USA > Texas > A comprehensive history of Texas, 1685-1897 > Part 35
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The latter part of March, 1862, Judge David S. Terry, of California, and Mr. Clinton Terry, of Brazoria, brothers of Colonel Frank Terry, joined the regiment. The sick and wounded reported for duty, and the opening guns of Shiloh found them in the saddle and ready. Wharton's official report to General Beauregard reads as follows :
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"The 'Rangers' were holding the bridge across Owl Creek on Sunday, the 6th. Here I received an order from General Beauregard to cross Owl Creek and co-operate with the left of the army. Reporting to General Hardee, in command of our left, I was ordered to dismount the 'Rangers' and protect a battery then opening on the enemy. The enemy apparently retiring, General Hardee ordered me to pursue them. Mounting the command, I promptly proceeded in the direc- tion I supposed them to be, when the head of the column received a heavy fire from a large force lying in ambush. Having been compelled to cross a boggy ravine in single file, the head of the regiment was full four hundred yards in advance of the rear, when I and twenty or thirty of those in advance came under a heavy fire from the concealed Federals not forty yards distant. Clinton Terry fell mortally wounded at my side. It being impossible from the nature of the ground to form for a charge, I drew off the regiment in good order, with some few wounded, myself among the number. I then dismounted my men and joined the infantry in ott rear. After a severe struggle we succeeded in driving the enemy back. I then mounted again, going to the extreme left to a battery that needed support. I threw five dismounted companies forward as skirmishers. My men behaved most gallantly, advancing upon the enemy and driving them through the camp which they were guarding. I encamped for the night on the extreme left, near the battery I had been sustaining. My command lay upon their arms during the night prepared for action. On Monday, April 7, the left flank of the army fell back about daylight. At ten, General Beauregard ordered me to charge the right of the enemy, which was heavily pressing our left. I was compelled to pass through a wood down the sides of a ravine. Again this threw the head of the regiment in advance of the rear. Upon rising a hill, I found it occupied by the reserves of the Federals advancing in line of battle, who opened a disastrous fire upon us, killing and wound- ing many and disabling my horse. I withdrew the command a short distance. While thus engaged on the left, our army fell back upon Shiloh Church, and I returned to a position in the rear of our infantry to protect the retreat ordered by General Beauregard. On Tuesday morning my wound became so painful-having been in the saddle for two days after it was received-that I decided to report myself at Corinth, turning over my command to Major Harrison. 1 respectfully refer you to Major Harrison's report of a brilliant charge led by himself on Tuesday afternoon.
"JOHN A. WHARTON."
Of this charge Harrison reports to Colonel Wharton : "We captured forty- three prisoners, leaving forty dead on the ground. My loss was two killed, seven wounded, among them being Captain Gustave Cook, Lieutenants Story and Gordon. Colonel Bedford Forrest, who volunteered into the charge with us, was slightly wounded. The 'Rangers' acted throughout the affair with admirable coolness and courage. I cannot say more than that they fully sustained the ancient fame of the name they bear. They could not do more. I cannot discriminate between them, because each one displayed a heroism worthy the cause we are engaged for."
Near the middle of April a Kentucky regiment under Colonel Adams and the "Rangers" under Wharton were sent to scout in Middle Tennessee, and floundered about without purpose for a month. On May 10, Captain Houston, with the First Kentucky Cavalry and a detachment of the "Rangers," was ordered to cut off the retreat of the enemy on Ell: River. They had a sharp fight near the railroad bridge at Bethel. Captain Harris and five "Rangers" were killed. Or the Federals seventeen were killed and forty-nine taken pris-
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oners. Captain Houston was given much credit in the reports for this skirmish On June 9, 1862, the " Rangers," under that heaven-born cavalryman, Colonel Bedford Forrest, were brigaded with the Fourth Tennessee under Colonel Baxter Smith, First Georgia under Colonel Crews, and the Second Georgia under Colonel Lawton. Up to this time the " Rangers" had been, as General Johnston promised, an independent command. Bragg was now in command of the Army of Tennessee, and his slogan, "On to Kentucky." Forrest began the forward movement, and made his first raid in the rear of the Federal army. Like " Stonewall" Jackson, he was always an unknown quantity to the enemy, cutting his line of communication to-day, and to-morrow destroying his supplies miles away, dashing into wagon-trains and capturing arms, ammunition, medicines, stores, and prisoners by the score. At McMinnville Forrest reorganized his command. The Fourth Tennessee was now under Captain Paul Anderson, Colonel Baxter Smith having been captured. This Tennessee regiment was known to the army as " Paul's people," not from having " met the Lord in the highway and been converted," but from the affection- ate manner Colonel Anderson had of speaking of them as "my people." This dashing young officer had all of Forrest's scorn for tactics. His command were volunteers from "Lebanon in the Cedars," and he had christened it "Cedar- Snags." His morning exercise was : "Fall in, Cedar-Snags ! Double up on Jim Britton ! Double up ag'in ! March !"' In battle his commands were : " Attention, Cedar-Snags ! I ine up on Jim Britton ! Charge !" This was all the tactics he knew or needed.
At Murfreesboro' General Buell had a force of two thousand infantry and a battery of artillery guarding his supplies there. Forrest determined to capture them. Late in the afternoon of July 12, 1862, twelve hundred men started on an all-night's ride to Murfreesboro'. At Woodbury, in the middle of the night, women, "like angels in white," came to the windows to cheer them on. One grief-distracted wife caught Colonel Wharton's stirrup and besought him to rescue her husband, who was to be hung as a spy at noon in Murfreesboro'. Wharton assured her that if he lived he would. In the gray light of the summer's dawn the order came down the line, "Halt! Dismount! Tighten girths! Recap guns!" Here Forrest sent a courier to Colonel Wharton for a trusted officer and ten men. Lieutenant Weston and ten men from Company H were sent to him. Forrest said : " Lieutenant Weston, I desire the pickets in our front captured without the firing of a gun." Shortly Weston reported the duty done. Then, like the surge of the sea, was heard the beat of their horses' hoofs as they galloped into Murfreesboro', Forrest and Wharton leading. By some mistake only the " Rangers" followed. Wharton with one hundred and twenty men charged on the infantry at the right of the town, who, notwithstanding their surprise, defended their eamp gallantly, pouring a galling fire into the " Rangers," wounding Colonel Wharton and causing him to fall back. Forrest on the left charged on the artillery, but, on looking back, he found only thirty or forty " Rangers" behind him. He rushed back for his Georgians, and, getting lost in the town, rode up to a house and routed out a citizen in his night-clothes, and, mounting the frightened man behind him, made him pilot him to his men. He charged back to the relief of the " Rangers," and with incomparable coolness began his strategy of " bluff." Marching his men in and
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out around the court-house, he sent a flag of truce to General Crittenden with this order :-
" MURFREESBORO', July 13, 1862.
"GENERAL, -I must demand an unconditional surrender of your force as pris- oners of war, or I will have every man put to the sword. You are aware of the overpowering force at my command, and this demand is to prevent the effusion of blood. I amı, general,
" Your very obedient servant, "N. B. FORREST, C. S. A.
After a short consultation with General Duffield, who had been wounded in Wharton's charge on the infantry, General Crittenden, thinking Bragg's whole army upon him, surrendered at discretion his entire command, eighteen hundred and sixty-four privates, four commissioned officers, a battery of four guns, arms, ammunition, stores, horses, and mules, to the amount of a half-million of dollars. The mortification of the Federals was extreme when they found that Forrest had not enough men to guard his capture. When offered parole, General Crittenden drew himself up and haughtily replied that he did not recognize guerillas as sol- diers, and refused. Forrest shrugged his shoulders, saying, "Very well," and ordered two big West Texans, in buckskin and armed to the teeth, to guard him. These old campaigners gave each other the wink and the general a most uncom- fortable half-hour by telling ferocious yarns about what they were in the habit of doing with prisoners. It was not long before Forrest was petitioned for a parole. A pleasing instance of the amenities of war occurred in Captain Ferrell's charge with Forrest on the artillery. A citizen had volunteered to go with the "Rangers" into the fight. In the charge he was severely wounded and about to fall from his horse, when Private Graber, of Company B, caught him, and, as the command scattered, was left in the field with the wounded man. Coming to a fence, which the "Ranger" could have jumped without difficulty had he been alone, he coolly dismounted, under a rain of bullets, and pulled the fence down. The Federals. seeing the gallant act, ceased firing and cheered him as he carefully bore his man out of danger.
From Murfreesboro' Forrest made his celebrated feint on Nashville, causing panic and wild confusion in that devoted town. In his official report he says: "I hear the enemy was badly scared. I regret exceedingly I had so few men. I might have captured the city without trouble." The Murfreesboro' fight made Forrest a brigadier-general, and he was given command of a division. Wharton was now in command of the brigade and Major Harrison of the " Rangers," and Bragg and Buell were racing towards Louisville, the "Rangers" in front of Buell stubbornly contesting every mile of his march. At Bardstown, Kentucky, Wharton was ordered by General Wheeler to hold a certain position for a given time, to allow Bragg to move away. The brigade was in an open field, men and horses resting. The " Rangers" had been in the saddle forty-eight hours, and most of that time fighting. The scouts sent to reconnoitre came flying in to report that they were surrounded by Buell's army. Captain Jarmon's company, guarding the rear, was seen moving rapidly towards the regiment. Colonel Harrison remarked to Whar- ton : " There is great danger when Jarmon retreats in a hurry. What had best be
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done?" Wharton replied : "Charge them outright. Up, Rangers, and at them!"' And as the Fedral cavalry, like a great blue cloud, charged down upon the little band with drawn sabres, gallant Ben Polk wrapped his bridle-reins around the pommel of his saddle, and, holding his six-shooter in his right hand, blew a defiant charge with his left. Jarmon wheeled into position, and the " Rangers" with a wild yell thundered down upon the advancing column. White got to one side with his two small cannon to allow the rear to pass, and, seeing a place to operate, unlimbered and poured shot into the enemy over the heads of the "Rangers." The Federals broke in confusion, throwing arms and accoutrements away as they scattered,- "Texas six-shooter against Yankee sabre, and victorious." Wharton had cut his way through to Wheeler, and was made a brigadier for this charge.
On the morning of the ISth of October, after twenty-three days of hard fight- ing, hunger, and hardship, they were halted on Harrodsburg Creek, near Perry- ville, Kentucky. The Federals held a position on a timbered ridge opposite, on which they had posted one hundred and twenty cannon. The Confederate army lay along the bluff of the creek ; between the two armies was an open field. While Bragg was awaiting an attack by the enemy's artillery in the morning, Buell sent a detachment to flank his rear. To extricate himself, Bragg ordered his cav- alry to attack. Wharton's brigade moved out on the flank of the Federals until it was in line on the right of Hardee. Wheeler's cavalry filed in from the main body and assumed position on Wharton's right. It was soon discovered that the Con- federate cavalry was to make one grand charge, and to push on until the Federal army should change its front or repel them. Wharton and his staff took position at the head of the "Rangers," and a charge was ordered. They move like the wind on the batteries belching flame. Whole sections of the brigade are mowed down, but they ride steadily and faster until they reach the cannon's mouth, and the six-shooter does its effective work. Cheer after cheer comes up from the Con- federates in the valley, and Hardee and Cheatham ascend the hill in one of the most superb infantry charges of the war. Slowly the Federals give back, and night closes with the Confederates in possession of the field. In the night Bragg falls back towards Cumberland Gap, and the hotly-contested field of Perryville is "without results."
Bragg's retreat from Kentucky was pushed by Buell with energy and decision, the " Rangers" guarding his rear. In Tennessee, the latter part of 1862, the duty of the " Rangers" was relaxed. They were at home among the warm-hearted and hospitable Tennesseans. Warm firesides, "square" meals, and the smiles of pretty girls made an Eden on earth awhile for the war-worn soldiers. From the report on Christmas morning, they had recruited to an effective force of six hundred and ninety men, five hundred and seventy-two in camp and a hundred and eighteen off on special duty. December 27, Rosecrans (now head of the class in "Lincoln's Academy for the graduation of young and sudden field-marshals") confronted Bragg on Stone River, near Murfreesboro'. Wharton was sent with five days' rations to the rear of the Federal army, to cut off communications and supplies. He returned to the front on the morning of the 31st, and was ordered to attack the Federal pickets. Driving them in, his command fell back and stood in line of battle under severe shelling from the enemy's artillery. He heard the cry :
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"The enemy is giving way. Bring up the cavalry," but it proved only a fall-back for the reserves to move up. Then the Confederates gave way and a cavalry charge was ordered. This continued all day. At night, the " Rangers" were ordered to the rear of the Federals for information. They found Rosecrans's army hurriedly retreating, leaving its wounded, its wagons, everything behind. The "Rangers" returned to report the wonderful news, and found General Bragg in full retreat. Each army "skedaddling" from the other,-spectacle for gods and men !
Early in 1863 the " Rangers" were again with Forrest, now a major-general in Wheeler's division. In February, Forrest with eight hundred men made a raid to Fort Donelson, of disastrous memory, at this time heavily protected by gun- boats. He did some sharp fighting but without success, and returned to Shelby- ville. At Donelson, Sam Maverick, of San Antonio, distinguished himself by swim- ming the Cumberland River, in a driving sleet, and setting fire to a number of the enemy's transports. During the winter and spring Forrest captured three thousand wagons, eight thousand mules, quartermaster's and commissary stores, and prisoners without number. He was always on the wing, swooping down upon the enemy when least expected, raiding from Sparta, Tennessee, to every point of the compass, -at times into Kentucky, again towards Nashville, fighting and dashing away seemingly into space. In April, the Eleventh Texas was mounted, and with Duke's regiment, the First Kentucky Cavalry, was sent to Wharton. In June, Bragg began his retreat to Chattanooga, Wharton's brigade doing picket duty in his rear, fighting at Gray's Gap, Allison, Deckard, Battle Creek, and Trenton. From this long and hard campaign the "Rangers" went into camp at Cave Springs, near Rome, Georgia, with two hundred and fifty men and one hundred and sixty horses fit for service. Here they rested for two months, and returned to peaceful and pleasant ways of life. Chaplain Bunting, mindful of their souls, now that he was not bind- ing up their wounded bodies, held a series of revival meetings. A Masonic lodge was formed, and "pie-rooting" and flirting kept pace with the more serious busi- ness. General Wharton having had three horses killed under him, and having refused to run for governor of Texas (his mother had refused for him), saying her son's place was "at the front, as long as there was need for a man there"), the " Rangers" determined to present him with the finest charger Confederate money would buy. They bought a magnificent bay thoroughbred, and sent to San Antonio for a thousand-dollar Mexican saddle, all embroidery and jingling silver. They gave a grand barbecue, and the whole surrounding country being invited, came and pitched their tents along with the soldiers. Private John B. Rector (now a grave and reverend United States district judge) presented the horse to Colonel Wharton in a speech full of war poetry and fire-eating eloquence. Spread-cagle oratory and fun were the order of the day.
The " Rangers" were in fine condition when they broke camp at Silver Creek. The command had recruited to four hundred and twelve men. Rosecrans was marching towards Chattanooga with seventy thousand infantry and artillery, to drive his famous "wedge into the Confederacy." Burnside was moving towards Knoxville with twenty-five thousand men. Longstreet's corps had been sent from Virginia to reinforce Bragg and make a decisive stand against Rosecrans. The Confederate army now numbered sixty thousand, making the two armies more Vor. II .- 44
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nearly equal than they had ever been. The "Rangers" were sent out on a line to Alpine, Georgia, to prevent a flank movement of the enemy. At Alpine and other mountain passes they had eight severe skirmishes with the Federal cavalry. They were scouting during the day and strengthening weak points, and were on guard three nights at a time. They now became familiar with the axe, in felling timber to obstruct these passes. They were at Alpine one day, Somerville the next, and on the third at McLemore's Cove. The 19th of September found them moving rapidly upon the leit flank of the enemy towards Chickamauga. Rosecrans's army was dis- tributed up and down the west side of the Chickamauga Valley, Chickamauga Creek
separating it from the Confederates. The Federals made a vigorous attack on General Walker's corps on the 19th, but were gallantly repulsed, the Confederates capturing several batteries of artillery. In the afternoon Hood's whole front became hotly engaged, and continued fighting with varied fortunes until nightfall. On the morning of the 20th, Breckinridge made a forward movement on the right against Thomas, and about eleven o'clock Longstreet on the left, Hood advancing in the centre. Rosecrans's line slowly gave way, but contested every foot. Late in the afternoon the Confederate line made a forward movement of its entire length, a mighty tide of resistless force, carrying the field triumphantly. The Federals retired towards Missionary Ridge. Night fell, but with a brilliant moon. Longstreet ordered Wheeler to dash forward with his cavalry between Chattanooga and the enemy, and sent a courier to General Bragg to say that a forward movement of his whole line would capture Rosecrans's army. General Forrest climbed a tall tree to find out for himself what was going on, and seeing the Federal army a disorganized, panic-stricken mass, straggling in flight, he shouted to a staff officer : " Tell General Bragg to advance the whole line. The enemy is ours." But General Bragg called in the stragglers, and in his official report says: "The darkness made further move- ments dangerous." The Federal loss was greatly larger than that of the Con- federates, but Bragg makes the appalling statement that he has lost two-fifths of his army. During the day of the 19th Wharton's command, with the exception of the " Rangers," was dismounted and ordered to charge a battery posted on a hill over- looking the valley, the " Rangers" going around and charging from the rear. The fight was so stubborn that a Confederate and a Federal ensign crossed their color- poles. The command suffered severely, one of the wounded, Colonel David S. Terry, being a volunteer for the occasion. Wharton moved on to Gordon's Mills, crossing the ground Hood had just fought over. Trees had been shot into splinters, and the undergrowth looked as if mown by a reaper. Dead men and hospitals marked the field for two miles. On the 20th, the " Rangers" were dashing here and there, charging and falling back, until night, when they were sent with Wheeler to intercept the Federal flight. Late in the afternoon, Captain Gordon, of Wharton's scouts, riding up to a sinall stream, found himself face to face with a squad of Yankees. With the effrontery of a "Texas Ranger" he coolly called to them to "Stack .arms and come over here, or I will turn my battery loose on you." Instantly the white flag went up. and the whole sixty of them stacked arms, and were moved back to his ten scouts waiting a short distance away.
For days after Chickamauga the " Rangers" were on scout duty, following Rosecrans's retreat to Chattanooga. They captured their food and ate it in the
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saddle. Men slept in the saddle from exhaustion. The regimental report, on October 1, shows that forty per cent. of theni had been killed, wounded, and cap- tured,-one-fourth of these off duty forever. On the 18th of October, 1863, Gen- eral Rosecrans was relieved from the Army of Tennessee, and U. S. Grant assumed command with autocratic powers. He telegraphed Thomas to " hold Chattanooga at all hazards." Bragg had invested Chattanooga, and held the Yankee army there at the point of starvation. Wheeler's cavalry, to which the " Rangers" were at- tached, had been sent to the rear to cut off supplies. Near MeMinnville, after a sharp fight, he captured seven hundred prisoners and a train of seven hundred wagons loaded with ammunition and other stores. He then attacked McMinnville, capturing another large train and five hundred and thirty prisoners, and destroying several bridges and the railroad track. He moved on to Shelbyville, where he captured and burned a large amount of stores. The army supplies captured and destroyed by him in this raid is without precedent in the annals of raiding.
Near Shelbyville the " Rangers" had a desperate skirmish with Wilder's cavalry, which charged down upon them with a battery of eight guns as they turned into the Louisburg Pike, cutting them off from Wheeler's main body. Colonels Cook and Christian and Ben Polk were wounded as the regiment eut its way through to Wheeler. The "Rangers" were now sent to Knoxville, to guard Longstreet's rear, and were with him during the East Tennessee campaign against Burnside, then intrenched at Knoxville. The territory to be scouted over was large and full of secret foes (dastardly traitors to their own people), the cavalry few and worn out by long and hard service, the horses barely fit for use. Incessant vigilance being necessary, the men were continually on duty. The soldiers were without tents, and often with no other food than parched corn, scouting and skirmishing through snow and sleet, swimming swollen streams, -sometimes their clothes were frozen and their horses' manes and tails solid icicles when they reached the opposite bank. The Texans were ordered to take the fords below the other troops, in order to rescue the soldiers who were swept from their horses. On one occasion Private Tom Gill swam his horse across with an Alabamian, elutehed by the hair, in each hand. At Strawberry Plains, almost starved, they enme upon a track of flour which they trneed to a covered outhouse. They appropriated their "find" in short order, but before they could get their biscuits made a good angel, in the shape of a woman, ran up and told them that the flour was poisoned. A test was made, and enough poison found to kill Longstreet's army, much less the troublesome " Rangers."
From the Ist of January, 1864, they were raiding continually. They crossed and recrossed the Tennessee River six times, going around the Federal army, cap- turing supplies and prisoners, fighting and falling back, until the 13th of April, at Cleveland, Tennessee, where they made a gallant stand, but were driven back to the main army. In the mean time, Bragg had been defeated at Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge by the " Great Hammerer" and had retreated to Dalton, Georgia, where he was removed and Joseph E. Johnston placed in command. Grant had been transferred to the Army of the Potomae, and Sherman had taken command of the Western army, -his battle-cry, "On to Atlanta." He moved on to Dalton in three columns, under Thomas, Schofield, and McPherson. Here Johnston was expected to give battle, but instead he retreated towards Atlanta.
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