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 52
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From Columbus, Miss., the route taken was through Alabama by way of Tusca- loosa, Wetumpka, Tuskegee, to Columbus, Ga .; thence through Talbotton to Ma- con; thence through Milledgeville and Warrenton to Augusta; thence through South Carolina, by way of Edgefield, Newberry, and Chester, to Charlotte, N. C .; and finally to Salisbury, which place was reached on the 3d of April, 1865.
At Wetumpka the toll for passing the column over the bridge on the Coosa was fifty dollars-half-price, it was said, as a special favor. Great complaint was made on being compelled to take the fee in the form of an officer's receipt. Fourteen miles farther south, at the ferry over the Tallapoosa, the fee was again fifty dollars, and energetic but vain remonstrance was made to the acceptance of a soldier's receipt instead of the money. At Columbus, Ga., the subject was better understood, as also at Macon and Angusta, and nowhere else was any attempt ever made to col- lect toll or ferriage of the column.
At Columbus, Ga., a halt of five or six days was made for the benefit of the horses, as they had deteriorated on the passage over bad roads and in the worst of weather. On the arrival at Macon another pause of perhaps a week was made. The guns were mounted upon their carriages, and, after some repairs, the column started for Augusta by way of Milledgeville, not far from which latter place it was found expedient to dismount the guns again and send them to Augusta by rail to favor the horses. Arriving at Augusta, the battalion crossed the Savannah Riv- er and camped about three miles east of Hamburg for three weeks or more, en- gaged in procuring horses and other indispensables to an efficient service. Capt.
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Corput here resumed command of his battery. A portion of the army supplies collected here had to be sent to the relief of the destitute citizens of Columbia, S. C., recently burned by Sherman.
On Sunday the officers repaired to the church of the Rev. Dr. Brantly. The Doctor, in his usual elegant manner, made some comments on the unexpected du- ration of the war. Those to whom men were accustomed to look for worldly wis- dom, he said, had predicted the end in three months, then in a year, etc .; but now we were well advanced toward the end of the fourth year, and still, apparently, peace was as distant as ever.
The officers occasionally took dinner at the Planter's House, where the price was twenty-five dollars a meal. The Captain and Lieut. Watson one night took supper at a restaurant. Two cups of coffee and a chicken, together with the usual collaterals, were supplied to each. The bill was fifty-two dollars each. It was soon found necessary to board in camp.
About the middle of March Gen. D. H. Hill, commandant of the post, held a review of the artillery and infantry, the latter numbering perhaps five thousand, under command of Gen. W. S. Featherston. Two or three days after the review the whole force was ordered npon the road again for Johnston's army in North Carolina. The column was ardently welcomed by the citizens along the route through South Carolina as the Army of Tennessee, though much of the command was from Mississippi, and such testimonials of their pleasure as the casualties of war had permitted them were offered. These were fragant flowers and tasteful mottoes, hundreds of which garlanded the fences, gate-ways, and buildings.
On the 3d of April the battalion of artillery arrived at Salisbury, and was there halted by orders from Gen. Beauregard. Here, after remaining in camp on the edge of the town eight or ten days, after gazing at the house in which Lord Corn- wallis had his quarters, and at another in which Gen. Greene, of Revolutionary fame, had his, and also after visiting the moss-covered cottage in which Andrew Jackson studied law, the command was ordered to return to the vicinity of York- ville, S. C., to graze their horses. The infantry and artillery had parted company some time previous.
In the execution of Gen. Beauregard's order the battalion had reached a point three miles south of Charlotte, a two-days' march, and had gone into camp for the night, when a courier appeared with an order to return at once to Salisbury. Early the next morning the column was marching for Salisbury again, and on the second night of the return march, after dark, arrived in town. Gen. Bradley Johnson had very recently arrived also, and was commandant of the post. Gen. Pemberton was also present, a guest of Gen. Johnson's; so also a Major of the engineer corps, direct from Gen. Lee's army in Virginia, and by him the position of the approaching artillery had already been selected. Confederate States Sen- ator G. A. Henry, of Tennessee, on his retirement from Richmond, staid in Sal- isbury that night, the 12th of April, 1865. There were forty or fifty convalescent soldiers of different commands present on their way to Lee's army in Virginia. Besides these about a hundred and fifty Federal prisoners, who had taken the oath of fidelity to the Confederacy, were in town, not on duty, but waiting for some- thing to do.
The Federal General Stoneman, with two thousand men (he really had seven thousand within supporting distance), was reported to be sixteen miles west of
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Salisbury at sunset. The excitement in the little town was intense. Whenever a party of officers rode through the streets, however late in the night, numerous and anxious inquiries would be made about the situation, especially by the women. No men-at least in citizen's dress-were visible.
The artillery officers called on Gen. Johnston for whatever directions he might wish to give. He only said, " Put your batteries on the ground selected by the engineer." This position was too far from town, being two and a half miles for the left section of Marshall's Battery and about a mile and a half for the right section, and the same for Corput's and Beauregard's batteries. The enemy could easily lap around the left flank of the line of batteries and attack them in the rear, between the town and the position, which was the very course the hostile cavalry did take on this part of the field; and that too when the left had been withdrawn a mile nearer the city. The three batteries formed a line running nearly north and south and about four and a half miles in length, crossing three roads converging from the west upon Salisbury. Their positions were taken about 11 o'clock at night, without even the semblance of a line of infantry for support. In front of the whole line of artillery ran a small stream in a pretty deep ravine, and beyond this ravine the land was generally timbered, though on the left the trees were sparsely scattered. Marshall's Battery occupied the left, Beauregard's the center, and Corput's the right of the line. Between the two sections of Mar- shall's Battery-the Captain and Lieut. Watson taking charge of the left section, which was the extreme left of the line, and Lieut. Cockrill commanding the right section-between these two sections, we repeat. was the Salisbury and Morgantown railroad, running east and west. The track was supported across the ravine on a pretty heavy fill, and approached the ravine through a deep cut on both sides. A dirt road also crossed the ravine close to the extreme left of the line of batteries by a bridge over the creek. A grist-mill and mill-pond were also close to the dirt- road on its left as the Confederate line fronted. Two other dirt-roads also crossed .the line of batteries, as before stated, but these need not be more definitely de- scribed.
The three companies bivouacked, keeping sharp watch, the horses not unhar- nessed, and the guns in bartery looking across the ravine to the west. The sky was clear. Sixteen miles were an easy night's march for cavalry, and promptly at dawn the few dozen convalescents doing picket duty three or four hundred yards in front fired a few shots and made their way back into town. It was suf- ficient, however, to announce the presence of the enemy, and after a few minutes, as it became lighter, horsemen could be seen flitting about as if for reconnois- sance. Capt. Marshall ordered the left section to open fire, and immediately the . whole park followed, as in Det the enemy were maneuvering across the whole front and around the Banks tesides. Very rapid firing was maintained about twenty minutes, the enemy meantime not showing themselves in front.
Just before sunrise the Morgantown Seight-train started from Salisbury on time, and came dashing all az right between the two sections of the left battery, passed over the fill across the ravine, and disappeared on its way to its destina- tion. The Captain ordered to cease firing, as it seemed possible that no enemy was in front, and the mounted zLea seen might be friends. Gen. Bushrod Johnson. commandant of the post. web surely Lave forbidden the train to leave if the line of the enemy were : r=el directly sumiss the railroad track, thought the ar-
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tillery-men. But presently all doubt about the character of the people in front was removed as the rising sun permitted better observation, and the firing was re- sumed. Soon, however-that is, about twenty minutes after the freight-train had passed -- the sound of another train from town was heard, and the passenger-train swept along the cut between the guns on its way to Morgantown also. Dr. L. B. McCreary, Surgeon of the battery, ran to the edge of the cut, and signaled by voice and gesture the danger ahead. He was unheeded except by some of the passengers, who of course were apprehensive about traversing ground on which they had just heard at least an hour's cannonading. Some one of them, as was afterward learned, clambered through the apartments of the cars by the doors then used to communicate with the engineer, and stopped the train just as the locomotive entered the cut on the west side of the ravine. Several ladies and gentlemen then stepped out, among whom, as remembered, were Col. Clark M. Avery, of the Thirty-third North Carolina, and Mrs. Gen. Polk and her two daugh- ters. These, by picking their way to the bottom of the ravine, made good their return to Salisbury.
The battery commanding the situation meantime ceased firing till the pas- sengers were at the bottom of the ravine, when, seeing one of the enemy trying to board the tender with a handful of what seemed to be blazing sticks and leaves, the Captain ordered to resume energetic action. At this moment the train begau to move forward, showing that some audacious Federal, probably familiar with railroad work, had got aboard and turned on steam. The practiced gunners of the battery fired through and through the train, trying to dash the wheels, or some essential part, to pieces; but they failed to disable the running apparatus, and the train, riddled with cannon-shot, slowly passed into the cut, where it stopped and soon burst into flames, as the captors had made a promising fire in every car. The artillery-men had to content themselves with shelling the whole front, whichi they did with a most lavish expenditure of ammunition.
Corput's and Beauregard's batteries had been equally active on the right, though for the last twenty minutes or so their guns had not been heard. Until the sus- pension of Corput's and Beauregard's batteries the artillery-firing had been con- tinuous for about an hour and a half, except the few minutes forborne while the railway-trains were passing. A courier from Maj. Johnston now approached Capt. Marshall, and said the Major ordered the battery to be withdrawn toward the town till it should be on a line with the other batteries, thus accounting for the silence on the right, for they were changing position; nor did they go into action ' again further than to fire a shot or two.
The left section was limbered up at once, pulled into the road, and moved at a trot toward town, all in plain view of the enemy, who were seen galloping down the opposite side of the ravine by the grist-mill as the battery passed over a slight elevation in the road. When about half a mile from town a single discharge of artillery was heard on the right, and as this was the only index available of the position of the rest of the line, the section halted, a high fence was pulled down, the guns entered the field, and were at once put in battery and into action again. The aim, however, could be taken by conjecture only. Trees prevented any dis- tant view, and high ground close to the left concealed whatever might be going on in that direction.
In about fifteen minutes after this position was taken the enemy's cavalry came
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dasling down the road as if from town in the rear, while the guns were playing to the front. They were at first thought to be Confederate troops, as the so-called "galvanized Yankees" were in the rear; and thus the hostile forces galloped into the field through the same gap that admitted the battery before these veteran ar- tillery-men saw that the game was ended and their occupation gone. The teams shied at the rush, and the gunners ceased firing without orders. Thus fell in an obscure skirmish the old battery that began its career in May, 1861, at Randolph, Tenn., on the Mississippi River; had thrice traversed the Confederacy with the great armies; had participated in all the general actions and in minor ones too numerous to mention; and had, in short, seen more service perhaps than any other single field-artillery company west of the Alleghanies.
Lieut. Watson, being well mounted, attempted to jump one of the fences that surrounded the small field, but his horse refused. The enemy were dashing about trying to fire their pistols, but they seemed to be all out of order or recently dis- charged; and, besides, these troopers had evidently been favored with heavy whisky rations. A cavalry officer leveled his pistol at Capt. Marshall, who was at the time on foot and not more than five vards off, but the weapon failed. The cavalry-man then said, "If you remain where you are you will not be hurt." The Captain only answered, " You have the battery." At this moment some disturb- ance seemed to arise among the enemy, who all started at high speed out of the little field into the road; and the Captain, supposing the tide was changing or re- lief of some kind was at hand, called out, "Cannoneers, to your posts!" The enemy turned back at once, and again tried their empty arms without effect at the Cap- tain, who probably did not merit entire impunity this time, but still he had only made an awkward mistake. "Double-quick these men to the rear!" was now the order, and the officers and about forty men were prisoners of war for the first time, and taken to the rear-that is, to the Confederate front-across the before-men- tioned ravine, where was the enemy's field hospital. There were some desperately wounded men under the hands of surgeons. The enemy had paid something for their success. Only two of the battery were seriously wounded, and these by their own guns in the last position, for the want of water in the sponge-buckets. From this cause occurred a single premature discharge, permanently disabling two men. The three batteries were all captured, and about half the men. Capt. Marshall, Lient. Watson, and Dr. McCreary were the only officers taken. The doctor was liberated the same day.
. Lieut. Cockrill, commanding the right section of Marshall's Battery, gallantly repulsed several charges of the enemy, and when they found no infantry to im- pede their movement around the flank of the artillery line, he attempted to move the section off at a gallop; but the cavalry was too near, and overtook the guns less than a mile beyond Salisbury. The Lieutenant and the mounted non-con- missioned officers escaped; so also the officers and mounted non-commissioned of- ficers of Corput's and Beauregard's batteries. By nine o'clock in the morning the enemy and the captured artillery-men were all in town, the latter in the prison- er's pen previously occupied by Federal prisoners, and the former feeding their horses on corn poured out on the pavements of every street in town. The reader may wonder why Gen. Johnson, or some of the officials in town, did not warn the Morgantown trains not to start on a trip through a line of battle. It is answered that the post commandant and his staff were not in town at the critical moment.
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They had all left on a south-bound train about the time the first gun was heard. The writer conversed on the subject afterward with Confederate States Senator G. A. Henry, of Tennessee, who passed the night preceding these events in Salis- bury.
After dark the large pen or building in which the Confederate prisoners were held was set on fire, and when the whole neighborhood was lighted up with the burning the inmates were ordered out. They were conducted across the scene of the recent skirmish, and compelled to wade the creek where they had broken down the bridge near the grist-mill the previous night, and halted close to the burned railroad-train till morning.
About three o'clock in the evening the column of prisoners-numbering seven hundred or more, counting those the enemy had taken elsewhere-began its march westward, and proceeded twenty-six miles without halting more than a few min- utes. A rest of two hours was then taken, and the march restned. The prison- ers were repeatedly examined by the guard for arms and valuables, and in a few days no one was supposed to be worth searching." The march was painfully rap- id, being apparently hastened by pursuit. Considerable firing was heard in the rear on the second day, and the prisoners smiled at each other significantly in an- ticipation of a stampede. It was rumored, on what authority the writer knows not, that Gen. Beauregard was the party pursuing, and that he was close on the heels of the enemy. It is unnecessary, however, to say that the prisoners went too fast to be overtaken. The route was from Salisbury through Statesville, Tay- lorsville, Lenoir, and over the Cumberland Mountains into Tennessee, through Jonesboro to Greeneville, when the march ceased. It had been terribly severe to those who had been accustomed to ride or walk at pleasure. The surrender of Lee had been reported at Salisbury the day before the battery was taken, but no South- ern soldier gave it np till the arrival at Knoxville, Tenn., where information that could not be doubted confirmed the report. The assassination of Lincoln also was known to the guard in forty-eight hours after it occurred, though the column was then among the mountains, so miraculously does the knowledge of decisive events travel. Stoneman in a day or two turned the prisoners over to a Col. Kirk, who seemed inclined to resent the death of Lincoln upon the prisoners. The Colonel
# Capt. Marshall carried his gold watch in his boot-leg, safely wading rivers, and finally en- tered Camp Chase, and emerging with his watch unhurt. The robber guard, however. took his Royal Arch Masone mark, which was a locket, having in it the likeness of Washington. In fact, they took every thing he had in his pocket, except three dollars in Confederate money, while crossing Cumberland Mountain.
In the fall of 1365 the Secretary of the Royal Arch Chapter at Clarksville, Tenn., received a note from the Secretary of the Royal Arch Chapter at Iona, Mich., saying he had seen a Ma- sonic mark in the hands of a person who probably had no right to it. He said it bore the in- scription " L. G. Marshall, Chapter 3, Clarksville, Tenn." Was there ever a member of that Chapter of that name, and was he in good standing? If so the mark would be sent for five dollars (it cost fifteen), as it had been sold to a jeweler. The Secretary of the Clarksville Chap- ter replied in the affirmative to the questions from Michigan, and sent his answer to C'apt. Marshall for his comments and decision about sending the five dollars. He replied that he would pay the price on delivery, but not otherwise, and told the Michigan Masons the story of the watch safely carried while the mark was taken. A full year elapsed before any further word was received on the subject, when the Grand Secretary of the Grand Chapter of Tennes- see received similar inquiries from the Grand Secretary of the Grand Chapter of Michigan. Similar answers were returned, and in four weeks the mark was sent to the owner, free of all charges, from the Secretary at Detroit.
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had seen no service, as one of his Lieutenants said, except the care of unarmed men.
At Greeneville, Tenn., the column was taken upon the train in box-cars, and passed through Chattanooga, Nashville, Louisville, and Indianapolis to Camp Chase, five miles west of Columbus, Ohio, which point was reached on the 4th of May. The treatment of prisoners had been very severe at this place some time previous, but as the war was now considered ended resentments had softened, and the fare was altogether tolerable-indeed, the rations were a good deal better and more ample than this last influx of Confederates had been accustomed to receive in their own armies.
On the 14th of June, 1865, the last of the artillery-men, whose history we have only very imperfectly related, were released from Camp Chase, after the usual oath, and began to look around for other engagements.
THE CAPTURED BATTERY.
Sergeant Sterling R. Cockrill gives the following account of the loss of the first or right section of Marshall's Battery at Salisbury, N. C., April 13, 1865:
On the evening of the 12th of April, 1865, the first section of our battery, con- sisting of the first and second guns, under command of Lieut. Cockrill, was sent out about a mile and a half from town with the "galvanized " gentry aforesaid to do picket duty. At the first streak of dawn on the morning of the 13th we were ordered into position, and in a few minutes a body of cavalry were discoverable through the gray mist in our front. We were not sure whether they were friend or foe, but our doubt was soon dispelled, for the column deployed into line and swept down in a gallop upon us. There was a creek immediately in our front, with precipitate banks, skirted on either side with a line of timber. Beyond this to the front was a broad, open field, through which the cavalry came. We re- ceived them first with solid shot, then with canister, and, as they drew nearer still, with double charges.of canister. When they reached the timber on the creek the line broke and retreated in a good deal of disorder to the opposite side of the broad field alluded to. They were there re-formed, and crossed the field again at a sweeping gallop, led by a commanding-looking soldier on a large white horse. The line showed signs of wavering earlier than at first; but, led on and encouraged as they were by the gallant leader on the white horse, they came to within about one hundred and twenty-five yards of the guns, wavered, broke, and fled pell-mell. Not so, however, with the rider of the white steed. . There was no flight in him. As I look back now through the mist of years upon that April morning he seems grander than a statue in bronze as he checked his charger in the very teeth of the guns, raised himself full height in his stirrups, and tried to rally and cheer on his men. At this juncture I could hear his words, when they were not drowned by the noise of our two guns, and I am compelled to bear wit- ness that, as his men deserted him, he then and there, for the time at least, lost his piety. Unlike Polk, our warrior-priest, he asked for no proxy to do his "cuss- ing," but stood tiptoed in his saddle, and showed himself a veritable trooper in swearing. But he railed in vain, and when he could do no more, instead of fol- lowing the mad flight of his troops, he struck a gentle pace and retired as sullenly as a lion from his prey. But we were not lost in admiration of the scene, for both guns had been active, and both were now specially directed at the rider of the
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white horse. I myself sighted the first piece at him three times charged with canister. We literally harrowed the ground around him, and followed him with solid shot till he was out of range. He was a shining mark, this rider of the white horse, but he was spared for a noble end. I learned the next day from one of our men who was captured and had escaped that this gallant rider was none other than Stoneman, he who but a month ago led the Democracy of the farthest West to victory. In battle " he was brave as Uba's grizzlies are," and in peace, I am told, as "proud as any king." However, Stoneman-for it was his command- crossed some men afoot over the creek to our left, charged us in flank, and we limbered up and left in a gallop. The galvanized infantry that was left to sup- port us made no effort at resistance. We were not much disappointed in this, for we stood in fear of their guns being turned on us. They were content, however to hug the ground close until the cavalry occupied our position.
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