NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN--HOOD'S ADVANCE FROM THE TENNESSEE
Schofield to command the army assembled at Pulaski--Forrest's
Tennessee River raid--Schofield at Johnsonville--My division at
Thompson's--Hastening reinforcements to Thomas--Columbia--The
barrens--Pulaski--Hood delays--Suggests Purdy as a base--He advances
from Florence--Our march to Columbia-Thomas's distribution of the
forces--Decatur evacuated--Pontoon bridge there--Withdrawing from
Columbia--Posts between Nashville and Chattanooga--The cavalry on
29th November--Their loss of touch with the army.
Our railway train reached Nashville in the forenoon of Wednesday the
9th of November, and I at once visited General Schofield to report
my arrival and get further orders. He had himself reported to
General Thomas by telegraph when we reached Calhoun on the last day
of October, and Pulaski, eighty miles south of Nashville, had been
given as the rendezvous for our corps with the Fourth. [Footnote:
Official Records, vol. xxxix. pt. iii. p. 538.] Thomas was taking a
cheerful view of the situation now that the Twenty-third Corps had
been ordered to him, and on the 3d of November, in giving Sherman an
outline of the progress of events, said that if Beauregard "does not
move before Sunday (6th), I will have Schofield and Stanley together
at Pulaski, and he can then move whenever he pleases." [Footnote:
Id., p. 618.] Schofield got part of Cooper's division off on
Thursday, with arrangements for the rest to follow, and took the
railway train himself next day. Thomas's plans then were to send the
troops through Nashville without stopping, but he asked Schofield to
stop for a short consultation. [Footnote: Id., p. 624.] Without
waiting for this, however, he issued his order on Friday, assigning
Schofield to command the troops assembling at Pulaski to operate in
front of that place. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxxiv. pt.
iii. p. 638.] This was a graceful act toward an officer of his own
grade as a department commander, when as yet it was an open question
whether the assignment by the President to command a department and
army in the field gave precedence over officers in other
organizations, senior in date of commission, but not so assigned.
[Footnote: The matter has been decided in the affirmation by the War
department and the decision had been transmitted in Halleck's letter
to Sherman dated October 4th, but the interruption of communications
had prevented its reaching Sherman for some time, and Thomas had not
received it when he made the order. For the whole discussion and
correspondence, see _Id_., vol. xxxviii. pt. v. pp. 734, 753, 797;
vol. xxxix. pt. iii. pp. 64, 638, 666, 684, 685, 691, 692, 703, 704;
vol. xlv. pt. i. p. 959.]
When Schofield reached Nashville on the 5th, he found Thomas busy
with a new problem. Forrest had set for him by his raid down the
Tennessee valley on the west side. A gunboat had been captured, and
demonstrations opposite Johnsonville by the raiders had been
followed by the unnecessary destruction of a fleet of transports,
three gunboats at the landing, and vast quantities of stores.
[Footnote: _Id_., vol. xxxix. pt. i. p. 861, 864, 866.] The place
was the terminus of a railway from Nashville to the Tennessee River,
and was an intermediate depot of supplies in a low stage of water in
the rivers. At other times steamboats could ascend the Cumberland
all the way to Nashville. The exaggerated reports of the enemy's
force and apparent purpose to cross the river there made Thomas
think it wise to modify his plans for the moment, and he ordered
Schofield to proceed at once to Johnsonville with the two brigades
of the Twenty-third Corps then in hand, Moore's and Gallup's,
intending to concentrate the whole corps there as fast as they
should come from Georgia. [Footnote: _Id_., vol. xxxix. pt. iii. p.
647.]
As soon as Sherman could decipher Thomas's dispatches, he warned the
latter of the danger of a false move, as only Forrest's cavalry was
down the river, and Hood's army was known to be at Florence.
[Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxxix. pt. iii. p. 647.] When
Schofield got to Johnsonville, he soon saw the real state of
affairs, and advised Thomas that the two brigades were enough. He
instructed General Cooper as to improving the defences of the town,
and returned to Nashville on the 7th. Next day he made a hurried
visit to Pulaski to examine the situation there, [Footnote: _Id_.,
p. 708.] where was now the railway terminus of the line to Decatur,
the bridges and trestles about Athens having been destroyed by
Forrest in his September raid. He got back to Nashville before day
on the 9th, and was ready to meet me on my arrival there. From him I
got full information of the situation, and orders to take my
division to Columbia, where he expected to join me in two or three
days.
Leaving Nashville in the afternoon, we learned on reaching Franklin
that a wreck on the railway near Spring Hill obstructed the track,
and our trains were halted till the way should be cleared. We had
made only twenty miles; the weather had changed again to a cold,
drenching rain. Thursday, the 10th, was clear and cold, and whilst
waiting for the railway to be open again, I made my first
acquaintance with the pretty village on the banks of the Harpeth in
which I was to feel a much more lively interest three weeks later.
As soon as the railway officials could put the trains in motion we
resumed our journey. Reilly's brigade gets to Spring Hill, half-way
to Columbia, but the insufficiency of siding at that place makes it
impracticable to handle all the trains there, and the rest of us are
stopped at Thompson's Station, three miles short. We leave the cars
and go into camp so as to release the trains for other work, whilst
we organize again for field operations, though our wagons had not
reached us. Strickland's brigade of Cooper's division has
accompanied us and is attached to my command temporarily. Some five
miles north of Columbia there is a break in the railway, and we are
delayed till it can be repaired and communication with Columbia
fully opened. The two or three days intervening are spent in getting
forward horses for the artillery, rations, and advance stores, so as
to become again a self-dependent unit of the army. We found the
country in this part of Tennessee richer and finer than any we had
campaigned in, much more open, with well-tilled farms.
The news we got indicated that Forrest had joined Hood at Florence,
and that the enemy was preparing there for a forward movement. I
opened communication with the Fourth Corps at Pulaski, and was under
orders, to join them whenever an advance of Hood should make it
necessary. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxxix. pt. iii. pp.
748, 749.] On the 11th Sherman still inclined to the opinion that
Beauregard would order Hood to follow him, as soon as his southward
march should really begin. "I rather think you will find commotion
in his camp in a day or two," he said to Thomas; for his own
preparations were now complete, and his communications with the
North were to be cut next day. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 746.] The
humorous side of things struck him forcibly, and in giving to
Captain Poe, his engineer, directions to destroy the foundries,
workshops, and railway buildings at Atlanta, he had added,
"Beauregard still lingers about Florence, afraid to invade
Tennessee, and I think slightly disgusted because Sherman did not
follow him on his fool's errand." [Footnote: _Id_., p. 680.] The
irony fitted Hood better than Beauregard, for the latter had not
taken personal direction of the active army; but the relations
between the two Confederate generals were very imperfectly known to
us, and we naturally assumed that Beauregard was himself responsible
for the immediate conduct of the whole.
The progress of the work of reinforcing Thomas was not quite as
rapid as it seemed. Grant had sent General Rawlins, his chief of
staff, from Petersburg to St. Louis to see that A. J. Smith's corps
went promptly forward from Rosecrans's department. Besides the 9000
in Smith's immediate command, 5200 men were collected from posts on
the Mississippi and Ohio, and were put in motion toward Nashville.
[Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxxix. pt. iii. p. 684.] Rawlins's
report on the 7th, that these were starting, was understood by
Thomas to apply to the whole of Smith's force, and he therefore
reckoned on their reaching him in a few days. [Footnote: _Id_., p.
685.] Rawlins in fact expected Smith's own divisions to leave St.
Louis on the 10th, but even this was much sooner than they reached
the river. The same news was sent to Sherman, and he expressed his
joy that these veteran reinforcements were on the way, and his
confidence that the enemy was now checkmated. [Footnote: _Id_., p.
686.] The result was a little over-confidence in all quarters, which
probably had its influence in making Thomas less energetic in
concentrating the troops available in Tennessee than he would have
been had he known that Smith's 9000 would not reach Nashville till
the last day of the month. [Footnote: See "Franklin and Nashville,"
pp. 132 _et seq_.; "Battle of Franklin," pp. 40, 41.]
On the 13th I marched to Columbia, and Schofield went in person to
Pulaski, where he assumed command. [Footnote: Official Records, vol.
xxxix. pt iii. pp. 764, 768.] Wooden pontoons were sent the same day
to Columbia for the crossing of the Duck River there, and the bridge
was completed at ten o'clock in the evening. [Footnote: _Id_., pt.
i. p. 795.] As the river was too high to ford, we had encamped on
the north side, in the tongue made by the horse-shoe bend to the
southward. We occupied the fine open wood on rolling ground, and
made ourselves as well acquainted with the village and surrounding
country as time would allow. Columbia, on the south bank of the
river, had been a centre of education and refinement, and several
college buildings were there, surrounded by ample groves. The
neighborhood was the home of the Polks and the Pillows and other
people of national reputation, whose ample estates lay on the roads
diverging from the town. Between the village and the railway bridge
below the place was an isolated hill on which was an enclosed
redoubt, commanding the crossing. It was a strong position when
connected with sufficient forces near by, but too small and too
detached to have much independent value.
Leaving Strickland's brigade as a garrison for the town, the rest of
my command marched next morning toward Pulaski, reaching Lynnville,
eighteen miles south of the river, where a road from Lawrenceburg
comes into the turnpike. I was pretty strong in artillery, having
five batteries, two of which properly belonged to the second
division. Ten miles south of Columbia we left the open country and
entered a hilly, forest-covered region, with cultivation only in the
narrow valleys of small streams. This high water-shed between the
Duck River and the Elk extends nearly all the way from the plateau
of the Cumberland westward to the Tennessee River, where it has made
its great bend to the north. It is known as the "barns" (barrens),
and is desolate enough. In many places one may travel for miles
without seeing a house. Wood-chopping and charcoal-burning for
smelting furnaces seemed to be the principal industry.
On the 15th we continued our march in a heavy, cold rain to Pigeon
Creek, two miles north of Pulaski, making sixteen miles. General
Schofield met me there, and we examined the country westward some
three miles, our reconnoissance determining him to keep the division
at the turnpike crossing of the creek, where we accordingly
encamped. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xlv. pt. i. p. 357.] It
had been confidently expected that Hood would march northward by the
time we could reach Pulaski, but he delayed, and it was a week later
before he really opened his new campaign. Various things combined to
give plausible reasons for his delay. He could not get the supply of
stores which he needed. The gap in his railroad from Cherokee to
Tuscumbia was not rebuilt. The weather was continuously cold with
heavy rains, and the roads going from bad to worse. The truth, no
doubt, was that Sherman's march southward had a most perplexing
effect, raising portentous problems as to its result upon the
Confederacy, and reducing Hood's own campaign to a secondary place
in the general progress of the war. Torn by doubts, he seemed
willing to find excuses for postponing action, hoping to see clearer
light on the future before committing himself to a decisive
movement. An interesting item in the discussion between the
Confederate generals was that Hood suggested Purdy as a better base
than Tuscumbia, and proposed to abandon the work of rebuilding the
railroad near that place. Purdy was some twenty-five miles north of
Corinth on the Mobile and Ohio Railway, and not far from the old
battlefield of Shiloh. Its landing-place on the Tennessee River was
nearly opposite Savannah, and it was there that Grant had stopped
his steamboat for a conference with General Lew Wallace on his way
to Pittsburg Landing the morning of the great battle. It is probable
that Hood thought it advantageous to take a line by which he might
avoid the risk of expeditions from Decatur, and could more safely
turn Schofield's position at Pulaski, by operating further from our
line of railroad and making it necessary for us either to retire
rapidly toward Nashville, or meet him so far from our supply line as
to be dependent, like himself, on wagon transportation. Beauregard
approved the change of base if made after the first stage of the
campaign should be complete, and planned a scheme of floating booms
armed with torpedoes to protect the pontoon bridge when it should be
laid there. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxxix. pt. iii. pp.
900, 905; vol. xlv. pt. i. p. 1210.] The road from Savannah through
Waynesborough to Columbia was a turnpike, and would be safer for
wagon trains than that from Florence, because so much further from
posts on our railway. It would also be a better line of retreat in
case of disaster. The plan was not tried, because the withdrawal of
our forces from Decatur and Pulaski removed the dangers which Hood
apprehended, and made his communications secure. The rains raised
the river so much that the bridge laid at Florence was no longer
protected by its situation between Muscle Shoals above and Colbert
Shoals below, and the Confederates had reason to fear that it would
be destroyed by gunboats coming up the river. The navy had been
unfortunate in the destruction of gunboats at Johnsonville, but
Rear-Admiral S. P. Lee had been sent to take command of the river
fleets co-operating with Thomas, and was planning active work with
heavier vessels. [Footnote: _Id_., vol. xxxix. pt. iii. p. 734.]
On the 14th the river had risen eighteen feet at Florence, and
Hood's bridge was with great difficulty kept in its place.
[Footnote: _Id_., vol. xlv. pt. i. p. 887.] The same day General
Wheeler informed him of Sherman's concentration at Atlanta, the
destruction of the railroad above, and the strong rumors of the
march on Augusta and Savannah. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 1206.] Forrest
had not yet joined Hood, but did so in two days. Beauregard heard,
through Taylor, of the movement of reinforcements to Thomas from
Memphis and below, as well as of A. J. Smith's from St. Louis.
[Footnote: _Id_., pp. 1208-1209.] On the 17th he got authentic news
of Sherman's start from Atlanta, and ordered Hood to "take the
offensive at the earliest practicable moment, and deal the enemy
rapid and vigorous blows, striking him while thus dispersed, and by
this means to distract Sherman's advance into Georgia." Hood replied
that he had only one third of the quantity of rations accumulated
which he needed for beginning the campaign. [Footnote: Official
Records, vol. xlv. pt. i. p. 1215.] Beauregard himself left
Tuscumbia for Montgomery and Macon, giving Hood the choice either to
send part of his troops to Georgia or to take the offensive
immediately. Under this spur Hood gave orders for an advance on the
19th, but there was still some cause of delay, and Beauregard
reiterated, on the 20th, the peremptory order to "push an active
offensive immediately." Next day all were in motion, and Hood issued
a brief address to his troops, saying, "You march to-day to redeem
by your valor and your arms one of the fairest portions of our
Confederacy." [Footnote: _Id_., pp. 1220, 1225,1226,1236.]
During the week we were at Pulaski the rain had made our camp
anything but a pleasant one, yet, as we were daily in expectation of
Hood's advance, we could do nothing to improve our shelter or the
means of warming our tents. The forests were near enough to furnish
us the fuel for rousing camp-fires, and we made the most of them. At
night I fastened back the flaps of my tent, and a blazing pile of
logs threw in heat enough to temper the cold, and one slept sweetly
in the fresh air as long as the wind was in the right direction. The
day Hood advanced the rain changed to snow, driving in flurries and
squalls all day. Marching orders for the 22d came in the evening,
and we prepared for an early start to Lynnville, for the enemy was
making for Columbia through Lawrenceburg, and we must anticipate
him. The night was a freezing one, the mud was frozen stiff on the
surface in the morning, making the worst possible marching for the
infantry, while the artillery and horses broke through the crust at
every step. Our only consolation was in the reflection that it was
as bad for Hood as for us. By getting off at break of day my
division reached Lynnville by noon, and took position on the north
and west of the village. Wagner's division of the Fourth Corps
followed and reported to me. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xlv.
pt. i. pp. 974, 985.] I gave them positions on the south and west.
Schofield remained another day at Pulaski with two divisions of the
Fourth Corps, but joined me at noon of the 23d, and under his orders
I marched my division ten miles further north to the crossing of the
road from Mount Pleasant to Shelbyville. Starting at three, we
forced the pace a little, and went into position at six in the
twilight. [Footnote: _Id_., pp. 357, 998.] The rest was a short one,
for we were off again at four in the morning, hastening the march
for Columbia in the cold and thick darkness. Schofield had learned
in the night that the cavalry on the Lawrenceburg road had been
driven back to Mount Pleasant, and that the advance of Hood's
infantry was at the former place. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 989.] There
was no time to lose if we were to reach Columbia in time to cover a
concentration there. At the two-mile post south of the town a
cross-road turns westward, leading into the Mount Pleasant turnpike
where it crosses Bigby Creek, three miles out from Duck River. I
turned the head of column upon this road, and reached the turnpike
just in time to interpose between Capron's brigade of cavalry
retreating into Columbia and the Confederates under Forrest who were
sharply following. The rest of our horse were covering the flank of
the Fourth Corps, which was on the march from Lynnville. It was
close work, all round. My men deployed at double-quick along the
bank of the creek, and after a brisk skirmish Forrest withdrew out
of range. The head of the Fourth Corps column came up about eleven
o'clock, having left Lynnville at three. [Footnote: _Id_., pp. 1017,
1018, 1020, 1021.] We naturally supposed Hood's infantry to be in
close support of the cavalry, but they were still at Lawrenceburg,
and learning that Forrest had been foiled in the effort to take
Columbia, did not advance beyond Mount Pleasant till the 26th,
though the cavalry made a vigorous reconnoissance on the 25th,
giving us another lively skirmish in which my division had some
fifteen casualties. My headquarters' tents were pitched in the
grounds of Mrs. Martin, a member of the Polk family.
At Columbia we found General Ruger in command when we arrived. He
had been transferred from the Twentieth Corps, and ordered to ours
at the time we left Georgia, and Schofield had assigned him to the
second division. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxxix. pt. iii.
pp. 661, 682, 700, 748.] He joined the two brigades at Johnsonville,
but at Schofield's request Thomas ordered him on the 20th to bring
one brigade (Moore's) to Columbia, where Strickland's of the same
division already was. The railroad from Johnsonville was broken by
some raiders on the 21st, so that Ruger was delayed, and only
reached Columbia himself in the afternoon of the 23d. Moore's
brigade did not arrive till half-past two o'clock of the morning of
the 24th. Under Thomas's orders he at once, upon his arrival, sent
two regiments of Strickland's brigade down Duck River to
Williamsport and Centreville to hold crossings there. It thus
happened that Strickland was left with only his own regiment
(Fiftieth Ohio), till, some new reinforcements coming forward, other
regiments were temporarily assigned to him. [Footnote: _Id_., vol.
xlv. pt. i. pp. 378, 955, 985, 999.] Until he reached Columbia,
therefore, Schofield did not know that Strickland had been
reinforced, and we all supposed that our safety depended on my
getting there before the enemy.
Thomas also ordered General Cooper to march from Johnsonville on the
24th, with his own brigade, direct to Centerville and Beard's Ferry,
some fifty miles. There he would be in communication with the two
regiments sent down from Columbia to Williamsport, and he was put in
command of the whole. He was thirty miles from our principal column,
and posted his troops to observe the crossings through some fifteen
miles of the river's course. He arrived at Beard's Ferry on the
evening of the 28th, and was there only a day and a half, when our
retreat to Franklin made it necessary for him also to fall back. He
was beset by guerilla parties, so that he was almost without
communication with his commanders, and being thrown on his own
resources, made his way back to Nashville with a series of
adventures. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xlv. pt. i. p. 370.]
Ruger's division was thus deprived of half its veteran troops at the
battle of Franklin.
It must be noted also that it was not till the 24th that the troops
at Decatur and Huntsville were ordered back, the withdrawal being
made on the 25th. General R. S. Granger's old troops were then
placed at Stevenson, and those recently recruited were sent to
Murfreesborough.
Granger reported that the public property, except some forage, had
been removed; but by what seems to have been a misunderstanding with
the naval officers about convoying transports, the pontoon bridge
was only detached at its southern end, and was neither taken up
stream nor destroyed. It swung with the current against the northern
shore, and proved of great use to Hood in his retreat a month later.
[Footnote: _Id_., pp. 1003, 1027, 1046. See also "Franklin and
Nashville," p. 125.] The continued hope that A. J. Smith's corps
would arrive in time to reach Pulaski or Columbia before we should
have to retreat counted for much, no doubt, in Thomas's postponement
of decisive action; but it can hardly be disputed that the true
military course would have been to strip his garrisons to the bone
immediately after Sherman marched southward, concentrate at Pulaski
a force superior to Hood's, and give him battle if he dared to
advance north from Florence. [Footnote: For the forces on both sides
in Tennessee, see Official Records, vol. xlv. pt. i. pp. 52-54,
678-679; "Franklin and Nashville," pp. 132-136; "The Battle of
Franklin," pp. 9, 208. I discussed the same subject in "The Nation"
for Nov. 9, 1893, p. 352.]
As it was too late for concentration at Duck River or south of it,
Schofield was limited to a careful defensive, though he was willing
to receive Hood's attack upon our lines. [Footnote: Official
Records, vol. xlv. pt. i. p. 1017.] The latter, however, did no more
than keep up a combat of skirmish lines, whilst he looked for ways
to turn the position. Schofield, on his part, prepared a short
interior line to be held by part of his troops when it was time to
cross the river with the rest. In the night of the 25th this
movement was made, and for a couple of days more our forces were
divided, part holding the short line on the south side, and the
greater portion encamped in the bend on the north bank, closely
watching the development of the enemy's evident purpose to cross
some miles above us. [Footnote: _Id_., pp. 1039, 1086-1091.]
The crossing of the river had been arranged for the early evening,
the Fourth Corps moving first into the short line on the south of
the river; and when this was done, I was to march two brigades of my
division through the lines and across the river to the north bank by
the pontoon bridge. There were delays in the change of position by
the Fourth Corps, and it was past midnight when I was notified that
they were in place and commenced my own movement. At that time a
rain-storm had set in which made our whole operation uncomfortable
in the wet and darkness, but especially the seeking a bivouac for
the troops after we got over the river. We halted the men and parked
the trains about a mile from the bridge at three o'clock. [Footnote:
_Id_., p. 358.] I had a tent roughly pitched, and got a little
sleep, but was roused at daybreak by musket firing, which sounded as
if it were right among us. I sprang up with the feeling that I had
been caught napping in a double sense; but a little examination
showed that the enemy's pickets and our own were skirmishing on the
other side of the river. The Confederates had pushed in a
reconnoissance to find out what we had been at, and in the damp air
the sound of the firing on the opposite bank where the flank of our
new line rested was so loud and seemed so close that it had deceived
me.
The remainder of our little army was brought over in the night of
the 27th, and on the 28th Forrest's cavalry was over the upper fords
of the river, pushing back our mounted troops and covering the
laying of a pontoon bridge at Davis's ford, five or six miles above
Columbia, where Hood's principal column of infantry crossed next
day.
In the night of the 27th it occurred to General Thomas that Hood's
advance left the bridge at Florence open to an attack, and on the
next day he sent an officer to General Steedman, commanding at
Chattanooga, with the suggestion that the latter should throw his
force of 5000 men against Tuscumbia and destroy Hood's crossing of
the Tennessee. Steedman was to use the railroad to Decatur, taking
along the pontoons which Thomas supposed had been carried to
Chattanooga from Decatur two days before, and relaying that crossing
for the purposes of the expedition. [Footnote: Official Records,
vol. xlv. pt. i. pp. 1100, 1125, 1126.] There seems to have been
hesitation in letting Thomas know that the Decatur pontoons had not
been brought away, and Steedman said he would take his infantry by
rail, send his cavalry by steamboat transports, and use these boats
to cross the troops instead of pontoons. On further reflection,
however, Thomas found that Hood's movement on the 28th to turn
Schofield's left made the plan too adventurous, and on the 29th he
revoked the order, directing Steedman to take his men to Cowan.
Strong posts were thus established at Murfreesborough, Stevenson,
and Cowan on the railroad between Nashville and Chattanooga, under
the impression which Thomas retained till after the battle of
Franklin, that Hood would not advance on Nashville, but would march
toward one of the three places named. [Footnote: Official Records,
vol. xlv. pt. i. pp. 1159, 1160.]
A concentration in force at Decatur two weeks earlier, and an
advance toward Tuscumbia, would have had much to recommend it, and
it would perhaps have been the surest way to defend the line of the
Tennessee; but it was now too late for that, as it was also too late
to affect Hood's determination to seek an early battle with
Schofield. Despite his hesitation to leave Florence and Tuscumbia,
and his plea that his supplies were insufficient, Hood had found on
reaching Mount Pleasant that he could live on the country, and
telegraphed Beauregard that he found food enough and anticipated no
further trouble on that score,--a confession that he might have
advanced at the beginning of the month. [Footnote: _Id_., pp. 1245,
1254.] If Steedman had made the expedition, therefore, it would not
have brought Hood back, and would only have wasted a strong division
in a useless collateral operation. The scattering of 20,000 men
along the Chattanooga route, "in small packages" (to use Napoleon's
phrase), cannot be regarded as sound, though Steedman was more
available at Cowan than at Chattanooga, and he got to Nashville "by
the skin of his teeth" when the battle of Franklin proved that the
enemy was aiming at that place, and made Thomas see the desirability
of greater concentration. [Footnote: Thomas's order to Steedman to
bring his troops from Cowan to Nashville was dated at 5.35 P. M. of
the 30th, and his forces arrived, part on the 1st and part on the 2d
of December, the last of the trains being attacked by the enemy five
miles out of Nashville. _Id_., pp. 503, 1190.] He then ordered
Steedman to bring his division to Nashville; but Rousseau, with
Milroy's and Granger's commands, were still left at Murfreesborough
and beyond. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 1153.]
I have already told the story of the march to Franklin, and the
fierce battle at that place, in the Scribner Series, "March to the
Sea; Franklin and Nashville," and in "The Battle of Franklin," and
will not repeat it here. The effect of the belief that Hood would
march eastward toward Murfreesborough had, however, so strong an
influence upon General Wilson, the cavalry commander, that it is
instructive to trace it in his dispatches. It seems to have been the
cause of the loss of touch with our infantry during that important
movement.
In the middle of the night of the 28th Wilson had reason to think
that two divisions (Buford's and Jackson's) of Forrest's cavalry
were north of Duck River upon the Lewisburg and Franklin turnpike,
about Rally Hill, the rest of Hood's army on the Columbia and
Shelbyville road in rear. They had driven our own horse away from
the river, and the best Wilson had been able to do was to
concentrate his troops about Hurt's Cross-roads, some miles further
north on the same road. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xlv. pt.
i. p. 1143.] His communication with Schofield was through Spring
Hill by a cross-road, and by that route he sent a report at three
o'clock in the morning of the 29th. [Footnote: _Ibid_.] He then had
information that the enemy were laying pontoon bridges for the
infantry, though the place was not accurately fixed. He thought it
very clear that they were aiming for Franklin by the turnpike he was
on, and said he would stay on that road and hold them back as much
as he could. He indicated Spring Hill or Thompson's Station as the
points on the Columbia turnpike where cross-roads would bring
Schofield's couriers to him, and said he would try to get no further
back than the Ridge meeting-house, due east from Thompson's Station.
There he would leave the turnpike and take a still more eastern
course toward Nolensville. He closed the dispatch with, "Get back to
Franklin without delay, leaving a small force to detain the enemy.
The rebels will move by this road toward that point." [Footnote:
_Ibid_.]
These positions will be understood if we note that the Lewisburg and
Franklin turnpike is some twelve miles in a direct line east of that
from Columbia to Franklin where they cross the river, and that these
roads converge toward the last-named place twenty-three miles north.
Nolensville is about twelve miles northeast of Franklin and
considerably nearer Nashville. As one goes north on the Lewisburg
turnpike, after passing Rally Hill and Hurt's Cross-roads, the next
important crossing is at Mount Carmel, where the road from Spring
Hill to Murfreesboro intersects the turnpike. Three miles still
further on, a road from Thompson's Station is crossed at the
so-called Ridge meeting-house. All these cross-roads gave the means
of regaining touch with Schofield's main column; but the cavalry
commander was so dominated by the belief that Forrest was making
directly for Nashville by roads still further east, that he proposed
neither to join the infantry by the cross-roads, nor to adhere to
the converging one leading to Franklin, but would go to Nolensville.
The imperative form of his suggestion to his commanding officer to
"get back" shows not only the force of this mental preoccupation,
but a forgetfulness that Schofield might have other information and
be under a necessity of forming other plans for the day's operations
to which the cavalry must be subordinate.
The whole of Hood's force had not crossed the river, but two thirds
of Lee's corps and nearly all the artillery were still in Columbia,
and made their presence known by a vigorous cannonade in the early
morning of the 29th. The enemy's infantry was not marching to the
Lewisburg turnpike, but was seen making for Spring Hill by roads
five miles east of Columbia, and Forrest was in touch with their
right flank. Schofield, under orders from Thomas, was obstructing
the lower fords of the river, and trying to get orders through to
General Cooper, directing him to concentrate his forces and retire
from Centerville. The concentration of our cavalry had been so
complete that when it took an independent line of retreat it ceased,
for the time, to be any efficient part of Schofield's forces, and
left him without cover for his flank or means of rapid
reconnoissance. For conclusive reasons he held during the day of the
29th the line from Spring Hill to the Duck River; but after ten
o'clock in the morning Wilson was wholly out of the game, looking
off to the east for Forrest, who had gone west from Hurt's
Cross-roads and Mount Carmel to attack our infantry at Spring Hill.
[Footnote: Official Records, vol. xlv. pt. i. pp. 1144, 753, 769.]
At noon, north of the Ridge church and the road to Thompson's
Station, Wilson was still of the opinion that the whole of the
enemy's cavalry had gone to Nashville by eastern roads through
Peytonsville, Triune, and Nolensville. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 1144.]
At two in the afternoon he repeated the same opinion in a dispatch
to Thomas, although he had heard heavy artillery firing in the
direction of Spring Hill since eleven o'clock. He warned Thomas to
look out for Forrest at Nashville by next day noon, but promised to
be there himself before or very soon after he should make his
appearance. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 1146.] At four o'clock he was four
miles east of Franklin, still looking toward Nolensville for the
enemy, who had "disappeared," and still of the opinion that Forrest
had turned his left flank before he left Hurt's Cross-roads in the
morning. The heavy firing he had heard all day had, however,
awakened solicitude for Schofield. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 1145.] After
nightfall he sent a scout back on the road he had travelled, nearly
to the Ridge meeting-house, where was found a cavalry picket of the
enemy, and a large camp was said to be discovered near by,--probably
the light of the camp-fires at Thompson's Station, where they were
still burning when Schofield placed Ruger's division there in the
evening. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 342.] At ten o'clock Wilson had
concluded that it was "probable that a part of the enemy's cavalry
this afternoon aimed to strike your rear or flank at Thompson's
Station," as he wrote to Schofield, and had marched a mile and a
half toward Franklin, [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xlv. pt. i.
p. 342.] where at the Matthews house his headquarters remained next
day, when connection with the army had again been made. Nothing more
than scouting parties and patrols from Forrest's column had gone
north of Mount Carmel during the day. The adventures of the march
had emphasized the danger that a preconceived opinion of
probabilities may make an officer misinterpret such real facts as he
may learn, or let very slight evidence take the place of thorough
knowledge got by bold contact with the enemy. The experience also
teaches how sure mischiefs are to follow the forgetfulness of the
principle that, in such operations, it is the primary duty of the
cavalry to keep in touch with the main body of the army, and where
orders from the commanding general may be promptly received and
acted on. Schofield, in fact, had no communication with his cavalry
during the whole day, and none of Wilson's messages had reached him
after the retreat from Hurt's Cross-roads began. [Footnote: _Id_.,
p. 343.]