CHAPTER XVII.3
General Bragg’s Kentucky Campaign in 1862.
BY BAXTER SMITH.

In June, 1862, after the retreat of the Confederate army from Corinth to Tupelo, Miss., in view of important movements to the northward had in mind by the Confederate authorities, it was deemed wise by General Bragg, who had succeeded to the chief command of the Army of Mississippi, to transfer Col. N. B. Forrest to Gen. E. Kirby Smith’s Department of East Tennessee, in order that he might operate on Buell’s line of communication with Nashville and Louisville, as well as Cincinnati.

At Tupelo the army was thoroughly reorganized by that master hand, Gen. Braxton Bragg, for an aggressive campaign into and through the State of Kentucky—one column under Gen. E. Kirby Smith, whose objective was Cincinnati, and one column under General Bragg himself, his objective being Louisville, Ky. While the Army of Mississippi lay at Tupelo, Miss., it was reorganized, drilled, and placed in a high degree of efficiency preparatory to its northward movement, which, when made, would necessarily draw General Buell from his base, then in North Alabama.

Pursuant to General Bragg’s order, Colonel Forrest proceeded to Chattanooga, and from thence to the vicinity of McMinnville, where he organized his first brigade, consisting of about 1,300 men. Leaving Colonel Forrest at Chattanooga, I reported at Knoxville to Gen. E. Kirby Smith, who, when my credentials were presented, remarked that I was the man he was looking for. He at once commissioned me as major of cavalry and ordered me to repair to Loudon and take command of a battalion stationed there and join Colonel Forrest near McMinnville, which I did at once. After organizing the brigade and putting it in the best state of efficiency that could be done with raw troops, many of whom were badly mounted and armed and many of whom had never been under fire, the commanding officer called a council of war to determine what movement should be first made by the new brigade. Before this time efficient and trustworthy scouts had been dispatched to the vicinity of various important points along the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, it being deemed important to inflict as much damage as possible to that road, which was the main line of communication of Buell in his expected retreat to Nashville and thence to Louisville. There were many important points along that road that were garrisoned, Murfreesboro, a city of from three to five thousand inhabitants, being regarded as the most formidable. A detailed account of the engagement there was made by me many years ago, and is as follows:

Colonel Forrest left Tupelo early in June, 1862, with a small staff, for the scenes of his new operations. Proceeding across the country to Knoxville, he reported to General Smith, who assigned him to the command of a brigade of cavalry, the various commands of which were ordered to report at a place known as Rock Martins, about seven miles east of McMinnville. There Forrest’s first brigade was formed, and consisted of the Eighth Texas (Terry’s Rangers) Regiment, commanded by Col. John A. Wharton; the Second Georgia Regiment, commanded by Col. J. K. Lawton; the First Georgia Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Morrison; and a battalion consisting of four companies of Tennessee cavalry and a squadron of Kentuckians formerly of Helm’s Regiment, all placed under the command of Maj. (afterwards Colonel) Baxter Smith. The entire effective force, armed, numbered about 1,300 men, all cavalry, many of whom had seen but little service, and what they would accomplish under their new leader had to be determined by testing them.

Reliable scouts were sent out along the railroad as far as and beyond Murfreesboro, and information of an important character was obtained, particularly of the situation at Murfreesboro. It was found that Murfreesboro was garrisoned by a force of about 2,000 men—two regiments of infantry, a battalion of cavalry, four new field pieces of artillery, and a company of 125 men.

With this information at hand, Forrest held perhaps his first council of war, where all the news brought in by scouts was laid before the council. All the field officers were present, as well as several citizens of distinction who were volunteer aides on Forrest’s staff, among the number being Colonel Saunders; Hon. Andrew Ewing, a distinguished lawyer of Nashville; and F. C. Dunnington, former editor of the Nashville Union. As a result of the conference, at which it was evident that Forrest was the master spirit, it was determined to make a descent on Murfreesboro. The command was put in motion late on Saturday, July 12, with orders to “keep well closed up” and to make Murfreesboro by daylight the next morning, a distance of forty miles. After it had been determined to make a descent on Murfreesboro, Forrest had his brigade drawn up and made a stirring appeal to the officers and men to sustain him in the effort he was about to undertake. He told them that the next day (July 13) would be the anniversary of his birth and that he would like to celebrate it at Murfreesboro, near his birthplace, in a becoming manner. All of the commands promised that they would contribute what they could to the felicitation of the occasion. To Capt. Edwin Arnold, afterwards sheriff of Rutherford County, Colonel Forrest was indebted for much information connected with the expedition.

The command moved at a rapid rate, reaching Woodbury about midnight, where the whole population of the town seemed to be on the streets. The ladies of the town gathered about Colonel Forrest and related to him and his command the events of the evening before, when a large detachment of Federal soldiers had swooped down upon the town and had carried away almost every man, young and old, in the town, and had rushed them off to prison in Murfreesboro. These ladies appealed to Colonel Forrest in the most moving tones to rescue their husbands, fathers, and brothers and restore them to their homes, which he promised them he would do before sunset the next day, a promise that he literally fulfilled. Richard Cœur de Lion never made brighter resolve to rescue the holy sepulcher from the infidel when he donned his armor and went forth to battle with the Saracens than did Forrest on this occasion.

After partaking of a bountiful repast for men and horses, the movement was rapidly resumed, Murfreesboro being still some eighteen or twenty miles distant. Reaching the vicinity of the city in the gray dawn of the morning, the scouts that had been sent forward reported that the pickets were stationed a short distance ahead. A small detachment was sent forward by Colonel Wharton, who was in the advance, and the pickets were captured, leaving an unobstructed road into the city. About this time other scouts reported that they had just returned from the city and had passed near all the encampments, that all was quiet and no notice of the impending danger seemed to have been given, and that they appeared not to apprehend it. Among the scouts performing this dangerous and important service were Capt. Fred James, a gallant soldier of Bragg’s army and a native of Murfreesboro, who afterwards fell in sight of his home at the battle of Murfreesboro, December 31, 1862. Another was Capt. J. W. Nichol, who is happily spared to us. He afterwards, until the close of the war, commanded Company G (chiefly Rutherford and Cannon County men) in Col. Baxter Smith’s Fourth Tennessee Cavalry Regiment. No truer or better soldier ever went forth to battle. He was wounded so often that it is doubtful if he knows himself how often, the last wound having been received at Bentonville, N. C.

Everything being ready, dispositions were made for the attack, the expectation being to surprise the garrison. It was desired to attack the enemy at all points simultaneously. The first force to be encountered was the Ninth Michigan Infantry and a squadron of cavalry located on the Liberty Pike. The order was to form fours, the Eighth Texas to charge into the encampment in columns of platoons, which was executed in handsome style, and very shortly they were in the midst of the Federal encampment. The soldiers, for the most part, were in their tents enjoying their Sunday morning sleep; but they were very soon rallied and put up a sharp fight from behind wagons or any other protection they could find, many of them being undressed. In the first onset Colonel Wharton was wounded, as well as Colonel Duffield, the Federal commander. In the effort to rally his men, Colonel Wharton was at a disadvantage in that four of his rear companies, mistaking the orders, followed the lead of Colonel Morrison, who charged into the public square of the city, in the center of which stood the courthouse, which was garrisoned. After a sharp contest, the Eighth Texas withdrew on the McMinnville Road with a large number of prisoners, there being still a considerable portion of the Ninth Michigan in their encampment, which afterwards surrendered. Maj. Baxter Smith was ordered to charge the cavalry encampment, somewhat detached from the infantry, which was done. They were captured just as they were preparing to mount their horses.

While these movements were progressing, Colonel Morrison was ordered to take his battalion and charge upon the courthouse, which he did, taking by mistake four companies of the Eighth Texas, as already stated, and surrounding the courthouse, which was garrisoned by one company of the Ninth Michigan. This garrison was so well protected that they could not be reached by the Confederates from the outside, but the latter were picked off in every direction as they surrounded the courthouse. Among many others who fell here was the accomplished Colonel Saunders, of the staff, who was shot, the ball passing entirely through his body and one lung. After lingering long, he happily recovered.

There was much firing from houses and behind fences in different parts of the city where Federal soldiers were billeted or concealed and were practically in ambush. In this exigency Colonel Forrest came upon the scene, and the men hastily procured axes. The Texans and Georgians, led by Forrest, sprang forward in front of the courthouse, while Morrison brought up his men to the rear or west side. The doors were quickly battered down, and the Confederates swarmed inside and captured the garrison. It was found that the courthouse and jail were filled with citizens (about one hundred and fifty) of the town and surrounding country, including those brought in from Woodbury the day before. These persons had been arrested and thrown into prison at the instance, mainly, of informers on various pretexts. Six of the number, some being men of prominence, were at the time under sentence of death, or, as expressed by a newspaper correspondent from there just before this time, were to “expiate their crimes on the gallows.” Among this number was Judge Richardson, now an honored member of Congress from the Huntsville (Ala.) district.

By the time the courthouse was opened and there was a general delivery at the jail, whose doors were also forced open, the city seemed alive with people, including many of the families and friends of the captives, and the shouting and rejoicing that went up on that occasion will probably never be equaled in that community again. The cavalry and garrison at the courthouse had surrendered, but there was formidable work yet to be accomplished.

The Third Minnesota Regiment of infantry was stationed northwest of the city, near Stones River, and at a point near by were four guns that had been firing most of the day when opportunity offered. It was now past noon. Forrest made his disposition to attack the Federal forces in this quarter. Accordingly, he made a rapid detour to the right at the head of Major Smith’s battalion and the Georgia troops and also a small company of twenty men under P. F. Anderson. Seeing the Confederates approaching, the Federals, then about five hundred yards south of their camp, halted and formed line of battle, there being some nine companies of infantry and four pieces of artillery. Directing the Georgians to confront and menace the enemy and engage with skirmishers, taking Major Smith with his battalion, which included the Kentuckians and three companies of Morrison’s Georgians under Major Harper, Forrest pushed rapidly around to the right and rear of the encampment, which proved to be still occupied by about one hundred men posted behind a strong barricade of wagons and some large limestone ledges which afforded excellent protection. He therefore “ordered a charge, which was promptly and handsomely made, Majors Smith and Harper leading their men. They were met, however, with a stubborn, brave defense. Twice, indeed, the Confederates were repulsed. But Forrest, drawing his men up for a third effort, made a brief appeal to their manhood; and, putting himself at the head of the column, the charge was again ordered, this time with success. The encampment was penetrated, and the greater part of the Federals was either killed or captured.”

The above in quotation marks is taken from Forrest’s account of this part of the affair. An incident occurred at this point which has been grossly misrepresented, to Forrest’s prejudice. While passing through the encampment he was fired at several times by a negro, who suddenly emerged from one of the tents. Forrest returned the fire and killed him, and did exactly what he ought to have done. This came under the personal observation of the writer.

The Georgians that had been left to confront the main body of the enemy, hearing the continued struggle in the encampment and mistaking it for an attack in the rear of the Federal force that they were confronting, charged in front, broke their line, and swept to the rear. Finding that the Federals quickly reformed their sundered line and held their ground firmly on an elevated ridge, from which position it was manifest that they would be hard to dislodge, Forrest thereupon promptly changed his plan of operation with that fertility of resource so characteristic of him. Placing Major Harper with his three companies so as to cut off retreat toward Nashville, disposing of Morrison’s other four companies as skirmishers in front to prevent movement on Murfreesboro, and sending off the prisoners just taken on the McMinnville road, with munitions captured, Forrest led Lawton’s regiment and Smith’s battalion rapidly back to Murfreesboro, sending a staff officer at the same time for the Eighth Texas, which he found had gone about four miles out on the McMinnville Road.

It was now about one o’clock, and as yet little of a decisive character had been accomplished, while among many of his officers there was manifest want of confidence in the final success in the movement. Some officers, indeed, urged Colonel Forrest to be contented with what had been accomplished. But, instead of heeding this advice, Forrest dismounted Major Smith’s battalion and threw him forward with directions to engage in a skirmish with the Federal force that was still occupying the encampment of the Ninth Michigan. Lieutenant Colonel Hood, of the Second Georgia, at the same time was ordered to lead that regiment to a point to the left of the Federal position and prepare for a charge dismounted, while Colonel Lawton was detailed to write a demand for the enemy’s immediate surrender.

All the while, as the report of Forrest shows, “Smith and his men were maintaining a brisk skirmish.” Just as the Confederate demand was presented, Wharton’s regiment came opportunely in view. The effect was most fortunate. Without further parley, and much to the surprise of many of the Confederate officers, the surrender was at once made of the Michigan regiment. This accomplished, detachments were made which collected the large wagon train filled with supplies most necessary, destroying what could not be carried off.

Colonel Forrest, with no loss of time, sent his adjutant, Major Strange, to the beleaguered Minnesota regiment, demanding its surrender. The colonel of the regiment, Lester, asked to be allowed to interview Colonel Duffield, of the Ninth Michigan, who was wounded and was a prisoner at the Maney house, near where the Ninth Michigan was encamped. The interview was accorded; but Colonel Lester asked an hour’s delay to confer with his officers, and was given thirty minutes, at the end of which time Forrest ostentatiously displayed his troops along the path that Colonel Lester was led in going and returning from his interview with Colonel Duffield, so as to make him believe that his strength was greater than it was. The object was accomplished, and just before night of that long summer day the last of the Federal forces at Murfreesboro capitulated.

This last surrender embraced the artillery. On account of the proximity of the large Federal forces at other points, Colonel Forrest had everything destroyed that could not be taken away, and by six o’clock his brigade was in motion for McMinnville.

The result of this affair was the capture of some 1,765 prisoners, including Brigadier General Crittenden, commanding the post, 600 head of horses and mules, forty or fifty wagons, five or six ambulances, four pieces of artillery, and 1,200 stands of arms. A Federal writer from Murfreesboro estimated their loss in property and munitions at one million dollars. In addition to the prisoners captured and taken, about one hundred stragglers came in the next day, and were paroled by Colonel Saunders, desperately wounded as he was.

After the troops and prisoners (together with the captured property) were put in motion on the McMinnville Road, Maj. Baxter Smith was ordered to proceed along the line of the railroad as far southward as Christiana and destroy the bridges, then to return to Murfreesboro and destroy the bridges across Stones River. This order was executed, resulting in the destruction of the bridges and the capture of small garrison guarding a bridge some five miles from the city. The last of these orders was executed about midnight Sunday night, and Murfreesboro was unoccupied by soldiers of either army, except the wounded, who could not be carried away.

After Forrest’s brilliant engagement at Murfreesboro (which made him a brigadier general), he made proper disposition of his prisoners. After a rest of a day or two, the command, including my battalion, to which, previous to the battle, were attached two splendid companies of Kentuckians commanded by Captains Taylor and Waltham, was put in motion toward Lebanon, some fifty miles distant, at which point it was reported that a Federal force of some five hundred men were stationed. Marching day and might, Lebanon was reached about dawn July 20, to find that the enemy had heard of our approach in time to escape. No more hospitable treatment could have been accorded the soldiers than was given by the splendid citizenship of this old, historic town. The noble women of the town vied with each other in superb entertainment.

On the next day the command was moved in the direction of Nashville, thirty miles distant, then strongly fortified and garrisoned by a large Federal force under command of General Negley, as well as the redoubtable Military Governor, Andrew Johnson. To lend inspiration to the troops, a party of irrepressible young women with escorts appeared on the scene near the Hermitage, twelve miles from Nashville, to celebrate the anniversary of the battle of Bull Run, being well supplied with edibles for their picnic, to which the soldiers were invited, and many spent an enjoyable hour.

At a point on Stones River about seven miles from Nashville a picket force was captured, as well as a small picket force near the lunatic asylum, driving the balance into the city. Simultaneously with these operations a small Confederate force probably under Duvall McNairy, without any concert of action with Forrest’s command, dashed on the Federal pickets and drove them in on the Franklin Road, producing the belief in the city that it was surrounded and threatened with a serious assault. The long roll was called, and general preparations were made in the city to resist the assault.

Pushing forward to Mill Creek, four miles from the city, which was spanned by a bridge, we assaulted the small force which guarded the bridge, capturing some twenty prisoners and destroying the bridge. Antioch, about one mile distant, was next attacked. We captured some thirty-five prisoners, destroyed the depot, stores, and freight cars, and burned the bridges. Part of the command was here detached and moved in the direction of Murfreesboro, destroying a bridge, capturing fifteen more prisoners, and killing and wounding about as many, without sustaining any loss.

After Forrest’s capture of Murfreesboro, General Nelson was sent out from Nashville with an infantry force of about 3,500 men, which vainly tried to come up with Forrest, marching and countermarching, finally landing at Murfreesboro, giving up the chase in disgust. General Forrest then moved to McMinnville and halted for rest and observation of the enemy’s movements till August 10, when the main army under General Bragg moved, from which point the command, being threatened with a superior force, fell back to Sparta. Meantime General Bragg had established his headquarters at Chattanooga, where he was concentrating the Army of Mississippi for his contemplated campaign into Kentucky.

General Forrest next moved from Sparta to Woodbury, to the enemy’s rear, threatening Murfreesboro. From there the command moved up the railroad, destroying all the bridges and tearing up the railroad track near McMinnville.

Near Altamont the Federals had almost surrounded Forrest’s small force; but by superior strategy he escaped, leading his brigade back to Sparta, which place the advance of General Bragg’s army had already reached. This was early in September, 1862. After being reënforced by four companies of cavalry of his old regiment and a section of artillery, Forrest was assigned the duty of guarding General Bragg’s left flank and rear, he being now in full movement for Kentucky.

My command moved along the line of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad practically all the way from near Nashville to within about six miles of Louisville, destroying bridges and tearing up the track. After reaching Louisville, Forrest was ordered to report to General Polk. Under Polk’s orders we moved to Munfordville in time to prevent the escape of a large force of infantry (3,000 or 4,000 men) and artillery in the fort at that point. This movement of General Forrest compelled them to return to their fortifications, which soon afterwards were assailed by the Confederate infantry and artillery and compelled to surrender. I rode into the fort with the officers who received the capitulation. The whole of Bragg’s army came up in the meantime, and it was the general opinion that he ought to give battle to General Buell at that place, it being in his direct line of march to Louisville, and for many other reasons. But he thought differently and turned aside toward Bardstown. About the 25th of September General Forrest was ordered to turn his brigade over to Col. John A. Wharton, his senior colonel, of the Eighth Texas, and proceed at once to Murfreesboro to take command of the troops that might be raised in Middle Tennessee.

A summary of the operations and casualties of the brigade up to that time showed that its killed and wounded amounted to 200 men. We had killed and wounded of the enemy fully 350 and captured over 2,000 prisoners of war, including one brigadier general, four or five field officers, about sixty regimental officers, four pieces of artillery, two stands of colors, six hundred draft animals, and a large wagon train.

As the army of invasion under General Bragg entered Kentucky in the month of September, 1862, it soon became understood that Col. (afterwards General) Joseph Wheeler had the confidence of the general commanding in a very eminent degree, and that he would have the chief direction of the movements of the cavalry arm of General Bragg’s army in Kentucky, the arm of service with which I was connected. This was particularly so after General (then Colonel) Forrest returned from Bardstown, Ky., to Murfreesboro, Tenn., he having taken leave of his brigade at Bardstown, turning it over to Col. John A. Wharton, who was afterwards justly promoted to the offices of brigadier and major general.

No army ever marched forward with higher hopes of success and more eager for the fray than did the Army of Mississippi move into Kentucky. The forward movement from the swamps of Mississippi, to which General Beauregard had retreated from Corinth, seemed to inspire the troops with new life and to have imparted vigor and health to many a wasting form. Many a pale-faced and emaciated boy who had been reared in the lap of wealth in the blue-grass regions of Kentucky and Tennessee took heart when he turned his face homeward, and resolved that he would not die with the diseases that were so prevalent in the army at Tupelo at that time. It is too familiar to all to render it necessary to mention that the movement into Kentucky was accomplished by flanking General Buell, making a detour by way of Chattanooga and Knoxville, the right wing of the army, under Gen. E. K. Smith, moving by way of the latter place, and the remainder of the army, under the immediate command of General Bragg, by way of Sparta, Tenn., with a view of striking General Buell’s communications a short distance north of Nashville and of pushing as far as possible on that line toward Louisville. General Smith moved first. He made a most brilliant fight at Richmond, Ky., completely routing the Federals under General Nelson and capturing 5,000 prisoners. He moved on to Lexington and pushed on to Covington, opposite Cincinnati. The first that I saw of Colonel Wheeler on that campaign was near Franklin, Ky., when he was throwing every obstacle to be conceived in the way of the enemy’s march to check or hinder his progress. Every bridge on the road, however small or insignificant, was destroyed, and the railroad track was torn up all along the way.

The main army of General Bragg moved up the Louisville and Nashville Railroad as far as Elizabethtown, and there turned off to Bardstown, to the right. Here the infantry and artillery rested and recruited some two weeks, while the cavalry, under Colonels Wheeler and Wharton, pushed on as far as possible on all roads toward Louisville. I went within six miles of the city, and was there when, in view of an expected attack on the city, so great a panic prevailed as to cause a majority of the women and children to be sent across the Ohio River. When the main army left Bardstown, it moved in the direction of Perryville, and there it formed a junction with a portion of the forces of General Smith.

While the army rested at Bardstown the cavalry pushed as far forward as possible toward the enemy on all roads from that point, and skirmishes with the Federal cavalry were almost daily occurrences. General Bragg beat no hasty retreat from Bardstown, but left leisurely to join General Smith, and intended then to give battle or retire from Kentucky into Tennessee with the rich spoils accumulated in this “land of milk and honey.” As the Federal army advanced the cavalry gradually fell back until we were within a few miles of Bardstown. As a matter of strategy and as an illustration that some of our adversaries relied upon tricks and unfair advantages in their military operations, I will add that, while skirmishing with the enemy on the Louisville Pike, a flag of truce party appeared in my front, and I immediately ordered all firing to cease. As I understood it, the rule was that when either side sent a flag of truce and it was received it operated as an injunction upon all further movements of the army, pending the flag of truce. I received the officer with courtesy, and he presented an official communication addressed to General Bragg, sent for no other purpose, in my judgment, than to ascertain the movements of the army and General Bragg’s whereabouts. I forwarded the document to Colonel Wharton, commanding my brigade, who forwarded it to General Bragg. The captain in command of the flag of truce party said that he would wait for an answer, and did wait probably two hours.

During the time, however, I discovered, what I at first suspected, that his object and that of the Federal commanding general was not only to learn the whereabouts of General Bragg, but likewise to advance their whole army under cover of this flag. I had some men posted at some haystacks on the left, and there were some houses near by. The first we discovered of their treachery was that their skirmishers suddenly dashed forward to these houses, and I immediately opened fire upon them to prevent their reaching the houses. At the same time I placed the captain and his cavalry escort under arrest and informed the officer that I considered the truce violated, and that they were my prisoners until further orders. They readily yielded and affected great mortification that there should have been a change in the position of their army pending the flag of truce.

After some explanations from a General Smith, who commanded the Federal brigade in my immediate front, and who came down in person, the flag of truce party was released, and each side agreed to retire a certain distance. My orders were to retire to a certain point which would be the outpost for the present, and I was not to skirmish any in retiring. Notwithstanding this agreement, I was to witness the crowning act of perfidy on the part of the enemy, whose cavalry made a sudden dash in superior force on my left and captured Lieutenant Scruggs and ten men. I felt the loss of this brave officer and his trusty men keenly. It was now night and very dark, and nothing further could be done.

On the next morning Colonel Wharton wrote a very strong note in reference to this perfidious act, addressed to Major General Thomas, commanding the division in our front. Maj. Tom Harrison and I were sent with an escort under a flag of truce to a stone house, probably five miles from Bardstown, and there delivered the communication. We were detained there at least two hours, at the expiration of which time we received the reply of General Thomas that he would consider the case when he got into camp, and this was the last of the captured party for some months.

We kept our obligation on this day, as on the day before. The Federals violated theirs, as on the day before, and, pending this flag of truce, moved their whole army forward; and while we were waiting for a reply a cavalry brigade, by making a wide detour, threw themselves between Colonel Wharton’s brigade and Bardstown, and their infantry support was only a short distance behind. We had orders from Colonel Wheeler to encamp in Bardstown that night, and were taking it leisurely in marching there when a Texas Ranger who had been on a “bread detail” stumbled upon the Federals between us and Bardstown and gave the alarm. We were completely “cut off” from the remainder of the army.

No time was to be lost, and but one course seemed to be left open to pursue, and that was to make a determined dash at them and sweep every obstacle from our way. Colonel Wharton did not hesitate to take this course; and, putting himself at the head of his brigade, he ordered: “Form fours, and charge!” Soon we were sweeping down the pike like an avalanche, and presently we came in sight of the bluecoats forming in a long line covering every approach to the town. The impetuosity of that charge, however, stimulated by that wild yell peculiar to the Southerner, was not to be resisted; and after delivering one or two volleys, which did not check our boys, their whole line gave way, and they fled from the field in utter confusion, and their officers were never able to get them to stand again, although the infantry was almost in supporting distance. Nothing could have been more handsomely done, and it was accomplished with slight loss. The number the enemy lost in killed, wounded, and prisoners was considerable. I cannot state the number. Each of our boys seemed to have felt it to be a duty to bring away a prisoner or a horse, and I saw many a hatless cavalryman riding behind the Southern boys on horses that they had lately claimed as their own.

Capt. Mark Evans, of the Eighth Texas Regiment, was as brave a spirit as I ever knew. I shall never forget his exploit of unhorsing two of the enemy in almost an instant and the pleasure that he seemed to derive from recounting the circumstance to me that night. Poor fellow! he was destined to fall in the next conflict we had, which was only a few days later, at Perryville.

From Bardstown we moved on toward Perryville, checking the enemy’s advance as much as possible. At Perryville it was apparent to General Bragg that the enemy must be checked in order to give him time to move off his baggage train and stores, as well as those of General Smith. I will not attempt a description of that bloody encounter, lasting from about 2 P.M. until 8 P.M. General Bragg had only about 12,000 or 14,000 men engaged, while the enemy had two large corps, Gilbert’s and McCook’s. The country is beautifully undulating, and chain after chain of hills meet the eye, reminding one of the waves of the ocean. As the Southern forces advanced the Federal troops receded. The enemy was forced back at least two miles. It was deemed by General Bragg that the enemy’s advance had been sufficiently checked, and he commenced his famous retreat from Kentucky.

It was in this retreat that Colonel Wheeler, who had chief command of the cavalry, particularly distinguished himself. So untiring and sleepless was Wheeler’s vigilance that General Bragg moved leisurely out of the State with his trains intact and without the infantry being called upon. The battle of Perryville was fought on the 8th of October, 1862; and the pursuit was kept up as far as London, in Eastern Kentucky, which our rear reached about the last day of October. It was on this retreat that I became well acquainted with Colonel Wheeler and found him to be a thorough soldier. As gentle as a woman and as chivalrous as a cavalier of the olden time, he possessed the finest courage, and could generally be found with the rear guard as the enemy advanced, personally seeing that nothing was omitted necessary to check the enemy’s advance. His habits were strictly temperate, and he usually lay down to sleep at night with his men in bivouac.

At London Colonel Wheeler ordered me to take the troops that I was then in command of as major and proceed on the road which passed through the Cumberland Mountains at Big Creek Gap, to cover the right flank of the army and protect it from assault as the main body passed through Cumberland Gap. I was further ordered to take command of all stragglers whom I found on the road. After proceeding some distance, I was informed by scouts that had been thrown forward that a company of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty bushwhackers had assembled in Williamsburg, a village of a few hundred inhabitants situated on the Cumberland River near its source, to resist our passing and to pick up stragglers. The column was immediately put in motion, and we went at a trot until we came to the opposite side of the river. Firing was commenced both on our front and flank; but it was soon over, for we charged them, and they broke and ran. About five of the bushwhackers (or home guards, as they styled themselves) were killed and many wounded.

I shall never forget an incident that occurred there. As we charged into the town the bushwhackers ran in every direction. Tom Gann, of Company C of my Regiment (which was formed afterwards), had pursued one of them beyond the town, when the fellow turned and fired upon him, killing his horse. Gann fired at the same time, but missed his aim. Neither of them having another load in reserve, the alternative was presented of “fighting it out on some other line.” Gann at once seized a round stone and hurled it against the head of his adversary with such force as to break his skull, and he was left for dead.

On this route we were attacked as often as four or five times by bushwhackers. One day we were marching along quietly in column, not expecting an attack. The advance guard had passed, when suddenly a volley poured forth from the summit of a hill or mountain into the head of the column, wounding the man on my right and the horse on my left. We soon dispersed them, but it was a very annoying sort of warfare—that of the assassin shooting you in the back and running off.

After passing through the Gap, I reported to Colonel Wheeler, and I received from him an order to proceed to Knoxville. Reaching Knoxville about the 27th of October, it was understood that the army was moving to Murfreesboro, Tenn., as fast as the transportation permitted, and that the cavalry would move on leisurely to that point. At Murfreesboro Colonels Wheeler and Wharton each received their commissions as brigadier generals. These promotions were very well deserved, for each had won his spurs in that campaign.

In the early days of November, 1862, after the army had returned to Middle Tennessee, General Wharton moved out to the front and established his headquarters at Nolensville, a village in Williamson County, situated about sixteen miles from Nashville on one of the main roads leading out of the city. The Federal army then occupied Nashville with a large force under the command of Major General Rosecrans, who had superseded General Buell in Kentucky after the latter had given up the pursuit of General Bragg toward Cumberland Gap. General Rosecrans had turned and pressed his forces forward as rapidly as possible to Nashville. He was already in strong force there when General Bragg reached Murfreesboro. Upon the arrival of General Bragg at Murfreesboro, he at once set about reorganizing and recruiting his army. In November, 1862, I was notified through General Wharton of the organization of my Regiment and that I had been commissioned colonel of it by the War Department at Richmond.

CHAPTER XVIII.
Members of the Regiment Now Living.

The following is a list of members now living (from latest information) who either surrendered with the Regiment or were honorably discharged therefrom for disability incurred during the war:

I feel that I ought to add here that Lieutenant Bone was one of the best and most active officers we had. He was always to be found in the forefront of the battle, and was wounded several times. In one of the last battles we had he was captured by the enemy; and while he was being carried to Johnson’s Island with other prisoners he leaped from the train, making his escape into Canada, and was fortunate enough to get transportation upon a blockade runner coming into Charleston, S. C., reporting back to his regiment in four weeks after being captured. I am not positive that he is living to-day, but he was living in Texas when last heard from, more than a year ago.

Capt. J. W. Nichol, of Company G, says that of those living at this time, sixteen of them were young men on their way to join his company when the surrender occurred. The following are the circumstances in the case: Some weeks before the surrender, in 1865, he had sent his first lieutenant, Dave Youree, a most excellent and reliable officer, to Cannon and Rutherford Counties, Tenn., to obtain recruits. Just before the surrender Youree was returning to the command with the sixteen young men who had enlisted in said counties and whom he had sworn into the company and Regiment. Upon reaching the State of Georgia on their way to join the Regiment, then in North Carolina, they met General Forrest and his command and were informed of the condition of the Confederate army. At General Forrest’s suggestion, they remained with him, participated in his engagements around Selma, Ala., and surrendered with General Forrest’s command, receiving their paroles at Gainesville, Ala., in May, 1865, as members of Company G, Fourth Tennessee Regiment. The sixteen young men are certainly entitled to be named in the list of living in Company G at this time, for they gave the best evidence of their manhood and patriotism by leaving voluntarily their homes behind the lines under the forlorn and desperate circumstances surrounding them and the Confederate army.

I have just received a letter from J. C. Ivey, of Company H, giving me the foregoing list of his company. I want to thank him again for the interest and assistance he has given me in preparing the facts for this narrative of the Regiment, and I feel that I ought to make his letter a part of the narrative. The letter is as follows:

I cannot hear of a single one of Company L who is alive to-day.

Some of the foregoing were young men just arriving at maturity and came out to the Regiment from Tennessee (then occupied by Federal forces) at the peril of their lives and joined it when the cause was a forlorn hope indeed. Of this class Capt. Frank A. Moses, the Special Examiner on the State Confederate Pension Board, had occasion to say in his annual report to the Confederate Association of Bivouacs and Camps at Shelbyville recently:

Comrades, it was easy for you and me to go out in 1861 or 1862, when the bright flags rippled in the breezes, the bands played “Dixie,” and the girls waved their handkerchiefs, bidding us Godspeed; but when the dark days came and the flags were tattered and blood-stained, when the bands were playing the “Dead March” and the noble women mourned the death of loved ones, it was not so easy. When the old men and the boys in 1864 picked up the guns that had been thrown down by the quitters and stepped into our depleted ranks, they showed their faith by their works, and they are entitled to all honor.

I take occasion to add that I have been intimately associated with Captain Moses on the Pension Board for twenty years. He is most efficient in the position he occupies. He joined the Confederate army when but a boy. After engaging in the battle of Chickamauga, his regiment (the Sixty-Second Tennessee Infantry) was sent with Gen. Bushrod Johnson’s brigade to the Army of Northern Virginia. He was severely wounded at the battle of Drewry’s Bluff, on the James River, below Richmond; and after convalescing from his wound he reported to his command at Petersburg, and surrendered with General Lee at Appomattox on the 9th of April, 1865.

First Lieut. Rice McLean, of Company A, an elegant gentleman and brave officer, was in command of his company most of the time, especially during the latter part of the war. His captain, Dave Alexander, was the oldest man in the Regiment and was much disabled by wounds. Lieutenant McLean was frequently called upon to perform the most hazardous and important duties, which he did with dispatch and to the highest satisfaction of the commanding officer. None stood higher in the Regiment or was more respected for his fidelity as a soldier. He was most amiable in character and in kindly comradeship toward his fellow soldiers. He was wounded several times in battle. He died a few years ago in Kentucky, where he had lived since the close of the war. I could not resist the opportunity of saying a word regarding my warm personal friend, Rice McLean. He was a brother of the wife of Capt. Tom Hardison, one of Nashville’s most worthy and honorable citizens.

Lieut. J. W. Storey, who was in command of Company I at the surrender, writes me that I should speak of the killing of Eb Crozier, of his company, who was a most intelligent, lovable man, and a brave soldier during the entire war. He received his parole of honor with the rest of the Regiment at Charlotte, N. C., May 3, 1865, and started home with us; but before reaching Sweetwater, Tenn., he took the road to the right to go to his home in Upper East Tennessee, which he had not visited for years. Upon reaching home, he was brutally murdered by a band of Union bushwhackers, with his parole of honor in his pocket, the ink with which it was written being hardly dry upon the paper. A more dastardly act was never perpetrated. His name has been placed among the killed in battle of his company, and I am sure that the reader will say that it rightfully belongs there, together with any other honor that could be attached to his memory.

Capt. James H. Britton, of Company K, was a native of Lebanon, Tenn., and was educated at Cumberland University, where he graduated with highest honors as a civil engineer. He was first lieutenant of the “Cedar Snags,” of which Paul F. Anderson was captain. When the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry Regiment was organized, the company became a part of it. Captain Anderson became lieutenant colonel and Lieutenant Britton was made captain of Company K, both continuing as such until the surrender of the army, in 1865, at Greensboro, N. C. During the greater part of the war Company K was the escort of the commanding general. Captain Britton was a faithful, brave, and intelligent officer. He and his company were well known to the Army of Tennessee by the important duties that they were called upon to do in carrying orders to different parts of the field, frequently where the battle raged fiercest and hottest. The company’s killed and wounded was heavy, as will be seen on pages 165 and 166. Soon after the war Captain Britton moved to Texas, where he was successful as a business man and accumulated quite a fortune. He died there many years ago, a public-spirited, most worthy citizen. Dr. R. L. C. White and Wat Weakley, who were well-known citizens of Nashville, Tenn., were soldiers in this company, having joined it when it was first organized, and served throughout the war.

I have received from a friend the following record of Capt. J. W. Nichol prior to his company’s being attached to the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, which I take pleasure in making a part of this narrative:

Capt. J. W. Nichol was born and reared near Readyville, Rutherford County, Tenn., February 26, 1839. He entered the Confederate service at Murfreesboro, Tenn., May 21, 1861, as a lieutenant in Captain Wood’s Company H, Joe B. Palmer’s Eighteenth Tennessee Regiment, serving in same until a few days before the first battle at Fort Donelson, February, 1862. On a march from Bowling Green, Ky., we left him, sick of measles, at Russellville, Ky.; therefore he was not in the fight at Fort Donelson, where the Eighteenth Tennessee Regiment was captured and sent to prison. He was sent back with the sick to Bowling Green, thence to Nashville and Murfreesboro. At Murfreesboro he reported to Gen. A. S. Johnston, who directed him to get together all the members of the Eighteenth Tennessee Regiment who might be at home on sick furlough, also any who might have made their escape from prison, organizing them into a company or battalion, and connect the same with some other regiment. But before Captain Nichol could do this General Johnston, with his army, moved to Shelbyville, where Nichol reported to him again, informing him that he had met a number of the command who desired to join other regiments instead of forming a new command. General Johnston directed him to assign these men to any desired company until the Eighteenth should be exchanged. Nichol then, with nine others of the Eighteenth Tennessee, procured horses and fell back with General Johnston to Corinth, Miss., where they attached themselves to General Buckner’s old escort, a Kentucky company commanded by Captain Kerr, who had made their escape from Fort Donelson and were serving as an escort for General Hardee. Nichol served as a private soldier with this company until after the battle of Corinth, April 6, 7, 1862. Some time after this battle he went to General Beauregard’s headquarters (General Johnston having been killed in the engagement on April 6), and asked permission to go into Middle Tennessee and make up a cavalry company, which request was granted. With considerable difficulty he made his way to the neighborhood of his old home, there being Federal troops, stationed at Murfreesboro, who were scouting the surrounding country frequently. On one occasion Captain Unthanks, with a Yankee company of seventy-two men, came out from Murfreesboro to Readyville (Captain Nichol’s old home), and went on to Woodbury and McMinnville on a scouting expedition. Colonel Starnes, commanding the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry, was near McMinnville and, upon learning of the scouting party headed by Captain Unthanks, moved into McMinnville in a few hours, and made inquiry for a man fully acquainted with the roads leading therefrom. Captain Nichol, who was just in from Corinth, Miss., reported to Colonel Starnes that he was conversant with all the roads leading to Murfreesboro. Leaving McMinnville late in the afternoon, Colonel Starnes and his men reached Woodbury about daylight of the next day, finding that Captain Unthanks had stopped there to feed his horses and had just left. Instantly pursuing, Starnes caught them at Readyville (Nichol’s old home), eating breakfast, Captain Unthanks and most of his men being at Major Tallay’s (the old Ready residence). Starnes was upon them before they were aware, killing three and capturing all except two others, who made their escape to Murfreesboro. Captain Nichol was then engaged in making up his company. Gen. Bedford Forrest passed through Readyville July 13, 1862; and Nichol, with a few unorganized men, fell in line and proceeded to Murfreesboro, where they participated in the first fight at Murfreesboro, in which they were victorious, taking all the prisoners to McMinnville to parole them. From there Nichol proceeded to Readyville, where he made up his company. About this time, learning of the approach of General Bragg toward Middle Tennessee, he, with about seventy unarmed young boys and men, riding all night, passing through Liberty, the home of Stokes and Blackburn (Yankee bushwhackers), got safely through to Sparta just in time to meet Bragg on his march into Kentucky. General Polk took Nichol’s company for a time as couriers. Soon afterwards they were ordered to report to Maj. J. R. Davis, commanding a battalion of cavalry, and were in the fight at Perryville, Ky., fighting every day until they reached Cumberland Gap, losing several men. Thence they went to Murfreesboro, in which battle they were in Davis’s Battalion. Shortly after this Smith’s Fourth Tennessee Regiment was formed, composed of Smith’s Battalion and Davis’s Battalion. Immediately after this formation Wheeler and Forrest were ordered to Fort Donelson, where Nichol received his first serious wound. He was in all other engagements until the close of the war, being dangerously wounded at Bentonville, N. C., the last general engagement of the war. He surrendered at Greensboro, N. C., with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s army, and was paroled at Charlotte, N. C., April 26, 1865.

When Colonel Smith returned, on exchange, from Johnson’s Island Prison, just before the battle of Averyboro, N. C., he at once assumed command of the brigade as senior colonel. Adjt. George B. Guild became his adjutant general, and Capt. J. R. Lester, of Company F, became his inspector general, all of them serving in this capacity till the surrender of the army at Greensboro, N. C., April 26, 1865. The coming of Colonel Smith created a scene of rejoicing with the Regiment, as it had created one of pronounced sorrow when he had been captured. The men pressed around him to show him the joy and pleasure it afforded. He was called upon to make a talk, when he expressed to them the pleasure it gave him to be with them again after his long, weary, and dark night as a prisoner in a Northern fortress. He said the saddest part of it was that he missed many familiar faces who were camping to-day on Fame’s battle ground, and but a remnant remained of what they had been; that he had learned from time to time, as other prisoners came in, of the glorious record they were making and had made as soldiers. He expressed his pride in them, and said that their names would be remembered by grateful countrymen. Choking for utterance and in tears, he sat down. A few minutes after this the order was given to mount, and the brigade marched away to take part in the battle of Averyboro, N. C. A very interesting incident occurred before the foregoing took place. The Regiment had learned that his name had been registered for exchange and were expecting him. At the battle of Fayetteville, N. C., a few weeks before, Lieutenant Massengale had been killed, and his horse, which was a most excellent one, a rich bay, evidencing the qualities of a thoroughbred, was in the hands of a relative. It was proposed to purchase the horse for Colonel Smith when he reported, which was done. The men paid the relative $2,600 for the horse, which was christened “Lieut. Joe Massengale” in memory of his gallant rider who was killed upon his back while leading a charge in the fight with Kilpatrick’s forces. Colonel Smith rode this horse in the battles that occurred afterwards and until the surrender. He brought “Joe Massengale” home with him. After this the horse was conspicuous as a part of all the reunions that took place, and was named the regimental mascot, by which name he was called until he died, in his twenty-sixth year.

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It has been assumed that the loss of life chargeable to the War between the States was over one million individuals. The number of great battles fought and the deadliness of the conflict are without a parallel in all modern history. In the Dark Ages of the world it frequently transpired that the victors assumed the divine right to massacre the defeated with fire and sword. We had a reminder of what that meant in the march to the sea and in the raids through the valleys of Virginia with a well-defined smell of fire and destruction about them. Truly it has been said that every messenger from the front told of the wreck of a living hope, and every home of both the North and South was made a house of mourning. But my object in giving the following incident is particularly to refute what has sometimes been unjustly said about the Confederate army as a band of slaveholders.

About the beginning of the war there lived in an adjoining county a young farmer who was a substantial, intelligent, and industrious citizen. By his energy he had accumulated means to buy a small hilly farm and erected upon it a plain but neat cottage, where he and his young wife lived. He had no farm help but a younger brother. In the fall of 1861 he and his brother enlisted in the Confederate army. His aged father and mother came to live with the wife, and in a short time the Tennessee regiment to which he and his brother were attached was ordered to the Army of Northern Virginia. The younger brother was killed the day Gen. Bob Hatton fell at Seven Pines, near Richmond, Va., in 1862. The old mother died in a short time after hearing of the death of her baby boy, as she affectionately called him. In 1863 the older brother was desperately wounded at Gettysburg in the charge of Archer’s Tennessee Brigade on Cemetery Hill and taken a prisoner by the enemy. He was reported killed in action by his comrades, and was so reported on the rolls of his company during the remainder of the war. In fact, his leg had been shattered by a cannon ball, and it was hastily amputated above the knee when he was sent to Rock Island Prison. The shock from the wound, exposure, and want of attention impaired his health, making him a patient of the prison hospital until the war ended. His wife, on learning of his death, sickened and died of a broken heart, it is said. The old father, having been left alone, went off to Kentucky to live with a married daughter. Marauding parties burned and destroyed the fences around the little farm, and the house was ruined and broken down. Nothing was left to remind one of the happy home it once had been.

Such was the health of the soldier that he was not discharged from the Rock Island hospital until some three months after the surrender of the Confederate armies, when he was paroled and permitted to return to his home. Upon reaching his home depot, in the first days of September, 1865, good-hearted Tom Day furnished him a horse to go out to his home. We will not attempt to depict his feelings on seeing the devastation that was spread before him upon reaching home. He sought the house of a neighbor, where he was told in sympathetic words the sad, sad story. He had not been able to write himself during his year or more as a prisoner; and confiding it to others, they had failed either willfully or negligently to do so. He listened in a dazed state of mind to the information imparted to him by his friend, but spoke not a word, remaining silent during the evening. As the lengthening shadows of the setting sun grew longer, he arose, saying that he would go down home again. He was asked to wait till morning and take a good night’s rest, to which he gave no heed, hobbling off on his crutches in that direction. He did not return that night, and the next morning at the breakfast table the neighbor announced that he would go down and see if he could hear anything of his friend. On approaching the house, he found the door slightly ajar. Pushing it open, to his horror he beheld the soldier stretched upon the bare floor—dead. He, too, had died of a broken heart. The next day he was buried by a few sorrowing friends by the side of his wife, at the Old Salem Camp Ground, where his rude forefathers sleep.

The wrecks created along its pathway by a state of war are indeterminable. The destruction of property, public and private, is its natural consequence. Nor does its blighting effect end upon the battle field, but drags into its maelstrom of death the innocent, the helpless, and the unprotected. Truly can it be said that war makes countless thousands mourn.

These two young men were a type of the soldiery of which the Confederate armies were composed. They had no particular property rights to fight for; they owned no slaves; they were not personally interested in the slavery question. The doctrine of State rights had been the policy of the government since its existence. The Constitution and the laws made thereunder recognized it, and the Supreme Court of the United States in numerous decisions had sustained them. These were to be set at naught by force of arms, their country invaded, and their people to be subjugated. To prevent this they risked their lives and their all. Rebels they were in the sense that their forefathers had been, but patriots in the cause of freedom and in their efforts to preserve the inalienable rights of the citizen.