Chapter 1

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Military Order OF THE Loyal Legion of the United States

COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI

The Battle of Spring Hill, Tennessee.

PREPARED BY Companion Captain John K. Shellenberger

READ AFTER THE STATED MEETING HELD FEBRUARY 2d, 1907

PREFACE.

More than twenty-five years have passed since I began to collect the materials from which this pamphlet has been evolved. As a substantial basis, to begin with, I was an eye-witness of all the fighting in the vicinity of Spring Hill, that amounted to anything, from the time Forrest attacked the 64th Ohio on the skirmish line until Cleburne's Division recoiled from the fire of the battery posted at the village.

Since I began collecting I have neglected no opportunity to increase my stock of information by conversation, reading or correspondence. I have twice revisited the battlefield. I have the Government volume containing the official reports, all of which I have carefully studied. Among my correspondents, on the Union side, have been Generals Stanley, Wilson, Opdycke, Lane and Bradley, besides many others of lesser rank. I am as confident, from their letters, that my paper would have the approval of those named, who are now dead, as I am sure it has the approval of General Wilson, to whom a manuscript copy was submitted for criticism.

Among other Confederates, I wrote to General S.D. Lee, who referred me to Judge J.P. Young, of Memphis Tennessee, with the statement that he had exhausted the subject on the Confederate side. He was present at Spring Hill as a boy soldier in Forrest's cavalry, and for years has been engaged in writing a history of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, to which he has given an enormous amount of careful research. To him I am indebted for much of the most valuable part of my information concerning the Confederate troops. From the materials thus gathered I have tried to give, within the compass of a Loyal Legion paper, a clear and truthful account of the affair just as it happened. That opinions will differ, is shown by the fact that Judge Young holds General Brown responsible for the Confederate failure, while I believe that Cheatham, Stewart and Bate were all greater sinners than Brown. He was acting under the eye of Cheatham, who could easily have forced an attack by Brown's Division if he had been equal to the occasion.

By a curious coincidence General Lee was present as the guest of the Missouri Commandery at the meeting when the paper was read, and, in commenting on it, General Lee stated that I had told the truth about as it had occurred. The deductions made from the facts stated are my own.

THE BATTLE OF SPRING HILL.

It may be fairly claimed that the success of General Sherman's famous March to the Sea hung on the issue of a minor battle fought at Spring Hill, in Middle Tennessee, the evening of November 29th, 1864, when Sherman and his army were hundreds of miles away in the heart of Georgia. It will be remembered that when Sherman started from Atlanta for Savannah his old antagonist, General Hood, was at Florence, Alabama, refitting his army to the limit of the waning resources of the Confederacy, for an aggressive campaign into Tennessee. If Hood's campaign had proved successful Sherman's unopposed march through Georgia would have been derided as a crazy freak, and, no doubt, the old charge of insanity would have been revived against him. By how narrow a margin Hood missed a brilliant success, a truthful account of the Spring Hill affair will disclose. Much has been written by interested generals of both sides, and by their partisan friends, to mislead as to the real situation. With no personal friendships or enmities to subserve, it is the intention of this paper to tell the truth without any regard to its effect on the reputation of any general, Federal or Confederate.

The Administration gave a reluctant consent to Sherman's plan on the condition that he would leave with General Thomas, commanding in Tennessee, a force strong enough to defeat Hood. On paper Thomas had plenty of men, but Sherman had taken his pick of infantry, cavalry, artillery and transportation, leaving the odds and ends with Thomas, consisting largely of post troops garrisoning towns; bridge guards in block-houses along the railroads; new regiments recruited by the payment of the big bounties that produced the infamous tribe of bounty jumpers; negro regiments never yet tested in battle; green drafted men assigned to some of the old, depleted regiments in such large numbers as to change their veteran character; dismounted cavalrymen sent back to get horses, and convalescents and furloughed men belonging to the army with Sherman who had come up too late to join their commands, organized into temporary companies and regiments.

Moreover, Thomas' forces were scattered from East Tennessee to Central Missouri, where General A.J. Smith, with two divisions of the Sixteenth corps, was marching for St. Louis to take steamboats to join Thomas at Nashville. The only force available for immediate field service consisted of the Fourth and the Twenty-third corps, the two weakest corps of Sherman's army, which he had sent back to Thomas. These two corps, temporarily commanded by General Schofield, were thrown well forward towards Florence to delay Hood long enough for Thomas to concentrate and organize from his widely scattered resources a force strong enough to give battle to Hood.

Passing over all prior operations we will take up the situation as it was the morning of November 29th. General Schofield had then well in hand on the north bank of Duck River, opposite Columbia, Tennessee, the divisions of Kimball, Wagner and Wood, composing the Fourth corps, and of Cox and Ruger, of the Twenty-third corps, Ruger's lacking one brigade on detached service. Across the river were two divisions of General S. D. Lee's corps of Hood's Army. The preceding evening Hood, himself, with the corps of Cheatham and Stewart, and Johnson's division of Lee's corps, had moved up the river five and one-half miles to Davis' ford, where he was laying his pontoons preparatory to crossing. His plan was to detain Schofield at the river by feinting with two divisions while he would lead seven divisions past the left flank and plant them across Schofield's line of retreat at Spring Hill, twelve miles north of Duck River. As Hood greatly outnumbered Schofield, his plan contemplated the destruction of Schofield's army.

During the evening of the 28th General Wilson, commanding our cavalry, had learned enough of Hood's movement to divine its purpose. In view of its vital importance, to insure a delivery, he sent a message in triplicate, each courier riding by a separate road, informing Schofield of what Hood was doing, and advising and urging him to get back to Spring Hill with all his army by 10 o'clock, the 29th. General Wilson has stated that his couriers all got through, the one riding by the shortest road reaching Schofield's headquarters at 3 a.m. of the 29th.

From the reports sent him by Wilson, General Thomas at Nashville had also correctly divined Hood's intention, and in a dispatch dated at 3:30 a.m., of the 29th--but by the neglect of the night operator not transmitted until 6 o'clock, when the day operator came on duty--he ordered Schofield to fall back to Franklin, leaving a sufficient force at Spring Hill to delay Hood until he was securely posted at Franklin.

I was commanding Company B, 64th Ohio Regiment, Bradley's brigade, Wagner's division. The brigade was under arms that morning by 4 o'clock, and had orders to be ready to march on a moment's notice. It is assumed that all the rest of the army received the same orders, and that this action was taken on account of the information brought by Wilson's courier at 3 o'clock. But nothing was done until 8 o'clock, when the movements began which disposed of our army as follows:

Wagner's division was sent to Spring Hill to guard the reserve artillery and the wagon trains, all ordered to Spring Hill, from any raid by Hood's cavalry. General Stanley, the corps commander, went with Wagner. Cox's division was posted along the river, and was engaged all day in skirmishing with the two divisions under Lee, which kept up a noisy demonstration of forcing a crossing. Ruger's two brigades were posted four miles north of Duck river, where the pike to Spring Hill crosses Rutherford's creek, to hold that crossing. The divisions of Kimball and Wood were aligned between Cox and Ruger, facing up the river towards Hood's crossing. At 9 o'clock Post's brigade, of Wood's division, was sent up the river to reconnoiter, and before 11 o'clock Post had reached a position where he could see Hood's column marching towards Spring Hill, and repeatedly reported that fact.

Nevertheless none of the four divisions near Duck river were started for Spring Hill until after 4 o'clock, when Schofield had heard from Stanley that Hood was attacking at Spring Hill.

After the campaign Schofield claimed that its success was due to his intimate knowledge of Hood's character, gained while they were classmates at West Point, which enabled him to foresee what Hood would do under any given conditions, and then make the best dispositions for defeating him. When, two months later, Schofield was in Washington, where they knew nothing about the details of the campaign, he so successfully impressed his claim on the Administration that he was given the same promotion with which General Sheridan had been rewarded for the victory at Winchester, jumping at one bound from the rank of captain to that of brigadier-general in the regular army. But it is plain that after five hours' of deliberation that morning Schofield had reached a wrong conclusion as to Hood's intention, for if "Actions speak louder than words," there can be no question that Schofield's dispositions were made under the conviction that Hood would march down the river, after crossing, to clear the way for Lee to cross. And so deeply infatuated was he with this self-imposed delusion that, disregarding the order of Thomas and the advice of Wilson, he cherished it for about five hours after Post had reported that Hood was marching towards Spring Hill.

Wagner's advance, double-quicking through Spring Hill at noon, and deploying just beyond on a run, interposed barely in time to head off the advance of Hood's cavalry, Wagner arriving by the Columbia pike from the southwest and the cavalry by the Mount Carmel road from the east. General Forrest, commanding Hood's cavalry, had used his superior numbers so skillfully as to push back Wilson with our cavalry just north of Mount Carmel, which is five miles east of Spring Hill, before noon. Leaving one brigade to watch Wilson, Forrest then crossed over to Spring Hill with all the rest of his three divisions of cavalry. If Wagner had arrived a few minutes later he would have found Forrest in possession at Spring Hill.

General Cox, in his book on this campaign, claims that General Wilson committed a grave error in not crossing over to Spring Hill, in advance of Forrest, with all our cavalry. But in justice to Wilson it must be remembered that at Mount Carmel he acted under the belief that Schofield was following the advice he had given early that morning. If Schofield had been at Spring Hill at 10 o'clock, as Wilson had advised, with all his infantry, what reason could there have been for the cavalry joining him there?

When Bradley's brigade, the rear of Wagner's column, was nearing Spring Hill some of the cavalry approached the pike through the fields to reconnoiter, and the 64th Ohio was sent to drive them away. With the right wing deployed as skirmishers and the left wing in reserve, the regiment advanced steadily, driving before it the cavalry, without replying to the harmless long-range fire they kept up with their carbines, but always galloping away before we could get within effective range. About a mile east of the pike we crossed the Rally Hill road. This was the road by which Hood's infantry column approached. It there runs north nearly parallel with the pike to a point 500 yards east of Spring Hill, where it turns west to enter the village. Leaving one of the reserve companies to watch the road, the rest of the regiment kept on in pursuit of the cavalry until our skirmishers were abreast of the Caldwell house, about 800 yards east of the road, when a halt was called. A few minutes later, at 2:30 o'clock, the left of our skirmish line, north of the Caldwell house, was attacked by a line of battle in front while the cavalry worked around our left flank. At the time we believed the battle line to be a part of Hood's infantry, and in a letter from General Bradley he states that it caused great consternation at headquarters in Spring Hill when Major Coulter, of the 64th, came galloping back with the information that the regiment was fighting with infantry. But investigation has disclosed that the battle line was composed of mounted infantry belonging to Forrest's command. They were armed with Enfield rifles, and always fought on foot like ordinary infantry, using their horses for traveling rapidly from place to place.

The four reserve companies were thrown in on a run at the point of contact, but our line was soon forced to fall back by the cavalry turning our left flank, where they cut off and captured three of our skirmishers. One of the three was badly wounded that evening in trying to escape, a bullet entering from behind and passing through his mouth in a way to knock out nearly one-half of all his teeth. We found him in a hospital at Spring Hill when passing through in pursuit of Hood's army after the victory at Nashville. In relating his experience he stated that when they were captured they were taken before some general, name unknown to him, who questioned them closely as to what force was holding Spring Hill. The general was probably Forrest, for he was personally directing the attack on the 64th, but may have been Hood himself, for he was on the Rally Hill road, less than a mile away, soon after the men were captured. They all declared that they knew the Fourth corps was at Spring Hill, and they believed all the rest of the army. Their declaration must have carried greater weight on account of their own faith in what they were telling, for at that time the whole regiment believed that all the rest of the army had followed to Spring Hill close on the heels of Wagner's division.

Eventually the 64th was driven back across the Rally Hill road, where a last stand was made in a large woods covering a broad ridge abutting on the road about three-fourths of a mile southeast of Spring Hill. While in these woods, occurred a bit of exciting personal experience. A bullet, coming from the right, passed through my overcoat, buttoned up to my chin, in a way to take along the top button of my blouse underneath the coat. That big brass button struck me a stinging blow on the point of the left collar-bone, and, clasping both hands to the spot, I commenced feeling for the hole with my finger tips, fully convinced that a bullet coming from the front had gone through me there and had inflicted a serious and possibly a mortal wound. It was not until I had opened the coat for a closer investigation that I found I was worse scared than hurt. Some of the enemy had secured a position on our right flank, where they opened an enfilading fire, and it was one of their bullets that had hit me. To get out of that fire the regiment fell back towards the interior of the woods, where it was so close to our main line that it was called in.

It was then about 3:30 o'clock, and by that time the situation of our army had become so critical that nothing short of the grossest blundering on the part of the enemy could save it from a great disaster, and there was a fine possibility for destroying it.

Wagner's division had so much property to protect that it was stretched out on a line extending from the railway station, nearly a mile northwest of Spring Hill, where two trains of cars were standing on the track, around by the north, east and south, to the Columbia pike on the southwest. Behind this long line the village streets and the adjacent fields were crammed with nearly everything on wheels belonging to our army--ambulances, artillery carriages and army wagons to the number of about 800 vehicles. The nearest support was Ruger's two brigades, eight miles away, and it was about an hour later before Ruger had started for Spring Hill. Opdycke's brigade was covering the railway station and the Franklin pike on the north, and Lane's brigade the Mount Carmel road on the east. They had a connected line, but it was so long that much of it consisted of skirmishers only. They had in their front detachments of Forrest's cavalry feeling along their line for an opening to get at the trains. Bradley's brigade occupied an advanced, detached position, on the ridge to the southeast that has been mentioned, to cover the approach by the Rally Hill road. There was a gap of half a mile between Lane's right in front of Spring Hill and Bradley's left, out on the ridge. Bradley had in his immediate front the main body of Forrest's three divisions of cavalry and the three divisions of infantry composing Cheatham's corps, while four more divisions of infantry were within easy supporting distance. In brief, ten of the twelve divisions, cavalry included, composing Hood's army, were in front of Spring Hill, and at 4 o'clock Hood was attacking with his infantry Wagner's lone division, guarding all our trains, while Schofield was still waiting for Hood at Duck river with four divisions from eight to twelve miles away. If Wagner's division had been wiped out, a very easy possibility for the overwhelming numbers confronting it while stretched out on a line about three miles long, without any breastworks, the rich prize of our ambulance train, six batteries of artillery, and all our wagons with their loads of supplies would have fallen into Hood's hands, and the retreat of the four divisions would have been squarely cut off, while having a short supply of artillery and no food or ammunition except what the men were carrying in their haversacks and cartridge boxes. The escape of our army from this deadly peril was largely due to the great skill with which General Stanley handled the situation at Spring Hill, but manifestly no amount of skill on the part of Stanley could have saved us, where the disadvantages were so great, if the enemy had improved with a very ordinary degree of vigor and intelligence the opportunity opened to them by Schofield's delusion as to Hood's intention. General Hood rode with the advance of his column until after it had crossed Rutherford's creek, two and one-half miles south of Spring Hill. It was then about 3 o'clock. There was no bridge, and his men had to wade the creek, which caused some delay. A short distance north of the crossing Hood met Forrest, and got his report of the situation at Spring Hill as he had developed it during the three hours preceding. He had met with resistance on so long a line that no doubt he greatly overestimated the force holding Spring Hill, and such an estimate would agree with the story told by the captured 64th men.

On the other hand, a courier had arrived with a report from Lee that Schofield's main body was still in his front at Duck river, and Lee's report was confirmed by the sounds of the heavy cannonading that had been coming from his direction. These reports disclosed that a part of Schofield's army was at Spring Hill and a part at Duck river, but they conflicted as to which position was held by his main body. In the uncertainty thus arising Hood decided, as his dispositions clearly show, that his first move must be to plant Cheatham's corps on the pike between those two parts. Developments would then determine his next move. Cleburne's division was the first to cross the creek, and marching up the road until his advance was close to the woods where Forrest's men were fighting with the 64th Ohio, Cleburne halted and formed his battle line along the road facing west towards the Columbia pike. If the intention had been to make a direct attack, his line would have formed facing north towards our line in the woods, where its position had been developed by Forrest. The intention unquestionably was for Cleburne, avoiding any encounter with our line in the woods, first to cross over to the pike and then change direction and advance on Spring Hill astride the pike, while Bate's division, following Cleburne's, received orders as reported by Bate, to cross to the pike and then sweep down the pike towards Columbia. Hood himself gave the orders to Cleburne and Bate, and then established his headquarters at the Thompson farm house, near by, about 500 yards west of the Rally Hill road, and nearly two miles south of Spring Hill, where he remained till next morning. To save time Cleburne started for the pike as soon as he was ready, and Bate, then forming on Cleburne's left, followed as soon as his formation was completed.

While Cleburne and Bate were moving out, General Cheatham was at the crossing hurrying over Brown's division. When Brown got over he could support either Cleburne or Bate, as developments might dictate. Uncandid statements have been made that Cheatham's divisions were moved around in a disjointed manner and without any plan. There was not only a logical plan but a successful plan, if it had been carried out, in the orders given to Cheatham's divisions. The other four divisions were halted south of Rutherford's creek, and fronted into line facing west towards the Columbia pike. This proves that it was then Hood's belief that Schofield's main body was still at Duck river. If it should march up the pike and attack Bate, the four divisions would be on its flank. If it should attempt to reach the fortifications at Murfreesboro by cutting across the country south of Spring Hill the four divisions would be in a position to intercept it.

General Bradley had four regiments in line in the woods on the ridge, with the left towards the Rally Hill road and the right trending away towards the pike. They faced in a southeasterly direction. To cover more ground there were short gaps between the regiments. The 65th Ohio was the right regiment of the four, and to the right rear of the 65th was a gap of a couple hundred yards extending out into cleared land, where the 42d Illinois was posted, refused as to the 65th and facing south to cover that flank. To the front, right and rear of the 42d was a broad expanse of rolling fields extending on the right to the pike, about 1,000 yards away, where two guns were posted to sweep the fields in front of the 42d with their fire. To the left of the 42d an extension of the woods ran out into the fields and concealed the 42d from Cleburne until he had advanced almost abreast of its position. When the 64th came off the skirmish line it was sent to the support of the 42d. The 36th Illinois, Opdycke's only reserve, was hurried across on double-quick from the other side of Spring Hill to support the two guns at the pike. As many guns of the reserve artillery as could be utilized were placed in battery around the southeasterly skirt of the village, looking towards Bradley's position. Bradley's men very hastily had constructed weak barricades of rails or anything else they could lay their hands on. The 42d had such protection as was afforded by a rail fence.