one-third Tennesseans. Co. B: Given Campbell, Captain. Co. C: Tom Lewis, Captain; after Lewis's promotion to Major, commanded by Lieut. Jackson. Co. D: Robert Biggs, Captain. Co. E: John Crutcher, Captain. Co. F: J. H. Harvey, Captain. Co. G : Joe Williams, Captain. C. D. Bell was Adjutant, and Edward Gray Sergeant-major.
Thus organized and officered, and constituted a regiment, the command was sworn into the Confederate service for the war. It was the famous Second Ken- tucky, and if its country had a history its record should be written deep upon it. But who can write its history ? It would take a volume in itself to contain it. It cannot be done. Its roll has been lost; and could it be called, more voices would answer from the farther shore than from this. The chronicler stands appalled at the magnitude of the task. How write the eulogies and elegies of its living and dead? Its dead sleep in every State of the South, and many a stream has been dyed with their blood. From the deep-moving current of Green River to the slumberous waters of Cape Fear these veterans marched and fought. From where the winds of winter sweep in shrill cadences over the hills of Northern Kentucky to where the warm waves of the ocean lave the sand-beaches of Carolina they followed the flag of their country with unfaltering devotion through victory and defeat, until with sorrowing hearts they saw it furled and laid away forever
Who can write its history, illustrate its devotion, and call the roster of its dead? How it followed a cause until that cause was irreparably lost; how it fought under Forrest-the most beloved leader of them all-in his numerous hard battles in many campaigns; in East Tennessee, under the chivalrons Kelly; and then to Chickamanga, where Forrest dismounted his men and led them into battle as in- fantry, and when the enemy were defeated and routed he mounted his impetuous riders and pushed them right upon Chattanooga. Here Forrest, followed by Maj. Wm. Caldwell, Adjt. C. D. Bell, and Lieut. Pack Edmonds, daringly charged into the streets of the town, where Forrest's horse was killed.
After this battle the regiment, in spite of its prayers and entreaties, was taken from Forrest, and, with the First and Ninth Kentucky, organized into a brigade and placed under the command of J. Warren Grigsby, and assigned to Gen. Jo- seph Wheeler's corps of cavalry. This was in obedience to new regulations from Richmond, putting regiments from the same State in brigades together. Forrest was to be sent into West Tennessee, and was allowed some troops with him. He asked for the Second Kentucky and MeDonald's battalion, but for some reason ·his request was refused.
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Immediately after the battle of Chickamauga, Wheeler gathered his forces to- getlier, and, crossing the Tennessee far above Chattanooga, swept around the ene- my's rear through the whole of Middle Tennessee, leaving ruin and devastation wherever he marched. At Farmington a battle was fought, in which the Second Kentucky bore the brunt of the fight and lost heavily.
It would be an endless task to attempt to follow in detail the service under this distinguished General, the Prince Rupert of the Confederate army. After the raid into Tennessee and some further service in East Tennessee, the command was recalled to the main army, and Gen. John S. Williams was sent to command the brigade, under whom it served until the close of the war.
After the disastrous defeat at Missionary Ridge, Wheeler covered the retreat from Dalton to Atlanta; and after the battle of Jonesboro, followed and capt- ured Stoneman and his command in the heart of Georgia; and then, again crossing the Tennessee River near Knoxville, made the circuit of the enemy's rear. On this raid Williams's brigade was separated from the main command, and being hard pushed returned by way of East Tennessee and Virginia, reaching Saltville in time to join in the battle there under Gen. John C. Breckinridge, which re- sulted in the total overthrow of the Federals and the saving of those valuable works.
Hood had invaded Tennessee, and Sherman was marching for the sea. Will- iams's brigade was sent to join Hampton, who was the only foe Sherman had in his front. This General was another Forrest, and fighting was hard; but how use- less! A few cavalry, however great their valor, could not successfully check the countless hordes of Sherman; and hordes they were, more pitiless than those of Attila or Genghis Khan, leaving fiery destruction in their march. Hampton fought them at every step, and kept their plunderers from scattering too far from their line of march. On the plains in front of Columbia, S. C., Gen. Williams's brigade was engaged in the heaviest contest of the war, for it and the Second Kentucky left its best and bravest dead on the field.
Soon after the foe reached the sea the command joined Gen. Johnston, who was gathering the scattered fragments of Hood's army in North Carolina. History tells how those decimated veterans fought at Bentonville. Part of that history belongs to this veteran regiment. Hope had fled, death had thinned its ranks, but with unconquered resolution its men fought; and it is but truth and justice to say that they never met the foe in those last days but their battle-scarred banner floated in victory over his silenced batteries and broken columns. But the dread fiat, which struck sorrow to so many faithful hearts, had gone forth from the Lord · of hosts, and the cause was lost.
President Davis dispatched to Gen. Johnston at Raleigh to send, as an escort for himself and the remains of the Government, a thousand of his best cavalry. Dibrell's division, composed of Williams's and Dibrell's brigades, was sent. The division reached the President at Greenville, and followed him in mournful march until about three days before his capture, beyond Washington, Ga. It was a mournful cortege that wound along over the hills of Carolina and Georgia in those memorable May days of 1865. On this march one morning the writer wit- nessed a scene that made a strong impression on his youthful mind. An am- bulance, which was in the train and near the front, had mired in the mud, or treken something, which caused a halt. On one side was Judah P. Benja-
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