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 54
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It was shortly after this that Gen. Forrest was assigned by President Davis to the command of the Department of North Mississippi, and carried with him a small force of some three hundred hardened veterans, the nucleus of the fine com- mand he was afterward to organize. They reached Okolona November 15, and from now on especially the exploits of Forrest's cavalry read like a wonder-story.
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Day and night, winter and summer alike, his indomitable energy never slackened or tired. He was everywhere, and fell upon his enemy like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. He was more than a born soldier-he was a born god of battle. He in a large measure infused his own splendid spirit into his entire command. The commonest soldier under his eye became a hero. I think he would have ac- complished substantially the same marvelous results with alnost any body of men that might have been given him. Who of his soldiers can ever forget the elec- trical effect of his presence on the battle-field or the danger-beleaguered march ? I can now see, by the flashes of lightning in the dark night, while the rain falls in torrents, the dispirited column as it struggles through the indescribable swamps of Mississippi, men and beasts worn out with loss of sleep and with work and hunger. But see how every eye Hashes wide open and how each bent form straight- ens itself in the saddle-how the very horses whinney with pleasure and recover their strength, at the sound of that strange, shrill voice, and at the sight of that dark form, the incarnation of storm and battle, that rides by on his big gray war- steed, his legs swinging like pendulums on either side the saddle, and followed by his famed body-guard. Each man is suddenly wide awake, and invigorated as by the first fresh breath of early dawn ..
All apprehension of defeat slunk away at his approach. He was, with all his faults of harshness and cruelty, a genuine, earnest man, and did the work his duty required of him thoroughly and with all his might. His commission as General was not only signed by Mr. Jefferson Davis but by the Almighty as well, and his soldiers knew it.
A sketch of the part played by Morton's Battery from hence on would necessi- tate an account of all the operations of Forrest's command, for in all the engage- ments of any importance it contributed its full share to the result achieved; and this, when compressed into the shortest space possible, would greatly exceed the limit prescribed for this article. Therefore the writer must content himself with the attempt to draw a rude outline picture of such scenes as he can now recall, from which the reader may form some conception, however imperfect, of the char- acter of the battery and the part borne by it in the events that now followed.
A week or two after his arrival at Okolona, Forrest, at the head of some five or six hundred men, with a section of the battery, entered West Tennessee. M . purpose was to bring out from there as large a force of recruits and conscripts as he could gather, and with them organize an army. This he accomplished in three weeks' time, in the face of a greatly superior body of the enemy.
The 1st of January, 1864, found him camped around Como, Miss. Here an incident occurred that serves to illustrate the looseness of the discipline which at that time prevailed in the battery. A few of its officers were young and hand- some, and therefore of course fond of the admiration they undoubtedly excited in the breasts of all the young ladies they met; and much of the time that ought to have been devoted to their duties in camp was spent in worshiping at the shrine of beauty and vanity. Such of them as were old or ugly occupied the most of their time in playing at cards. As a consequence, the men scarcely felt the influ- ence of subordination and discipline. The weather was intensely cold !. The guns were parked in an open space where once had stood a large dwelling-house, the charred remains of it still in part standing, and were inclosed by a half dozen or more substantial log-cabins-servants' quarters-that had escaped the fire un-
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injured. The mess of which I was a member had succeeded in seizing and appro- priating one of the largest and best of these, and each man had with considerable labor constructed him a rude bedstead, and had filled it with cotton procured from a gin not far off. We were snugly and warmly housed. The wintry scene out- side-snow covered the ground-and the recollection of recent hardships made the big wood-fire on the hearth diffuse a double sense of warmth and comfort. At this moment came a knock on the door, and one of the men entered with an order from Capt. Morton that our cabin must be vacated, as it was wanted by the officers of Rice's battery. By this time all the cabins were occupied. For the moment there was blank silence, and then from every throat a cry of indignation. The mess determined to resist this order. They appointed one or two of their number to wait on the Captain and remonstrate against its enforcement. At this juncture a Lieutenant in Rice's battery rode up in front of the door and inquired when we would leave. It was either Sergt. Brady or Sergt. Zaring whose wrath was so violent and uncontrollable that he even threatened an assault upon the officer, and loaded him with curses. Finally it was agreed that the question which of the cabins, including the one occupied by our officers, should be given to the officers of Rice's battery should be determined by casting lots that evening at roll-call. This was done, and, strange to relate, the lot fell on us. Even after this a few of our number were so carried away by passion that they seized great pieces of timber, and demolished the entire roof. The next morning four or five failed to answer at roll-call. They had left in the night for their homes. All of these, however, with one exception, returned after a few months' absence.
About the middle of February the battery, then at Grenada, was ordered to West Point to aid in intercepting and frustrating Gen. Grierson's march to join Gen. Sherman at Jackson. The road lay through dismal swamps, and was almost impassable from the heavy rains that had been falling for days uninterruptedly. The command marched day and night. On this march Capt. Morton had a re- markable escape from death. It was at night, and the light from the one or two pine-torches we had could pierce only a few feet through the solid black darkness. Every few minutes the wheels of the gun-carriages and caissons would mire up to their hubs in the sticky mud, and to extricate them the gunners would be forced to put their shoulders to the wheel, and the drivers would stimulate the broken- down horses to renewed effort by loud cries and blows. In crossing a corduroy bridge over one of those black, snaky, Styx-like streams peculiar to the swampy regions of Mississippi, now swollen to a raging torrent, at this point confined be- tween high, perpendicular banks about fifty feet apart, Capt. Morton's horse car- ried him over the edge of it. How he succeeded in extricating himself from what seemed inevitable destruction I have never been able to understand. Grier- son was met and utterly routed.
In the latter part of April, the term of our enlistment having nearly expired. the members of the battery held a meeting, at which they unanimously resolved to, and did, reenlist for the war. A few weeks after this Capt. Morton was as- signed to act as Chief of Artillery, which position he continued to hold until the close of the war. Lient. Sale thereafter commanded the battery.
The command left Tupelo May 30th, with five days' rations in each haversack, on what was understood to be a contemplated raid into Middle Tennessee, or in the rear of Sherman's army. Verily on this march the doors of heaven opened and
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the rain fell in a solid body. On the third day, and when almost in sight of the Tennessee River, the command was halted, and after a half-hour or so a counter- march was ordered. We Tennesseans, I fancy, felt very much like recaptured prisoners on their return-way to the dungeon. We understood that a large force had left Memphis to strike the rich prairie country around Okolona, and thus destroy our depot of supplies.
On the Sth of June the command reached Booneville, a small station on the Mobile and Ohio railroad .. The battery was encamped a few feet from the track. where stood a box-car, in which three deserters were confined, who were to be shot the next day. A preacher was with them, and I can still hear their loud voices in. prayer and singing hymns. The next morning the clouds had passed away and the woods were jubilant with the twittering of birds. The command was drawn up in an old sedge-field, in the center of which three newly-dng graves opened their mouths to swallow the three blindfolded victims of war who knelt at their brink. How awful it was! The clear, blue, unsympathetic sky so far away overhead, the world so full of freshness and joyous life, and before the band- aged eyes of these poor human beings doubtless the picture of their childhood's home, where sits at the open window this bright June morning the old mother with her knitting in her lap, the wife with her little children about her knee, all unconscious of the tragedy that is about to becloud their lives forever. A sharp command, a crack of musketry, and two lives are snuffed out like worthless tal- low-candles. One of them was spared on account of his extreme youth. Will he ever forget the moment he knelt by that open grave and heard that crack of musketry?
The next morning some twelve or fifteen miles south-east of Booneville we first heard firing far off to the right in the direction of Pontotoc. How fresh and clear the day was, and how distinct the sound of the firing! Such was the state of the road, and such the jaded condition of our horses, that even at this time we had been passed by the entire command and left far in the rear. Some miles farther on every few minutes Orderlies would dash up, their horses flecked with foam, and, hat in hand, would call out in excited tones, "General Forrest says hurry up your guns!" By dint of tremendous exertions the horses were put and kept in a gallop, until at length we came in sight of the battle. One feels again the rush and excitement of that hour! A heavy column was moving down the Pontotoc road toward Guntown, and the head of it had already passed Brice's house, which stood at the intersection of that road and the one we were traveling, and a hot fight was raging between it and Bell's and Lyons's brigades, when Mor- ton's and Rice's guns were opened on it from a ridge that ran parallel with the road down which it was moving. The fire proved telling and destructive from the jump. Morton's guns were handled as perhaps they had never been handled before. Throughout the fight they were kept in the very front line, and chargel with the infantry, throwing canister and shell into the demoralized ranks of the enemy whenever he attempted to stand and re-form his lines. They fought all the time at musket-shot range and closer.
At the close of day what a scene was that that lay around us! The air was charge l with the smell of gunpowder and darkened with heavy clouds of smoke. The en- emy had been driven back pell-mell into a frightful swamp. His wagon-train, over a mile long, loaded with rich army stores of all kinds, blocked the way.
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The next day and all day long the pursuit was continued. The writer recalls the groups of country people, men and women and children, that greeted us along the route, and their homely but animated description of the frightened and demoral- ized condition of the enemy; the officers urging their soldiers to a double-quick by the assurance that Forrest would extend them no quarter. The capture of Fort Pillow had occurred a short time before this, and Forrest was charged with having in that action virtually raised the black flag. Farther on we were told that regiments and companies had broken ranks, the men. or great numbers of them, betaking themselves to the woods as the surest means of effecting their es- cape. And we found this to be true. Throughout the day large squads of them were captured wandering about through the woods lost. "It was a famous vic- tory."
About a month afterward, on the 13th, 14th, and 15th of July, was fought the obstinate and bloody battle of Harrisburg. S. D. Lee commanded the Confeder- ate forces, A. J. Smith the Federal. The weather was dazzlingly hot, and the battle was fought almost entirely on open ground. Lieut. Tully Brown tells of an incident that well illustrates the nonchalant courage displayed by Lieut. Sale, commanding the battery, and which was typical of that exhibited by all the offi- cers and men under him. Sale rode up on the summit of a knoll where Brown was standing by one of the guns of his section. The air was dark with a storm of bullets and shells. It seemed certain death to sit there on horseback, and Brown remonstrated with him against the rash act; but his eye had caught sight of a very small pony that had been harnessed to the limber in the place of a big wheel-horse disabled. An amused expression came over his face, and, pointing to the pony, his answer to the remonstrance was: "Brown, - if he don't believe he's a wheel-horse!"
Sergts. West Brown (three times wounded), C. T. Brady now living in Jack- son, West Tennessee), and Lem. Zaring, distinguished themselves, as they always did, by their cool courage and the admirable manner in which they handled their pieces. So did Corp. Joe T. Bellanfant (who was badly wounded in the head, and now lives in Culleoka, Tenn.) and Corp. J. D. Vauter 2 mar-headed veteran, who spent much of the time in reading the Bible), Jimmie Woods, W. Murray, H. T. Newton, T. J. Wyatt, and many others whose name: I cannot now recall. At one time, within the space of a few minutes, five of the seven cannoneers at Sergt. Brown's piece were wounded. and six of the eight Losses attached to the limber disabled. To give any thing like an adequate description of the part played by the battery in this sanguinary battle would consume more space than this entire article is permitted to occupy. No description is better than the meager and imperfect one which the limited space at my disposal world necessarily compel.
Shortly after this Lieut. Sale was stricken with paralysis. Liest. Mayson there- upon assumed command. Mayson was among those woundel a: Harrisburg. At the close of the war, after his return to Nashville, he removed to San Francisco, where he died in the early part of February, 1884.
The space at my command also forbids any attempt to des .. Te the expedition into Middle Tennessee, which followed about two months after the battle of Har- risburg; the romantic fight at Johnsonville; the march ist: Tennessee under Hood; or the part played by Forrest's command in coveri: : the retreat of the Army of Tennessee after the disastrous rout in front of Nasirite.
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REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND MEMORIAL ROLLS.
On the 9th of May, 1865, at Gainesville, Ala., the command was surrendered.
It is a remarkable fact that, amidst all the dangers that constantly surrounded it while on the march or in action, the battery never met with an accident; it never lost a gun, although on Hood's retreat its gunners were sabered at their pieces. At Tishomingo Creek, at Harrisburg, and in many other engagements, the guns were in the very forefront of the fight. There was little or no sickness among the men, and no deaths except in battle. They composed a miscellaneous assortment. There was a Massachusetts boy, there were Missourians and Kentuckians, and every State of the Confederacy had one or more representatives in its ranks. Beardless boys served by the side of gray-headed men; gentlemen of birth and scholarly accomplishments ate out of the same vessels and slept by the side of "wharf-rats" from Mobile and New Orleans, and each came to love the other. In the same mess one was a devout, Bible-reading Christian, another an unbridled blasphem- er; and, strange to say, their common humanity linked even these two together as friends.
PORTER'S BATTERY. BY JOHN W. MORTON, NASHVILLE, TENN. -
THE political history of Tennessee in 1861 is familiar to the student, and espe- cially so to the chief actors who have survived that stormy time. The North was slow to comprehend the reality of armed resistance on our part. The division of sentiment at the South on the question of the expediency of immediate secession was mistaken for the existence of a submission party, whereas the division was confined to expediency alone, and almost wholly disappeared when our State was threatened with invasion. There was revealed to the people the necessity of de- fending their homes and their liberties against what they thought a ruthless as- sault on both, and then unanimity prevailed. The question of the right of peace- able secession-and, in fact, every other question-was lost sight of. Facts took the place of theories, and nothing remained but the arbitrament of force. The people were practically united, and a spirit of determined resistance took posses- sion of the masses. Among the younger bloods, who were the chivalry of the army, there prevailed but one sentiment, and that was, "Right or wrong, I go with my people and my section." The first call was promptly responded to. It was the second call-the latter part of June, 1861, by Gov. I. G. Harris, for regi- ments of infantry and three companies for light artillery-that brought out Por- ter's Battery, which was organized at Nashville through the influence and as- sistance of the Hon. M. Burns, Dr. John W. Morton, and W. L. Hutchison. The company was called the Burns Light Artillery, in honor of M. Burns, Esq., who in many ways aided in recruiting the company and contributed liberally toward uniforming it. The first commander was Capt. Jesse Taylor, and the camp selected was known as Camp Weakley, some two miles north of Nashville, where the company underwent several weeks of hard drilling. Capt. Taylor was soon re- lieved at his own request, and ordered to the command of heavy artillery at Fort Henry, for which service he seemed especially fitted. Thomas K. Porter, a Lieu- tenant in the United States Navy-who had just returned to Tennessee, his native State-was appointed Captain, with the following organization: W. L. Hutchison,
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Senior First Lieutenant; John W. Morton (who had been transferred from Co. C, Rock City Guards, First Tennessee Infantry), Junior First Lieutenant; W. R. Culbertson, Senior Second Lieutenant; Len. Burt, Junior Second Lieutenant; Frank McGuire, Orderly Sergeant; George W. Holmes, Quartermaster Sergeant; T. Sanders Sale, Joseph W. Yeatman, W. H. Wilkerson, Horace C. Ross, H. W. Hunter, B. Banister, Sergeants; William Green, Pat. Murray, Z. Connally, Pat. Hoben, A. D. Stewart, Peter Lynch, Pat. Flaherty, Geo. G. Henon, W. E. Hol- den, A. B. Fall, Corporals; Barney Barnes, Farrier; J. S. Parker, Wheelwright; P. N. Richardson, Saddler; W. D. Madden, Blacksmith; Max Genning, Wheel- wright.
In July the company was ordered to Bowling Green, Ky., and transferred from State to Confederate troops, and as was customary the name was changed to that of Porter's Tennessee Battery, after the name of its commander. The armament consisted of six guns-four six-pounders, smooth bore (brass), and two twelve- pound howitzers (brass), with caissons and battery equipments complete. Under Capt. Porter, a skillful and most efficient officer, the battery soon became very ef- ficient in drill and discipline-in fact, it was a most excellent training-school for officers. Porter and a number of his officers and men subsequently held impor- tant commissions in the Confederate service.
The battery's first march was with Gen. Buckner's division through Kentucky to Hopkinsville, where some "home-made Yankees" were dispersed with slight loss, and from thence to Russellville, and back to Bowling Green. Capt. Porter's strict discipline in camp was of great service to both officers and men on this march.
Although actively engaged in daily drills, a great many members of the com- pany were stricken down with measles, mumps, and other diseases (especially was this the case with the country lads), until the efficiency of the battery was greatly impaired, which necessitated the details thereupon made from the Third and Eighteenth regiments. The writer, being naturally of spare physique and unaccustomed to the rough usage of camp-life, was prostrated with typhoid fever soon after returning from the march to Hopkinsville, which kept him confined and from active camp duty for six weeks. This was his only absence from duty for any cause during the four-years' service.
BATTLE OF FORT DONELSON.
The company marchel with Gen. Buckner's division to Fort Donelson, at which place it arrived on the evening of the 12th of February, 1861, where it fired its first gun and made its first record. It was assigned to position on the right center of the outer works, supported by the Fourteenth Mississippi Regiment ( Baldwin's) immediately around the guns, the Third Tennessee (Brown's) on the left, and the Eighteenth Tennessee ( Palmer's) on the right. Col. Cook's Thirty-second Tennes- see was to the left of Brown, and Hanson's Second Kentucky was on the right of Palmer. The position occupied by the battery was exposed right, left, and front, being at the apex of the angle in the works, formed where the intrenchments turn in passing from the river above Dover around westerly to the water-batteries.
The writer, in company with Gov. James D. Porter and Maj. W. F. Foster, vis- ited the battle-grounds at Fort Donelson in 1878; and, after a careful survey of the entire line of works and the water-batteries, a map was prepared by Maj. Fos-
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ter, who was formerly the efficient Chief Engineer of Stewart's Confederate Corps, Army of Tennessee.
The space to be defended was almost quadrangular in shape, divided into two parts by Indian Creek, which was filled by an almost impassable backwater. The ground between the valleys was a rugged, hilly upland, covered with a dense un- dergrowth. The defenses for light artillery were very meager. Porter, Graves, and Maney had their men constantly exposed when in action. The timber south of the fort had been felled, which, with the ravines and valleys flooded with back- water, greatly retarded and embarrassed the movements of the Confederates within the advanced works. These works were unfinished and defective.
The Federals had moved with rapid but cautious step, and at sundown on the 12th had wound their coils completely around the Confederate works without re- sistance, save a little artillery-firing by the opposing batteries and some sharp and deadly shots from Berge's well-trained sharp-shooters, which caused a suspension of work on the Confederate trenches.
Our first night in the ditches in the presence of the enemy was balmy and spring-like. The stars twinkled with unusual brightness, the moon beamed with tranquil light upon the sleeping hosts, and not a sound was heard save a shot from some stray picket, the seemingly peaceful prelude to the storm of hail and deadly strife so soon to follow.
The dawn of the 13th was ushered in by the boom of the Federal artillery and the sharp crack of the skirmisher's rifle, which hastily brought the boys in gray to their feet, provoking a spirited artillery-fire all along the front. There was a great deal of coquetting along the lines by the Federals. As early as eight o'clock Gen. Cook sallied forth against the right center with his Iowa boys, but found the music and its accompaniment from Graves's and Porter's batteries too warm for comfort, and soon retired behind a neighboring hill. The artillery of the enemy assaulted the center of the Confederate left, which was promptly re- sponded to by the artillery on that part of the line. For over two hours a spir- ited artillery-fire was kept up along the entire line, when about eleven o'clock McClernand's hoosier boys made a dashing charge on the prominence occupied by Maney's battery, supported by Heiman's brigade, but were repulsed. They made two other desperate efforts to carry Heiman's position, but were forced to retire before the storm of shell and canister poured into their ranks from Porter's, Graves's, and Maney's batteries, and the hail of bullets from our in- fantry.
Col. John C. Brown, in his official report, says: "Capt. Graves, in less than ten minutes, knocked one of the enemy's guns from its carriage, and almost at the same moment the gallant Porter disabled and silenced the other." It was during this assault that the young and brave Albert S. Fall, gunner in Porter's Battery, lost his life. He was handling his gun with great coolness and skill, when the writer, who was within a few feet of him admiring the quiet and determined man- ner in which he was aiming his gun, suddenly saw him drop his head forward on the breech of the piece, a Minie-ball having penetrated his skull, killing him in- stantly.
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