WHEELER’S SECOND RAID INTO TENNESSEE.
Wheeler was now ordered to operate on the long line of the enemy’s
communications. Finding the posts and bridges south of Chattanooga too
strongly fortified to offer any promise of successful attack, Wheeler
determined to go over into middle Tennessee again. He went up along
the Holston above Knoxville, and then had to cross under a severe fire
of the enemy’s pickets. For this undertaking there was a call for
volunteers. It looked as if the whole of the Rangers were volunteering,
and Wheeler had to stop them. The fording was deep, but the enemy were
easily driven from their position. A small force, not of the Rangers,
was sent down toward Knoxville. They met the enemy and were roughly
handled; about half of them were taken prisoners, and the exultant
enemy came on at a furious rate. Our regiment was formed in an open
field. Colonel Harrison took position in front. We went forward in a
walk at first, and then in a trot. The men were impatient. Officers
kept saying:
“Steady, men! Keep back there!”
Then we heard the popping of pistols, and all eyes were turned on
Harrison. The routed Confederates came into view. Next the enemy in
close pursuit. The men could now hardly be restrained. Finally Harrison
shouted:
“Well, go then! ---- you, go!”
The tap of the drum on the race track never sent jockeys and racers to
the front more impetuously than the Rangers went at the sound of these
words. The enemy’s force was small, and they faced about at once. Their
horses were nearly exhausted, and we soon overtook them, capturing
nearly the whole party, which did not exceed two companies.
Our march was now across the Cumberland mountains, by McMinnville, the
familiar route we had traveled two years before under Forrest, and one
year before under Wheeler. Just before reaching Murfreesboro we turned
to the left and began to destroy the railroad leading to Chattanooga,
over which Sherman’s supplies had to be carried. We piled fence rails
on the track and set them on fire. The heat caused the rails to expand
and bend into all shapes, rendering them useless until straightened
out; of course the ties were burned also. In this way we destroyed some
fifty miles of the road; but the enemy had unlimited resources, and
kept trains loaded with railroad material at Nashville and Louisville;
these were rushed to the scene of our operations. With large forces
working day and night they soon got the tracks in order.
We now moved forward to the Mussel Shoals, where we were to cross the
Tennessee river. In a little skirmish on the north side W. H. Caldwell
of Company D was wounded in the hip. He was disabled for the remainder
of the war by this hurt; never entirely recovered, in fact, walking
with a limp for the rest of his life.
After crossing the river the men of the Third Arkansas, who had shown
courage and devotion on many fields, became greatly demoralized.
Finding themselves nearer home than they had been for years, many of
them deserted. One morning it was reported that twelve of these men
had gone. A detail of twenty Rangers under Lieutenant Joiner, the
whole under Captain Bass of the Third Arkansas, was sent after the
deserters. I was one of this detail. Riding forty or fifty miles a day,
we overtook four of them about twenty miles from the great Mississippi
and made them prisoners. On the return my horse was badly injured by
falling through a broken plank in an old bridge, and I was left afoot.
Joiner gave me orders to remain until my horse recovered, or until I
could procure another, and then join some other command until I could
get company over Sand mountain, as that region was infested with
bushwhackers and murderers. It was some weeks before I could get a
mount, for horses were very scarce, but this is not a narrative of my
operations.