Gen.
Hood and his Army Of Tennessee successfully diverted the Yankees at
Columbia Tennessee thereby permitting a crossing of Duck River.
This is part of a maneuver
designed to interfere with the Union army’s line of communications with
Nashville. As Gen. John Bell
Hood’s army advanced northeastward from Florence, Alabama, the Federals,
identified as Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield’s force, quickly withdrew from
Pulaski to Columbia, arriving on November 24, just ahead of Gen.
Forrest’s cavalry. The Federals built two lines of earthworks south of
the town while skirmishing with Gen Forrest on November 24 and 25. Gen.
Hood advanced his infantry on the following day, but did not assault. He
made few demonstrations along the front while marching two corps of his
army to Davis Ford, some five miles eastward on the Duck River. The
Yankees correctly interpreted Hood’s moves, but the foul weather
prevented him from crossing to the north bank before November 28, leaving
Columbia to Gen. Hood. The next day, Gen. Hood marched north for Spring
Hill, The destination was unknown to the commander of a Texas Regiment,
Major Rhodes, as he stated that he received orders to be advanced guard
and begin a march north to a place unknown.
The Yankees followed in earnest.
The March to Spring Hill was a hard march.
The weather was not good and the soldiers were having a time of it.
Their bare feet slipping on ice covered roads made for a tiring march.
Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest rode past our columns and the boys
lifted their battered hats in salute with cheers filling the air from
every one. Nov. 29 found Gen.
Hood’s army at Spring Hill. The
boys exhausted after the hard march went straight into the fight.
Forrest had been skirmishing with units traveling in advance
of the Yankee wagon train, and various Federal cavalry units that were
reinforcing the small Federal garrison at Spring Hill, since his arrival
on the outskirts at noon. Hood
ordered Cheatham's lead division, Cleburne's, to attack the Union forces
at Spring Hill, and gain possession of the Franklin Pike, at 4 p.m.
Cleburne’s boys formed up as the Federals began to appear from
behind a line of trees. Onward
they seem to come in splendid form in what seemed a never ending stream.
As our boys began to push the Yankees back toward the tree line and
beyond, the Yankees fell back behind their works thereby making Cleburne's
attack initially successful, driving a brigade of Wagner's division,
Stanley's corps, back to the southern outskirts of the town, but was
stalled by Union artillery that seemed to bristle and burst upon the
advancing troops of Cleburne. Cleburne
fell back as the Federals began forming behind their works under the cover
of their artillery. While
Cleburne began reforming for another attack, Cheatham ordered Cleburne to
await the arrival of two more divisions. As the Confederate infantry was
moving up into position on the right in magnificent style, Federal
reinforcements were arriving from Columbia to secure the perimeter of
Spring Hill. The Federals seem to come out of nowhere in long columns
finding their place behind the cover of works, so that the whole line was
a continuous great serpent of blue. By the time Cheatham's three divisions
were in place, darkness had fallen and the Confederate attack was stalled.
What followed, on the evening of the 29th, was a total breakdown of
miscommunications among the Confederate command and disjointed efforts to
gain control of the vital Franklin Pike.
What’s more, some of the supply wagons carrying fresh water had
broken down leaving the boys, now preparing to encamp without adequate
water supply. Each man was aloud no more than half a canteen from what was
available. This began a hard
night for the boys who were thirsty and tired from the hard march and
battle fought. This would not
be worst of the night’s uneasy slumber.
The Yankee managed to move his entire army from a perilous
situation. As the boys slept, the Yankees marched silently by our
Confederate army. One could
hear the shuffling of soldiers and the clanking of equipment, but it was
assumed it must be Confederate reinforcements coming so close to our
encampment. Pickets that were
posted rang out shots in the distance most of the night, but that seemed
routine in nature. The
Federals did pass our sleeping soldiers within yards and on towards
Franklin. On the morning of November 30, Hood was again in pursuit of
Thomas's forces. In the early
morning as a light rain began to fall, the boys prepared breakfast with
what little they had and drank a mouth full of water and no more as the
supply was gone. Gen. Hood
was marching on from Spring Hill, but had missed a golden opportunity to
destroy Schofield's Federal forces. At Spring Hill, the Federals suffered
350-killed, wounded and missing, the bulk of them in Bradley's Brigade,
Wagner's division. The Confederates lost 500-killed, wounded and missing,
the bulk of those within Forrest's and Cleburne's commands.
One such soldier left dying on the battlefield was an Englishman,
Patrick Reardon, who was formally a Major in the British army before being
dismissed from the Queens army for having an affair with his Colonels’
wife. He found his way to
Galveston Texas and was a schoolteacher before joining the Texas ranks of
the Confederacy. Here at
Spring Hill, Patrick’s story ended along with many a good soldier for no
apparent gains. Gen. Hood marched his army to Franklin, in hopes of a
decisive victory, but this was nay to be.
Upon arrival at Franklin the Federal army was observed digging
works around a small farmhouse owned by the Carter family.
It would be here that Gen. Hood would make his attack.
It was here that disaster struck for Gen. Hood’s army. Gen Hood
quickly set up headquarters in a large plantation house, which had been
commandeered. By 2:00 pm Gen. Hood had made plans for a frontal assault on
the Federal works around the Carter house. By 2:30 pm a conference
was held at the Harrison House. Strong objections were voiced from
Hood's commanders. General Cheatham said, "I don't like the
looks of this fight, as the enemy has a good position and is well
fortified." Generals Cleburne and Forrest knew they would be
flirting with disaster and voiced their concerns, but Gen. Hood would not
be dissuaded. As Gen. Cleburne mounted his horse to leave, Hood gave
strict orders for the assault. Cleburne responded, "We will
take the works or fall in the attempt." The Army of Tennessee
knew this assault on the town of Franklin would be suicidal. They
bravely advanced toward the Carter House with their heads held high taking
positions for the attack. It
was not soon after this that an opportunity came to light.
This would be to witness the unfolding events from the Federal
line. The Federals were
continuing building their works around the Carter house when from a
clearing in the trees a lone Yankee soldier appeared and came toward me.
Upon seeing me he raised his musket and began to question my being
close to his apparent destination. I
informed him that I was just a Correspondent from Richmond getting facts
for this story, you now are reading, when he took me prisoner and I was
escorted to the Federal line. This
young man in blue had apparently gone off for some quiet and had fallen
asleep, so a bargain between us was reached.
I would not inform his superiors of his derelict and he would
escort me to some colleagues who were reporting on events for the Northern
press. I was placed in the
custody of such Northern newspapermen as James A. Davis of Harpers Weekly
and the famous artist Alfred Waud. Fine
fellows one and all. From the
Yankee lines I was able to observe Gen Cleburne’s attack on the federal
works. Our boys were so
splendid that I couldn’t help but to yell and cheer as they approached.
The Yankees began to fire with a mighty crack of muskets and
booming of cannon. Our
Confederate soldiers continued to come slashing toward the Yankee works.
On they came with such determination and might.
The Federals broke and ran as our boys overcame the Yankee works.
The Yankees reformed and advanced upon Cleburne’s boys pushing
them back again. The fighting
soon became brutal and fiendishly savage, with men bayoneted and clubbed
to death in the Carter yard. A Confederate soldier was bayoneted on
the front steps of the Carter House. Men were clubbing, clawing,
punching, stabbing and choking each other. The smoke from canons and
muskets was so thick that you could not tell friend from foe.
General Cleburne could be seen in the fierce fighting rallying his
boys as they began to falter from the Federal onslaught and then the
General was gone. Shot down
by a Yankee ball. The
fighting lasted five hours with men slashing at each other from all
corners. Desperate and
determined, both sides fought with ferocity and vengeance.
Five hours they continued with no one brigade achieving gains until
the fighting subsided and it was clear that the Yankees held the field. The cost was high for both sides, but for General Hood, the
cost was total. More than
1,750 men were killed outright or died of mortal wounds, 3,800 seriously
wounded and 702 captured, not including cavalry casualties. 15 out
of 28 Confederate Generals were casualties. 65 field grade officers
were lost. Some infantry regiments lost 64 percent of their strength
at Franklin. General
Patrick Cleburne was among the losses.
Gone was the Irish gentleman who loved by his men, not so by the
Confederate Government. General
Cleburne was anti slavery and believed that slaves ought be aloud to join
the ranks and he was Irish. For
those who knew the General, his loss would be a cornerstone of this unholy
war that has taken so many a fine officer, soldier and man from us.
There was none finer than General Patrick Cleburne.
It can be said that the Army of Tennessee died this day at
Franklin, November 30, 1864. For
me, I found myself prisoner being placed in the crowd of Confederate
prisoners taken this day. I
approached our boys all huddled together and tipped my hat in salute to a
Federal century guarding the prisoners, when he answered with the point of
his musket and instructed me to fall in with the rest of the prisoners.
There I found Major Rhodes of Texas, unharmed and in apparent good
sprits. It was a welcome site
to find him with the living. If
not for the fortitude of my colleagues of the Northern press, I might have
been shuffled off with the rest of our poor, but living soldiers. For they convinced a Federal Major, Provost Marshal, that I
be placed in their custody. This
done, I was taken to the Federal camp and I must say, treated very well.
At midnight I joined the rest of the Yankee army as they retreated
to Nashville. When a halt was
called, some Federal officers treated me to a tent, coffee and a fine
cigar. Come sunup, Dec. 1, I
dined on a fine breakfast, prepared by a Yankee sergeant, which was the
first real meal I had had in many weeks.
I truly thank the members of the esteemed Northern press for my
good treatment. With that, I
was paroled, which since the stop of prisoner exchanges, was truly an act
of kindness received in these times when little is given nor received. I once again found myself with our army at Nashville.
Gen. Hood had suffered terrible
losses at Franklin on November 30, though he refused to believe that his
army was all, but destroyed. He
began a march with the survivors away from Franklin and on toward
Nashville. By Dec. 1, the various elements of Maj. Gen. George H.
Thomas’s army had reached Nashville as I can attest to. Gen. Hood
reached the outskirts of Nashville on December 2, occupied positions on a
line of hills parallel to those of the Yankees and began erecting
fieldworks. Union Army Engineers, had constructed sophisticated
fortifications at Nashville a couple of years past, strengthened by
others, which would soon see use. From
Dec. 1st to the 14th the two armies faced off without a shot.
This would soon change. Before daylight on the 15th, the first of
the Union troops, led by Maj. Gen. James Steedman, set out to hit our
right. The attack was made and the Union forces held down one of our corps
there for the rest of the day. Attack
on our left did not begin until after noon when a charge commenced on
Montgomery Hill. With this classic charge’s success, attacks on other
parts of the left commenced, all apparently successful.
From our camps where soldiers were held as reserves we could here
the clatter of muskets and ringing thunder of artillery in the near
distance. It was hard to
conceive that Gen. Hood planed to mount a major battle with what was left
of his army, but that was indeed his plan.
As darkness fell the fighting stopped for the day. Although
battered and with a much smaller battle line, Gen. Hood was still
confident. He established a main line of resistance along the base of a
ridge about two miles south of the former location, throwing up new works
and fortifying Shy’s and Overton’s hills on their flanks. The Yankees
could be seen to within 250 yards, in some places, of our new lines and
began constructing fieldworks. During
the rest of the morning, other Federal troops moved out toward the new
lines and took up positions opposite it.
In the morning sun the reserves marched out to join those already
in position. As the boys
marched down a narrow road, we passed a small cabin where three women were
handing out ripe green and red apples to the boys as they passed.
The soldiers gobbled those apples up as if and for some, it were
their last meal. As the sound
of battle began to increase, our artillery could be seen bristling on the
hilltop. Surgeons were
present with their blood stained aprons on from the previous days work at
Franklin, and when the boys began to jeer at the surgeons for the bloody
aprons, the surgeons jeered back saying, “you all will be needing us
soon, don’t you worry”. The Yankee attack began against Hood’s
strong right flank on Overton’s Hill. The same brigade that had taken
Montgomery Hill the day before received the honors for the charge up
Overton’s Hill. This charge, although gallantly conducted, failed, but
other troops successfully assaulted Shy’s Hill in their fronts.
Our boys were firing at great speed from their works as the entire
field began to be a sea of blue. On
they came in overwhelming force, undaunted by our fire from the musket
soldiers or the artillery. With
the Yankee success along the line, other Yankee troops appeared and
charged up Overton’s Hill and with weight of numbers, the Federals took
the day. Over the top they
came on with that familiar deep shout of “Hurrah” of the Yankee
soldier as if hell itself could not stop this army of blue.
Such was the scene that Hood’s army did not wait for another
Franklin, the boys simply turned and fled for their lives.
In the mass confusion of this fleeting route, I would become
separated from the Army Of Tennessee and once again confronted by Federal
soldiers, but for my pass I received from a Federal Provost Marshal I
might have been made prisoner or worse. I was released in Nashville at the
behest of Gen. Thomas and would board a train home to Richmond.
It has come to pass that Gen. Thomas had left one escape route open
for Gen. Hoods army which, aloud the surviving battered troops to save off
capture, but not safety, for the Yankee army set off in pursuit. The
ringing truth is that Gen. Hood’s army is gone.
In a little over three months, Gen. Hood has done what Sherman
couldn’t. He has destroyed
the grand Army Of Tennessee. Gen
Hood got stalled at Columbia, fooled at Spring Hill, beaten at Franklin,
and routed at Nashville. Was
this his own ineptitude or was this his way of punishing the army for
Atlanta? Gen. Hood once a
fine Brigade and Division commander with fight when he rode with Stonewall
and served Gen. Robert E. Lee, now has single-handedly lost an army and
the western Confederacy. Gen.
Hood should be forced out of this army by resigning his command at once. That is the consensus of this newspaper and the Confederate
Government.
Tom R. Grandy
Daily Richmond Examiner