We were now fairly at work doing garrison duty, furnishing daily details
for provost guard, train guard, picket guard, and all manner of guard
duty that can be thought of. Our picket line extended in the shape of a
horseshoe around the city, both flanks of the line resting on the river.
General James D. Morgan commanded our division, and General Mitchell the
post, at Nashville. Strict discipline was maintained, and we often
thought that if the citizens of Nashville would have expressed their
honest opinion they would with one accord have agreed that never was
there better order in their city. There were some union people here, but
the most of the inhabitant were cherishing in their bosoms, and rolling
it as a sweet morsel under their tongues, the cause of the south. On the
morning of the 31st of December the battle of Stone River or
Murfreesboro opened. The cannonading could be plainly heard at
Nashville, and at night fall we were alarmed with the news that the
right wing of our army had been crushed and driven back, and that the
battle was strongly in favor of the rebels. Anxiety was visible on every
face, and everything was done that was thought necessary to insure the
safety of the city if the news proved to be true. We say every face, but
we are mistaken, some there were who could hardly repress their joy at
the intelligence that their rebel friends were in a fair way to drive
back the northern "mud-sills," but these reckoned without their host.
True it was that the third division of McCook's corps, commanded by
Sheridan, our old division, and which three times that day had repulsed
the desperate charges of the enemy, were themselves repulsed when the
enemy, with reinforcements, for the fourth time assailed them. But it
fought on until one-fourth of its number lay bleeding and dying upon the
field, and its last brigade commander had been killed, then it gave way
and all three of the divisions in the corps were hurled back together
into the immense series of cedar thickets which skirted the turnpike and
extended far off to the right. But Rosecrans was not whipped, though the
rebels had momentarily overpowered the right wing of his army, and he
vigorously set to work to retrieve the disaster. Brigades and batteries
from the divisions of Rousseau, Negly and Palmer were ordered to the
right to check the progress of the foe and rally the fugitives. The
infantry was rapidly massed in an array of imposing strength along the
turnpike, and facing the woods through which the rebels were advancing.
Still the broken divisions of McCook disputed the ground while
retreating, and deeds of heroism were performed by officers and men in
those dark thickets. Yet in spite of the desperate struggle which marked
every fresh advance of the enemy, in spite of the heroic sacrifice of
life on the part of the officers and soldiers of the union army, the
rebels still steadily advanced, and came nearer to the turnpike. Nearly
two miles and a half had the right wing yielded, and all the
reinforcements that had been hurried into the woods to sustain it, had
failed. The roar of cannon, the bursting of shells, the crash of shot
through the trees, and the continuous roll of musketry, all mingled in
one tremendous volume of sound, which rolled on, nearer and nearer, to
the turnpike, where the genius and vigor of Rosecrans had massed the
forces that were to receive the enemy, when he should emerge from the
woods in pursuit of our retreating battalions. Col. Loomis was there
with his 1st Michigan Battery, and Stokes with the guns furnished by the
Chicago Board of Trade, and Mendenhall and Guenther, with their regular
artillery. There were also the troops of General Wood, the brigades of
Rousseau under Schribner, Beatty and Shepherd. At last the long lines of
the enemy, rank upon rank, charged from the wood. A sheet of flame burst
from the union ranks, a crash rent the atmosphere, and the artillery
shook the earth. The foremost line of the rebel host was literally swept
away; and then both armies were enveloped in a vast cloud of smoke. For
ten minutes the thunder of battle burst forth from the cloud, and when
our battalions advanced, they found no rebels between the turnpike and
woods, except the disabled, the dying and the dead. The soil was red
with blood, for within a brief space of time, the slaughter had been
awful. Our troops having repulsed the rebel left, pushed into the woods
after them, and drove them back over the ground they had at first
occupied. Other desperate encounters occurred during the day, all along
the line. It was eleven o'clock when Hardee was repulsed. In the mean
time, while the battle was raging on the right, an attack was made upon
Palmer's division, but the rebels were driven back with loss. There was
now a lull in the storm of battle, and scarcely a volley of musketry or
boom of cannon was heard for three quarters of an hour. Some hoped that
these bloody scenes were ended for the day; but the rebel leaders,
disappointed by their failure to penetrate to our camp by way of the
right wing, were preparing for a bold blow at the centre. All the
reserves were attached to the centre of their army under Polk; and Bragg
in person placed himself at the head of the columns. And now was
presented an imposing spectacle. The nature of the ground in this part
of the field was such that every movement of either army could be
distinctly seen. The open fields toward Murfreesboro were smooth enough
for a holiday parade ground. A fierce cannonade up the turnpike
announced the coming onset, and from the very woods out of which the
rebel cavalry issued on Monday evening, the first line of battle now
sallied forth.
It came on in magnificent order; and stretching away diagonally across a
great sloping field, its length seemed interminable. At a sufficient
interval another line deployed into the open ground, parallel with the
first, and ere the forward battalions were engaged, a third line of
battle came forth from the same woods. It seemed that our feeble lines
in that direction must be crushed by the weight of these immense masses
of living and moving men. But the ever watchful eye of Rosecrans had
detected the rebel design, even before their first line of battle had
emerged from among the trees. The union army was like a set of chess men
in his hands, and its different brigades and divisions, were moved about
with as much facility, as are pawns and pieces in that grand old game.
The least exhausted troops of the left and centre, were hurried forward
on the double quick to combat this new effort of the enemy, and even
from the extreme left, where Van Cleve was posted, a brigade was brought
over to take part in the defense. The same formidable array of batteries
and battalions again confronted the foe, as that upon which the violence
of Hardee's corps had spent itself, and similar results followed. Almost
simultaneously a sheet of fire leaped forth from each of the opposing
lines, and for a few minutes both lines stood like walls of stone,
discharging their deadly missiles into each others bosoms. Then the
rebels attempted to charge, but a storm of lead and iron hail burst in
their faces, and all around them, sweeping them down by hundreds. If
once the soldiers of the union wavered before this fiery onset, it was
only for a moment, and in forty minutes from the time the first rebel
line marched forth, all three of them had been dashed to pieces, and the
survivors of the conflict flying in wild confusion over the slope, were
disappearing in the depths of the woods. The battle for the day was
over. But who can describe the sufferings which followed. The night air
was pinching cold, and in the midst of those gloomy forests of pine and
cedars on the right, numbers of men lay freezing, bleeding, dying; whom
no human hand would ever succor. The rebel pickets advanced at night to
the edge of the woods skirting the open ground, which was the scene of
Hardee's terrible repulse. The hostile lines of battle were probably a
thousand yards apart. The intervening space was covered with wounded who
could not be carried off. He who chose to risk it, could crawl carefully
up to the edge of the woods, and hear the shrieks and groans of the
wounded men who were laying by hundreds among the trees. The men in our
advance line lay down as well as they could upon the ground over which
the storm of battle had swept. It was difficult to distinguish the
bodies of the sleepers from the corpses, living and dead were slumbering
peacefully together. There were places that night, indeed, where sleep
came not to steep the senses in gentle forgetfulness. The poor soldier,
whom the bullets of the enemy had not yet reached, could gather a few
leaves, or sticks, or corn stalks, for a bed, clasp his faithful rifle
in his arms, and with his blanket around him, if he were so fortunate as
to possess one, sleep soundly, notwithstanding the bitter cold. He could
build no fires, for that would reveal our position to the enemy; but so
fatigued was he, that he could still slumber although his frame shivered
involuntarily in the windy night atmosphere. But the mangled hero,
laying in the field or hospital, knew no repose. Pain drove sleep away,
and to those who felt themselves maimed, crippled for life, the keen
mental anguish must have been more intolerable than physical pain. And
there were the faithful surgeons, too, who knew no rest from their
dreadful labors, and toiled on through the long and weary night. And so
the days passed until Sunday came, and the soldiers awoke on Sunday
morning to find the ground covered with snow, and on that day General
Rosecrans entered Murfreesboro; Bragg having retreated with all his
force. The total loss incurred by the union army was 11,285, killed,
wounded and missing; of this number 2,800 were missing. The rebel loss
was estimated at over 14,000 killed and wounded. And so ended the battle
of Murfreesboro, one of the bloodiest battles of the war. It had been
gained at a terrible cost of life and blood, but such are the wages that
war demands. We have given this description of the battle of
Murfreesboro for the purpose merely of giving the reader to understand
that the reports which reached our ears at Nashville, were not idle
rumors, but that the situation had been a trying one for our army, and
one that called for vigilance on the part of those who had the city of
Nashville in their charge. Every preparation had been made there to
receive the enemy, if, unfortunately, he should overcome our forces, but
as the result proved they were not needed.
[Illustration]