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 50
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side of his gun. Private Lane, a Mexican war veteran, was also killed while making his way to the rear badly wounded. Only these three names of the killed can now be recalled. When all the horses had fallen except one of the teams of the right section, the Captain gave orders to limber up the right piece and get away. The team came forward under the gallant drivers in the midst of a storm of all sorts of shot, but the six horses fell in a heap, the lead-team with their heads on the trail of the piece they were going to save. The Captain then said: "We can't save the battery; let the men leave as quick as possible." The guns
- were now silent. The men were all now lying on the ground, whether dead, wounded, or unhurt, and occupying as little space as possible. Marshall called to his section to rise and follow, when he, mounted his horse, which stood near hitched to a swinging limb. He mounted not very hastily, for the act seemed to challenge the enemy's fire. The latter, however, were intent on killing at first all the artillery-horses they could, and besides they were at the moment extending their flanking enterprise, and were now somewhat in rear of the battery. These two circumstances probably saved the survivors, for it was at that time quite in the power of the enemy, without danger, to piek off every one of the battery men who left the place. Thirty-five men only followed the Captain and Lieutenants from the terrible spot. The little party, instead of going to the rear, had to trav- el for two hundred yards across the line of the enemy's fire, as the battery was nearly surrounded before they started; but no casualties occurred except the loss of the Captain's beautiful dark-bay, called Prince, which received five shots in the fight. The Captain shouldered his saddle, and all the remnants moved away to- ward the banks of the Chickamauga, about a mile distant. Even here the ene- my's shot fell thick, and an improvised field hospital had to be moved over the creek. While moving to the rear Capt. Carnes met Gen. Preston Smith, who in- formed him of the loss of his battery commander, Lieut. Marsh, then command- ing Scott's battery, and offered to put Carnes in his place. The Captain accepted, and was soon in command of Scott's battery, which command he retained till the arrival, on Sunday morning, September 20, of Capt. Scott, who had been left ill at La Fayette a few days before. Capt. Carnes was then put on Gen. Polk's staff till we invested Chattanooga.
As to the battery, the enemy rushed in, chopped down the limbers, and dragged the gun-carriages by hand about one hundred and fifty yards toward their line be- fore Stewart's division, then approaching double-quick, could open fire. At the first volley, however, the enemy abandoned the guns where they were, and re- turned to a line of works in rear of the first. To insure the early restoration of the battery, Col. Walter, of Bragg's staff, a friend of Capt. Carnes's, invited the General to the ground to see the evidences of the desperate fight made on the spot. Stewart's corps had made a fight of perhaps three hours over the ground before it was recovered, and thus the heaps of dead were somewhat greater than were due to the battery. Bragg said he would like to sell Rosecrans some more batteries at the same price as this. His orders were positive to restore every thing as the Captain desired and prescribed. As a compliment, the new guns were in- scribed, "Chickamauga, Sept. 19, 1863."
Early on the morning of the 20th Gen. Cheatham ordered Lients. Marshall and Cockrill to see that the guns were hauled from the field across the Chickamauga and sent to Atlanta with the artillery captured from the enemy, the latter being
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upward of fifty pieces. This done, Carnes's two Lieutenants and the thirty-five men remaining of his battery were ordered to report for duty to Scott's battery, which lacked at that time about that number of its full complement.
During the battle of the 20th, or second day of Chickamauga, and for three weeks following, the remnant of Carnes's Battery were identified with Scott's battery. Gen. Bragg made honorable and very flattering mention of the be- havior of the lost battery. He gave Capt. Carnes his choice of all the captured artillery, and the foundries and mannfactories of Atlanta were ordered to restore this battery before any other work; and, indeed, before the battle of Missionary Ridge the battery was fully equipped with four new and beautiful twelve-pounder Napoleon guns, carriages, caissons, full sets of harness for eight horses to the piece. and a full complement of horses. After the restoration of the battery it was as- signed to Stevenson's division, and Capt. Carnes was placed in command of the battalion of four batteries of artillery under Stevenson, the four batteries being Carnes's, Corput's, Rowan's, and Baxter's. Of men, however, the battery yet only had enough to move the material on the march, not enough to handle the guns in action; nor was this deficiency supplied till the following December. The bat- tery did not therefore participate in the battle of Missionary Ridge in Novem- ber, but moved to Dalton on the 25th with the army, the Captain, however, tak- ing the full benefit of that action by virtue of his command of Stevenson's battalion of artillery. Camping-ground was selected three miles south-west of Dalton, and here Carnes's, Gracey's, Rowan's, Corput's, Smith's, Turner's, and Baxter's bat- teries, not distant neighbors, built stables for their horses and made themselves comfortable abont two months.
MARSHALL'S BATTERY.
In December, 1863, Capt. Carnes, who was a Lieutenant in the regular C. S. Navy, received orders from the Navy Department, resigned his position in the artillery and reported for duty in the Confederate States Navy-for which branch of the service he had been specially educated-and was assigned to the iron-clad "Savannah," of Savannah, Ga. He had achieved a brilliant reputation as an artillery officer, and probably no battery in the West had seen more service or had become better known than Carnes's Battery. Since April, 1862, the battery had belonged to Donelson's brigade (after the battle of Murfreesboro, Wright's brigade), of Cheatham's division. It was now transferred to Stevenson', division, Hood's corps, and Lieut. L. G. Marshall was promoted Captain of arti !- lery. He commanded the battery till the end of the war, or till it was taken by Stoneman at Salisbury, N. C., on the 13th of April, 1865.
Scott's battery was disbanded soon after the battle of Missionary Ridge, and Lieut. Watson, from Memphis, of that battery, together with most of the men, was assigned to Marshall's Battery, where he remained till the end of the war. The remainder of Scott's men were sent to Swett's battery (Mississippi), and Capt. Scott was assigned to ordnance duty with Wheeler's cavalry.
The artillery of the whole army was now divided into battalions of three or four batteries each, an arrangement which was any thing but satisfactory to the Captains and Lieutenants, because in such large bodies requisitions were never so well filled, nor could ground so advantageous for action or camp be chosen.
Another circumstance much regretted by the artillery may be mentioned here-
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REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND MEMORIAL ROLLS.
namely, the discontinuance of the use of the Bormaun fuse. About the last of 1863 it was found that lead, the metal commonly used in the construction of this fase, was getting scarce. Throughout the Dalton campaign, especially where heavy firing occurred, soldiers were encouraged to pick up all the shot they could easily find, and for the lead thus obtained they were paid by the pound, or relieved of guard duty, as they preferred. Many hundred pounds of lead were so procured; bat this was only a drop in the bucket. The loss of the Bormaun fuse was greatly la- mented by old battery men, and the poor substitute of the paper fuse, and shears wherewith to cut it, was always used with unmitigated disgust.
The battalion belonging to Stevenson's division was composed of Marshall's, Rowan's, and Corput's batteries. These three commands, from December, 1803, camped together, marched together, and fought side by side till the end of the war, though Capt. Corput was wounded at the siege of Atlanta, and scarcely ever resumed his command, and Capt. Rowan was killed at the siege of Nashville, in December, 1864. Maj. J. W. Johnston, a kinsman of the great Joe, commanded the battalion from its organization at Dalton till the close of the war. Corput's battery was manned and officered by Georgians, Rowan's by Marylanders, Mar- shall's principally by Tennesseans, whose fortunes we therefore mainly follow.
In February, 1864, the battalion was ordered to Kingston, thirty miles south of Dalton, for the benefit of the horses, which were suffering for proper food. Bat the horses did not improve at Kingston, for the corn furnished was mostly of the sort collected as tithes, and had been stored in bins by the side of the railroads in the open air; and as transportation could not be had for its prompt distribution, it was often mildewed and unfit for man or beast. There had been a few cases of glanders before leaving Dalton, and perhaps ten per cent. of the artillery-horses died of this disease abont Kingston. The stock looked unhealthy generally, and as if badly kept-to such a degree, in fact, that a staff officer ignorant of equinia and its symptoms reported to head-quarters that the horses were badly groomed, 'a misrepresentation which hurt and offended the drivers deeply, for they thought as much of their horses as of their fellow-soldiers, and did every thing they could do for them in the way of grooming, cleaning, and nursing. Still, as spring ad- vanced, the situation was somewhat ameliorated by the supply of better corn and by such pure forage as could be procured.
About the first of March the battalion was ordered back to Dalton, as the enemy was known to be near in heavy force and seemed to threaten movement. In a day or two the battalion went into camp again in a pleasant situation on the east side of the railroad, about equidistant from Dalton and Tilton.
Late in April, the condition of men and horses having greatly improved, and the number of both being ample, the battalion assisted at the most splendid re- view of the Western armies ever held. The commands of all arms were ont. An imposing style was assumed. Discharges of artillery announced the initiative of the procession of the General and his numerous escort from the right flank of the line along its front, and also his return in rear to the right flank. No soldier who witnessed that magnificent scene ever forgot the display of power then indi- cated or the gallant bearing of the actors. Every man was a veteran.
Shortly afterward the curtain rose on the Dalton campaign, and an ordeal began in comparison with which previous trials were trivial. "For ninety-three days," says Hardee, "the armies never lost their grapple." On the 6th of May the ba :-
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talion of artillery went into position with Stevenson's division five miles north of Dalton, on the heights called Rocky Face, and skirmished with the enemy's lines for two or three days. In these passages not many of the enemy were killed, but a great many were wounded, says Vanhorn in his "History of the Army of the Cumberland."
At the opening of this campaign the officers of Marshall's Battery were: L. G. Marshall, Captain; First Lieut. James M. Cockrill, of Nashville, commanding the first section; Second Lieut. Watson, of Memphis, commanding the second sec- tion; and Second Lieut. Finis E. White, of Paris, Tenn. (promoted from Orderly Sergeant), commanding the caissons. Of non-commissioned officers there were: Sergeants, James Bailey and Gilliam, of Tracy City; Wilson, of Brownsville. Thomas Peters, of Memphis, Ordnance Sergeant; G. W. Cheatham, of Walnut Hill, Arkansas. William Wilson, of Lewisville, Ark., Orderly Sergeant. Quar- termaster Sergeants, Day, of St. Louis, and Allman, a Georgian. Corporals, Frank McKnight, of La Fayette, Ark., and Wise, of Mississippi. Unfortunately the names of several veteran Corporals-brave and experienced gunners-are not re- called.
On the night of the 12th the batteries moved with the army to Resaca, eighteen miles distant, and on the 13th and 14th Marshall's Battery occupied the nar- row ridge of a hill so facing the enemy's line across the Dalton and Resaca road that for the want of room the guns had to stand in echelon. By nine o'clock in the morning the action became almost general, and heavy firing of artillery at short intervals continued all this and the following day, the enemy, seemingly for effect, trying to fire by batteries-not with much accuracy, however. During the first day's fight two of the battery men were killed. Maj. Johnston, commanding the battalion, was severely wounded, and did not rejoin the command till the bat- tle of Jonesboro, September Ist. Sergeants Bailey and Wilson (not the Orderly) were also severely wounded, and did not again appear in the battery till after the siege of Atlanta. The Captain was slightly wounded in the face while standing too near the range of one of the pieces in echelon, crowded as the battery was on a narrow elevation. Ordnance Sergeant Tom Peters was also slightly wounded, but retained charge of the ammunition-wagons. He was on the line of battle only through excess of gallantry, not in the execution of the duties of his office. One of the killed was a boy gunner, seventeen years of age only, who had enlisted when he was less than sixteen; and his mother, by dint of perseverance, had just obtained his discharge, which, being approved, came to the battery some days after the battle. Capt. Max Van Den Corput took command of the battalion as senior Captain, on the retirement of Maj. Johnston wounded, and retained the position till he was himself wounded while standing in Rowan's battery on Peach- tree Creek during the siege of Atlanta. Corput's battery was captured at Resaca- or rather, having been advanced to an untenable position, had to be abandoned when the army retired.
After dark on the night of the 15th the battery was ordered to withdraw as silent- ly as possible. The army crossed the Oostanawla by two bridges, both commanded by the enemy's guns in daylight. As the dense columns moved in the dark to- ward the bridges, the enemy opened a tremendous fire apparently from their whole front. Had the enemy at this critical time made a general attack, as many thoughit. the firing portended, the Confederate army would have been lost; but it
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was afterward said that Johnston ordered his pickets to advance a little about dark in order to create this very uproar, under cover of which the army might get away peaceably. On went the army, the enemy all the time close in the rear, through Calhoun, Adairsville, and to Cassville, where line of battle was formed, the battery occupying a fair position on a ridge east of the town. There was skir- mishing during the day, but no casualties in the battery except the loss of two horses killed and Sergeant Gilliam's saber shot from his side.
At night on the 19th of May the battery moved to Cartersville, about mid- night overtaking the women and children who had fled from Cassville during the firing in the morning. The hardships of war did not rest on the soldiers alone. Next day the army crossed the Etowah, and in four or five days, by slow marches, the enemy keeping nearly abreast with the Confederates on the right, line of bat- tle was formed near Dallas, and a line of strong intrenchments thrown up, run- ning in a direction north-east and south-west, more than fifteen miles in length. On this line the two adverse armies maneuvered, skirmished, and sometimes fought almost general actions, for three weeks. Every day and night the batteries were engaged, and as they were often moved new intrenchments had to be made. Up to about this time earth-works had been the exception, but henceforth all com- mands of any considerable magnitude were covered by defensive works.
About the Sth of June the army formed the Kennesaw line, and here the artil- lery found its usual occupation. Nearly every day the rain poured in torrents, and still the sun shone hot and burning; still the artillery fought night and day, threw up intrenchments night and day, and men snatched what sleep they got under the roar of contending guns. Movements were always made at night, or at least begun at night, and whenever and wherever a designated position was reached then began at once the digging and building of earth-works, which had to be from ten to fifteen feet thick to resist the enemy's fire. In addition the works were often protected by abatis. The mere labor of fortification was beyond what prudent masters would demand of robust slaves. Physical and mental powers were tested to the utmost degree of endurance. The strain of constant vigilance was perhaps harder to bear than the digging, marching, and fighting all combined; but neither could be relaxed for an hour.
For three weeks, or till the Ist of July, the battalion was engaged on the lines about Smyrna Church and Kennesaw Mountain, from whose top one could look down Whitehall street, in Atlanta, twenty miles distant. While on the Smyrna Church line Sterling R. Cockrill, brother of Lieut. J. M. Cockrill, was enrolled in Marshall's Battery. Young Sterling was then only sixteen years of age, but in consideration of his acquaintance with military matters, having been a student of the military department of the college near Marietta, he was immediately ap- pointed Sergeant of a piece to fill a vacancy which had just occurred. Sergeant Cockrill held this position till the end of the war, acquitting himself as a soldier of fidelity and bravery and as an artillerist of skill and judgment.
The citizens of Atlanta had been able to hear the artillery fire ever since the arrival at Cassville, and very plainly after the arrival at Dallas. For many days the roar of the approaching combatants had increased in intensity on the unwill- ing ears of the inhabitants. Heavy cannonading occurred at Chattahoocheeonly -
seven miles from the Gate City, and when the Confederate army actually crossed that stream to the south side early in July the despair and loud lamentations of
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citizens may have constituted an element in the policy which dictated the re- moval of the ablest commander, all things considered, whom the war had brought into notice.
Hood having taken command of the army, the battalion was now in Gen. Ste- phen D. Lee's corps.
On the 23d of July Johnston's battalion of artillery was put in position on the line arranged for the defense of Atlanta. Rowan's battery was stationed on Peach- tree street, a short distance beyond North avenue (a street that crosses Peach- tree). Marshall's Battery was stationed on the right of Peach-tree street, about six hundred yards from Rowan's battery and on the right of the present Atlanta street railroad running out toward Ponce De Leon Springs, just beyond the street railroad bridge over Silver Creek. Corput's battery (a new one having been fur- nished him since Resaca) was stationed six hundred yards to the right of Mar- shall's in the direction of Ponce De Leon Springs. The second section of Mar- shall's Battery was on the left side of Silver Creek, as the line fronted, and was in charge of Lieut. Watson. The first section was on the right of Silver Creek, as the line fronted, and in charge of Lieut. J. M. Cockrill. The horses were kept most of the time a mile and a half in the rear, where they were less exposed and under the care of the drivers." All the batteries were protected by very heavy earth-works and abatis. Here, for thirty-five days, the employment was to fire shot and shell night and day. During this considerable period the firing ceased not for an instant. The guard being posted, men slept as in a mill, undisturbed by the noise; or, lying awake, they might watch the fiery fuses of the hostile shell careering high in the darkness, for the enemy elevated the range of their guns at night so as to strike the buildings of the city if possible. But when at last the firing suddenly stopped one night, as the enemy retired to make their flank move- ment, the sleepers awoke at once and inquired what was the matter. The army remained the entire following day in the trenches, or wandering over the vacated camping-ground of the enemy, wondering what was the meaning of the apparent suspension of hostilities. Some thought the enemy was retreating, for Sherman had been able to mask his movement by a curtain of cavalry dense enough to con- ceal his purposes both from citizens and Confederates.
Late in the evening of this strange and silent day the battery was ordered to take position three miles east of the city. Here the cannoneers fortified their guns in an old redan previously used for some such purpose; but after dark the battery was ordered to take the road to Jonesboro. Traveling all night-with the loss of one caisson abandoned and blown up, for the horses had fared poorly dur- ing the siege of Atlanta, and were less serviceable than when the siege began- Jonesboro was reached about noon on August 31. Marshall's Battery took posi-
* Here, however, the enemy's guns of long range did sometimes reach. About midnight on a certain occasion a shell struck the ground a foot or so from the head of one of the driv- ers, who was slumbering with his head on his knapsack, which contained nothing but an o'd jacket. The shell, penetrating the ground, passed under the head of the driver and there burst with a stunning report, the contents seeming to fly in a lateral direction. as none of the missiles or pieces touched the sleeper. He jumped up and spun around like a top, and also talked so wildly that the surgeon was sent for: butt he advised to do nothing, unless to wait. The man was an excellent driver, and continued to keep his team rather as a favor; but he could never be trusted to drive by himself afterward. nor even to groom his horses without an adviser standing by. His health was apparently unimpaired, but the concussion unsettled his head permanently.
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tion on the north side of the railroad, firing at intervals till night, for the enemy were already on the ground in full force.
At one o'clock on the following night the battery was ordered to return with Lee's corps to the vicinity of Atlanta, which march was made to within five miles of the city, and here the column halted for the night. Before morning Stewart's corps joined Lee's, and both returned, passing east of Jonesboro, near which place they were joined by Hardee's corps, and the whole army went into camp at Love- joy's Station. In a few days Gen. Lee ordered his corps into the form of a hol- low square, and then in the midst, under a pouring rain, he made a most fiery speech, complimenting the artillery, but saying the infantry must and should dare to charge moderately strong fortifications, as our brethren in Virginia were doing every day.
At Lovejoy's Station the artillery remained about four weeks, making prepara- tion for another campaign. Not one of the batteries had now more than four serviceable horses to the piece, nor more than sixty men. The depletion had been slow but continuons. Since leaving Dalton each battery had lost about thir- ty-five men in various ways.
Soon after the fight at Jonesboro, twenty-six East Tennesseans were assigned to Marshall's Battery from the Conscript Bureau. They were supplied with cloth- ing, to the exclusion of the older members, and drilled till all were competent cannoneers; but the night the army started on its march into Tennessee twenty- four of the twenty-six deserted, and were seen no more in the service. Their places were filled by assignment of thirty or forty experienced soldiers from the infantry.
Men and horses quickly recovered their normal condition in the enjoyment of a pleasant camping-ground and in the supply of abundant and wholesome food. By the first week in October the wear and tear of the most arduous campaign of modern times had apparently left no sign either on mind or material. In fact, the army was ready for another campaign, and did make another, on which the Army of Tennessee displayed its characteristic high qualities. True, when Pres- ident Davis, a few days before the march began, reviewed the army at Lovejoy's the sullen veterans, instead of cheering much, gruffly called out, "Give us Jolin- ston!" but that was only a soldier's tribute to an old and loved commander. It was no mutiny nor sign of mutiny.
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