INNES'S GALLANT DEFENSE OF LAVERGNE. 281 have resulted in great damage to the enemy. I caused the enemy to be charged on three sides at the same time, by Cols. Cox and Smith and Lt.-Col. Malone; and the charge was repeated four times; but the enemy was so strongly posted that it was found impossible to dislodge him." Rosecrans makes his entire force where he, at 2 P. M. next day," had a fight with a heavily guarded ordnance train, which he stopped, and claims to have damaged, but was unable to capture or destroy; returning during the night to Bragg's left flank, and covering his retreat on the 4th and 5th. On the whole, the enemy's opera- who participated in this struggle tions in the rear of our army, during 37,977 infantry, 3,200 cavalry, and this memorable conflict, reflect no 2,223 artillery: total, 43,400; and credit on the intelligence and energy states his losses as follows: killed, with which they were resisted. The 1,533;" wounded, 7,245; total, 8,778, prisoners-2,000 or more-taken by or fully 20 per cent. of the number the Rebels were of course mainly engaged. He adds that his provoststragglers and fugitives, barely worth marshal says his loss of prisoners will paroling; but they figure largely in fall below 2,800. He says nothing Wheeler's and in Bragg's reports. of prisoners taken by him, though we And it is not doubtful that Rose- certainly did take at least 500, beside crans's inability to improve his ulti-wounded. He judges that the Rebmate success was largely owing to the destruction of his trains by these triumphant raiders. The silver lining to this cloud is a most gallant defense made on the 1st by Col. Innes's 1st Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, only 391 strong, who had taken post on high ground near Lavergne, and formed such a barricade of cedars, &c., as they hurriedly might. Here they were" attacked, at 2 P. M., by Wharton's cavalry, whom they successfully resisted and beat off. Wharton's official report is their best eulogium. He was in command of six or eight regiments, and here is his account of this affair: "A regiment of infantry, under Col. Dennis, also was stationed in a cedar-brake, and fortifications, near this point. I caused the battery, under Lt. Pike, who acted with great gallantry, to open on it. The fire, at a range of not more than 400 yards, was kept up for more than an hour; and must 22 Jan. 3. 25 Jan. 1. 24 Among our killed, beside those already mentioned, were Cols. Jones, 24th Ohio, McKee, 3d 24 els had fifteen per cent. advantage in Bragg, per contra, says he had but 35,000 men on the field when the fight commenced, of whom but about 30,000 were infantry and artillery; and that he lost of these over 10,000, of whom 9,000 were killed Among our wounded, beside those already named, were Cols. Forman, 15th Ky., Humphreys, 88th Ind., Alexander, 21st Ill., Hines, Ky., Williams, 25th Ill., Harrington, 27th Ill., | 57th Ind., Blake, 40th Ind., and Lt.-Col. Tanner, Stem, 101st Ohio, and Millikin, 3d Ohio cavalry. | 22d Ind. and wounded." He claims to have | Humboldt, Union City, &c., burning taken 6,273 prisoners, many of them by the raids of his cavalry on the trains and fugitives between our army and Nashville; and he estimates our losses at 24,000 killed and wounded, with over 30 guns to his 3. He claims to have captured, in addition, 6,000 small arms and much other valuable spoil, beside burning 800 wagons, &c., &c. It seems odd that, after such a fight, he should have retired so hastily as to leave 1,500 of his sick and wounded (Union accounts says 2,600), with 200 medical and other attendants, in his deserted hospitals at Murfreesboro'."" bridges, tearing up rails, and paroling captured Federals (over 1,000, according to his reports-700 of them at Trenton alone), was struck on his return at PARKER'S CROSS-ROADS, between Huntingdon and Lexington, and thoroughly routed. He first encountered Col. C. L. Dunham, with a small brigade of 1,600; who had, the day before, been pushed forward from Huntingdon by Gen. J. C. Sullivan, and who was getting the worst of the fight-having been nearly surrounded, his train captured, and he summoned to surrender-when Sullivan came up at double-quick, with the two fresh brigades of Gen. Haynie and Col. Fuller, and rushed upon the astonished Rebels, who fled in utter rout, not attempting to make a stand, nor hardly to fire a shot. Forrest himself narrowly escaped capture; losing 4 guns, over 400 prisoners, including his Adjutant, Strange, two Colonels, many horses, arms, &c., &c. He fled eastward to Clifton, where he rëcrossed the Tennessee, and thence made his way back to Bragg. He lost in the fight about On the day" of the great struggle 50 killed and 150 wounded-the latat Stone river, Gen. Forrest, who, ter being included among the priswith 3,500 cavalry, had been detach-oners. Dunham reports his loss at ed" by Bragg to operate on our com- 220: 23 killed, 139 wounded, and 58 munications in West Tennessee, and missing. who had for two weeks or more been raiding through that section, threatening Jackson, capturing Trenton, It is a fair presumption that our losses, both in men (prisoners included) and material, were greater than those of the Rebels; and that Rosecrans's army was disabled by those losses for any effective pursuit; but this does not and can not demolish the fact that the battle of Stone river, so gallantly, obstinately, desperately fought, was lost by Bragg and the Rebels, and won by the army of the Cumberland and its heroic commander. 25 Among his killed were Gens. James E. Rains (Missouri), and Roger W. Hanson (Kentucky); and Cols. Moore, 8th Tenn., Burks, 11th Texas, Fisk, 16th La., Cunningham, 28th Tenn., and Black, 5th Ga. Among his wounded were Gens. James R. Chalmers and D. W. Adams. 26 He says, in his report, that his men were "greatly exhausted" by the long contest and its privations—as if they were peculiar in that respect-when they had Murfreesboro' just behind Gen. John H. Morgan, who had been likewise dispatched by Bragg to operate on Rosecrans's communithem, with their dépôts and hospitals; while our troops had scarcely a roof to their headsand that "The only question with me was, whether the movement should be made at once, or delayed 24 hours to save a few of our wounded. As it was probable that we should lose by exhaustion as many as we should remove of the wounded, my inclination to remain was yielded.” RAIDS OF CARTER AND WHEELER. 283 or captured over 500. Having been ridden all but incessantly 690 miles, with very little to eat, many of his horses gave out and were left to die on the return. cations, simultaneously with Forrest's | his old quarters; having lost but doings in West Tennessee, passing 20 men, mainly prisoners-and killed the left of Rosecrans's army, rode into the heart of Kentucky; and, after inconsiderable skirmishes at Glasgow, Upton, and Nolin," pressed on to Elizabethtown, which he took, after a brief, one-sided conflict, capturing there and at the trestlework on the railroad, five or six miles above, several hundred prisoners, destroying 30 3o the railroad for miles, with a quantity of army stores. He then raided up to Bardstown, where he turned 31 abruptly southward, being threatened by a far superior force; retreating into Tennessee by Springfield and Campbellsville; having inflicted considerable damage and incurred very little loss. 32 But his raid was fully countered by one led 22 about the same time by Brig.-Gen. H. Carter (formerly Col. 2d Tennessee) from Winchester, Ky., across the Cumberland, Powell's, and Clinch mountains, through a corner of Lee county, Va., to Blountsville and Zollicoffer (formerly Union Station), East Tennessee, where 150 of the 62d North Carolina, Maj. McDowell, were surprised and captured without a shot, and the railroad bridge, 720 feet long, over the Holston, destroyed, with 700 small arms and much other material of war. Pushing on ten miles, to Clinch's Station, Carter had a little fight, captured 75 prisoners, and destroyed the railroad bridge, 400 feet long, over the Watauga, with a locomotive and several cars; returning thence by Jonesville, Lee county, Va., rëcrossing the Cumberland range at Hauk's Gap; and, after two or three smart skirmishes, returning in triumph to Gen. Wheeler, in chief command of Bragg's cavalry, 4,500 strong, with Forrest and Wharton as Brigadiers, passing Rosecrans's army by its right, concentrated his forces at Franklin, and pushed north-westward rapidly to Dover, near the site of old Fort Donelson, which our Generals had seen no reason to repair and occupy. But he found " Dover held by Col. A. C. Harding, 83d Illinois, with some 600 men fit for duty; his battery and one or two companies being absent; but Harding proved the man for the exigency. He at once sent across to Fort Henry for assistance, and dispatched a steamboat down the Cumberland for gunboats; at the same time throwing out and deploying his men so as to impede to the utmost the advance of the Rebels, and opening upon them so soon as they came within range, with a 32-pounder and 4 brass guns, which were all he had. Thus fighting with equal energy and judgment, he repelled alternate charges and invitations to surrender until dark, though nearly surrounded and pressed from both sides by his assailants, who, with reason, confidently expected to capture him. In their last charge, the Rebels lost Col. McNairy, of Nashville, who fell while vainly endeavoring to rally his men. No relief arrived from Fort Henry till next morning; but the gunboat 93 Feb. 3, 1863. 31 Dec. 30. 32 Dec. 20. Fair Play, Lt. Fitch, leading four | us a skillful blow at Spring Hill, 10 others, all of them convoying a fleet miles south of Franklin, and 30 from of transports up the river, had been Nashville, whither Col. John Cohailed 24 miles below by Harding's burn, 33d Indiana, had been dismessenger, and incited to make all patched from Franklin, with 2,000 speed to the rescue. Harding was infantry, 600 cavalry, and a light still holding his ground firmly, battery, simultaneously with Sherithough nearly out of ammunition- dan's advance from Murfreesboro'. having lost one of his guns and 45 Before reaching Spring Hill, his out of 60 artillery horses-when, at advance was contested; and, on the 8 P. M., the Fair Play arrived, and morning of the next day," he was considerably astonished the Rebels assailed by a far superior force, by by a raking fire along their line. which he was in the course of the The other gunboats were soon on day all but surrounded; and, after hand, and doing likewise, but to little fighting until his ammunition was purpose; since the Rebels had taken exhausted, was compelled to surto their heels at the first sound of render his remaining infantry, 1,306 guns from the water, leaving 150 in number. His cavalry and artillery, dead and an equal number of prison- having run away in excellent season, ers behind them. Harding estimates escaped with little loss. Van Dorn's their wounded at 400, and makes his force consisted of six brigades of own loss 16 killed, 60 wounded, and cavalry and mounted infantry. 50 prisoners. Wheeler, as if satis fied with this experience, returned quietly to Franklin. 34 A fortnight later, Col. A. S. Hall, 105th Ohio, with four regiments, numbering 1,323 men, moved nearly east from Murfreesboro', intending to surprise a Rebel camp at Gainesville; but he missed his aim, and was soon confronted by a regiment of hostile Gen. Jeff. C. Davis, with his division of infantry and two brigades of cavalry, under Col. Minty, had been sent ** westward by Rosecrans, as if to intercept Wheeler on his way south-cavalry; before which, Hall slowly ward. He captured 141 of Wheeler's men, including two Colonels; but returned to Murfreesboro' without a fight and without loss. 35 withdrew to the little village of Milton, 12 miles north-east of Murfreesboro', taking post on Vaught's Hill, a mile or so distant; where he was assailed" by a superior Rebel force, under Gen. Morgan. But his men were skillfully posted, supporting a section of Harris's 19th Indiana battery, which was admirably served, and doubtless contributed very essentially to Morgan's defeat, with a loss of 63 killed and some 200 or 300 wounded, including himself. Hall's entire loss was but 55. 36 March 4. Franklin, being occupied by a STREIGHT'S RAID INTO GEORGIA. 285 Union force of 4,500 men, under | Georgia, expecting to swoop down Gen. Gordon Granger, Van Dorn, successively on Rome and Atlanta, with a superior force, assailed," with intent to capture it; but was easily beaten off, with a loss of 200 or 300, including 80 prisoners; our loss being 37 only. A few days later, Maj.-Gen. J. J. Reynolds pushed out," with his division and two brigades of cavalry, to McMinnville; whence he drove out Morgan, taking 130 prisoners, destroying a large amount of Rebel stores, and returning" without loss. Col. Watkins, 6th Kentucky, with 500 cavalry, surprised" a Rebel camp on the Carter's creek pike, 8 miles from Franklin; capturing 140 men, 250 horses and mules, and destroying a large amount of camp equipage. destroying there large manufactories, machine-shops, and magazines. He was hardly well on his road, however, before Forrest and Roddy, with a superior force of Rebel cavalry, were after him; following sharply, and easily gaining upon him, through a running fight of over 100 miles ; when, his ammunition being exhausted and his men nearly worn out, Streight surrendered, when 15 miles from Rome. His men were treated as other captives and exchanged; while Streight and his officers were retained for a time in close prison, on a demand of Gov. Brown, of Georgia, that they be treated as felons, under a law of that State, which makes the inciting of slaves to rebellion a high crime. The specific charge was that negroes were found among their men in uniform and bearing arms; which was strenuously denied: the few Col. A. D. Streight, 51st Indiana, at the head of 1,800 cavalry, was next dispatched" by Rosecrans to the rear of Bragg's army, with instructions to cut the railroads in north-negroes with them being claimed as western Georgia, and destroy generally all dépôts of supplies and manufactories of arms, clothing, &c. Having been taken up the Tennessee on steamboats from Fort Henry to Eastport, Ala., where he was joined by an infantry force under Gen. Dodge, they attacked and captured Tuscumbia, inflicting considerable loss on the Rebels; and, while Gen. Dodge made a sweeping raid through North Alabama, returning ultimately to his headquarters at Corinth, Col. Streight struck for Northern April 10. 40 April 20. April 26. 39 41 servants of officers; and the only 42 43 April 29. 44 Feb. 9, 1864. |