Civil War History - The South & Western TheatersCheck this forum for all South and Western Theater Questions. Included are the Western, Pacific, Trans-Mississippi, & Lower Seaboard and Gulf Approach Theaters.
December 5.--Army headquarters at Mr. Overton's house. Our line remains pretty much the same. The enemy, in heavy line of battle, drove in General Cheatham's skirmishers across the Nashville and Murfreesborough railroad this morning, but retired without attacking our line. Sears' brigade, of French's division, and Brown's brigade, of Stevenson's division, with a battery each, were sent to the vicinity of Murfreesborough to report to General Forrest. General Bate, with the force under his command, was also directed to report to General Forrest. Circular issued to-day to corps commanders for information of the army announcing the capture of "the block-house and fort at La Vergne, with commissary stores, 100 prisoners, 2 pieces of artillery, 100 small-arms and ammunition, 20 wagons, and some teams by General Forrest, and that General Bate had burned three block-houses." General Hood made a proposition to officer commanding U.S. forces at Nashville for an exchange of the prisoners in his hands for an equal number of Confederate prisoners.
Mr. Cockerham,Compliments,Sir
Have just opened a thread on Hunt Morgan[relatives rode with him], took him almost two years to realize cannon were needed to take a "Blockhouse/stockade where it seemed to be a "gimme" to Forrest. Who was the faster student of such things??
Enjoy your daily "diary".
Gen' Forrest usually drug a few cannons around with his regiment just in case he saw an opportunity. Forrest as you know was indeed a quick study and was not awed by tradition or silly old mililtary rules. He saw the need and did what was necessary, often firstest with the mostest. Hope you will follow the rest of these dates and add comments if you have additional information or spot a regular old screw up.
Larry,
That is especially true at Brices Crossroads. I highly recomend 'The Iron Cavalry' by Ralph Zumbro emphasizes that very point. Although it is an overall history of mechanized warfare, it does have some good stuff in it. Forrest's gunner is quoted in it and it has a few other tidbits connected to the Civil War in later chapters.
Respectfully
Matt
December 6.---General Thomas, commanding U.S. forces, Nashville, in reply to General Hood's proposition for an exchange of prisoners, states "that such an arrangement is impracticable, all Confederate prisoners having been sent North, and consequently placed beyond his control." General Hood asks by telegraph of both Generals Beauregard, commanding department, and Maury, commanding Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, to have the Memphis and Charleston Railroad repaired to Decatur, Ala., to which point he hopes to have the Tennessee and Alabama Railroad running in a day or two. On this day Sears and Palmer’s Brigades joined Forrest preparatory to battle.
(See telegrams and letter book, office assistant adjutant-general.) Our lines around Nashville about the same, perhaps with slight alteration by corps commanders, under revision of General Hood. Slight demonstration on our (Cheatham's) right by the enemy. General Forrest's command invests Murfreesborough. The enemy reported very strongly fortified there, and with 6,000 or 8,000 troops in his forts. It is not yet determined whether an assault will be made by our forces.
THE BATTLE OF THE CEDARS
Murfreesboro
Wilkinson Pike, Cedars Tennessee
(from National Park Service brochures)
American Civil War December 5-7, 1864
In a last, desperate attempt to force Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's army out of Georgia, Gen. John Bell Hood led the Army of Tennessee north toward Nashville in November 1864. Although he suffered a terrible loss at Franklin, he continued toward Nashville. In operating against Nashville, he decided that destruction of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad and disruption of the Union army supply depot at Murfreesboro would help his cause. He sent Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, on December 4, with an expedition, composed of two cavalry divisions and Maj. Gen. William B. Bate's infantry division, to Murfreesboro. On December 2, Hood had ordered Bate to destroy the railroad and blockhouses between Murfreesboro and Nashville and join Forrest for further operations; on December 4, Bate's division attacked Blockhouse No. 7 protecting the railroad crossing at Overall Creek, but Union forces fought it off. On the morning of the 5th, Forrest headed out toward Murfreesboro, splitting his force, one column to attack the fort on the hill and the other to take Blockhouse No. 4, both at La Vergne. Upon his demand for surrender at both locations, the Union garrisons did so. Outside La Vergne, Forrest hooked up with Bate's division and the command advanced on to Murfreesboro along two roads, driving the Yankees into their Fortress Rosencrans fortifications, and encamped in the city outskirts for the night. The next morning, on the 6th, Forrest ordered Bate's division to "move upon the enemy's works." Fighting flared for a couple of hours, but the Yankees ceased firing and both sides glared at each other for the rest of the day. Brig. Gen. Claudius Sears' and Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Palmer's infantry brigades joined Forrest's command in the evening, further swelling his numbers. On the morning of the 7th, Maj. Gen. Lovell Rousseau, commanding all of the forces at Murfreesboro, sent two brigades out under Brig. Gen. Robert Milroy on the Salem Pike to feel out the enemy. These troops engaged the Confederates and fighting continued. At one point some of Forrest's troops broke and ran causing disorder in the Rebel ranks; even entreaties from Forrest and Bate did not stem the rout of these units. The rest of Forrest's command conducted an orderly retreat from the field and encamped for the night outside Murfreesboro. Forrest had destroyed railroad track, blockhouses, and some homes and generally disrupted Union operations in the area, but he did not accomplish much else. The raid on Murfreesboro was a minor irritation.
Result(s): Union victory
Location: Rutherford County
Campaign: Franklin-Nashville Campaign (1864)
Date(s): December 5-7, 1864
Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau and Brig. Gen. Robert Milroy [US]; Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest [CS]
Forces Engaged: District of Tennessee (forces in Murfreesboro area; approx. 8,000) [US]; Forrest's Cavalry, Bate's Infantry Division, and Brig. Gen. Claudius Sears's and Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Palmer's Infantry Brigades (6,500-7,000) [CS]
Estimated Casualties: 422 total (US 225; CS 197)
Federal General Jacob D. Cox, in his memoir, noted that Palmer’s Brigade, which included the 63rd VA, was brought up to reinforce Bate’s Division at Murfreesboro on the evening of December 6. The 63rd and Palmer’s Brigade were under General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s command in the Battle of the Cedars at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, fought on December 7, 1864. This event occurred on the southern edge of the battlefield site of 1862 along present-day Manson Pike then known as Wilkinson Pike. The 63rd lost at least one killed, three wounded and seven taken prisoner, but its casualties were probably much greater.
My great-great grandfather Whitfield Monroe Parker is believed to have been with the 63rd Virginia CSA during the events described above and below. Recovering from his wound suffered August 9, he was probably partly mobile by mid winter, but certainly not fit for serious combat. He would have kept close the wagons carrying supplies. That wagon was his life support on the cold rugged journey to Alabama and Mississippi.
Captain Clark wrote his last known war-time letter to Martha in January 1865 from the Clayton Hospital Mess at Columbus, Georgia. He noted that he had been wounded at the battle of Murfreesboro, a slight wound in the wrist. “I was so exposed coming out of Tennessee that it became very sore… Many men have lost their toes and some their entire feet.”
Samuel Robinson’s account of the regiment’s activities in Tennessee were noted in a letter to his wife, Lydia Jane, dated January 15, 1865 from Tupelo. This very compelling letter is presented below, nearly in its entirety.
“We have been marching and fighting all of the time on the 30 day of November we had the hardest little fight that has bin during this campaign but we was too hard for them. We drove them out of their works but our loss was heavy. It is reported to be thirty eight hundred kiled and wounded and I han’t any dout but it is true for I want over the battle field the next morning and it was the turiblest sight that my eye ever beheld. The men lay piled and crossed upon each other where or men charged them. I think that we had about 3 to the yankeys one kiled. This fight took place at franklin. Tennessee and we run them on to Nashville where we skirmished with them several days when our Brigade was ordered to murfreesborough, we reached there on the 6 day of December and in the 7 we had a faight there with the yankeys but they was too many for us. We had several kiled and wounded our colonel was shot through the arme and was left in the hands of the enemy. They was one of my Co. that was left there but I don’t know whether he was kiled or captured and we fell back some three or four miles and took appsition so as to keep them from reinforcing at Nashville and on the 15 and 16 was a big fight on the night of the 16 Janeral hood commenced retreating from Nashville with a heavy loss and we have retreated some too hundred miles through the wet and cold mud half leg deep and a great many of the men was entirely barfotted and almost naked. The men marched over the frozen ground till their feet was worn out till they could be tracked by the blood and some of them there feet was frosted and swolen till they bursted till they could not stand on their feet now this is what I saw my self and our Brigade left back with Jeneral Forrest Caveraly to Bring up and cover they retreat which left us in danger of being captured at any time but we got out safe or the mos of them, we had to stop and fight them most every day. On the 25 of the month which was Christmas day we pased through the town that is called Pulaski and we crossed the river and the caveraly aim to burn the bridge but the yankees run up and drove our men away about too o’clock they overtaken us and we form a line of battle and they came up and we let loose a volley at they which turned them and we charged after them and captured several horses all one brass pees of artillery and that given them a sear till was not pestered with them any till we reached Tennessee River and we crossed over where we joined the rest of the army, or what got out. They was at least one third of the men left in Tenn kiled wounded and captured. So I will stop writing for this time. I am truly thankful that I am spared with they has so many hundred yeas thoughsands killed by and round me and I have yet escaped.”
From Nathan Bedford Forrest’s official report: On the evening of the 6th I was re-enforced by Sears' and Palmer's brigades of infantry. I ordered Colonel Palmer in position on the right upon a hill, and to fortify during the night.
December 7.--Nothing new on our line immediately around Nashville. Captain Reid, commanding at Corinth, Miss., reports, under date of December 1, the following, which was repeated by General Hood to General Beauregard, Macon, Ga., with the request that all men belonging to this army, and any re-enforcements that could be spared, be sent forward as soon as possible:
Scouts from the vicinity of Memphis report that Steele, with 15,000 men, landed at that point on last Thursday and passed up the river Saturday.
News of our forces in neighborhood of Murfreesborough being driven back by the enemy received to-night. Col. B. J. Hill, with his cavalry command, was ordered today to Bedford, Giles, and Marshall Counties, Tenn., 6, to break up and destroy the home guards, to conscribe men liable to military duty, and to protect the mills in the neighborhood of Shelbyville? (See dispatch to General Forrest, field dispatch book.)
[The rest of Palmer's brigade was with General Nathan Bedford Forrest's command in the Battle of the Cedars , Murfreesboro, Tennessee, fought on December 7, 1864.
From Gen. Forrest’s official report: On the morning of the 7th I discovered from the position occupied by Colonel Palmer the enemy moving out in strong force on the Salem pike, with infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Being fully satisfied that his object was to make battle, I withdrew my forces to the Wilkinson pike, and formed a new line on a more favorable position. The enemy moved boldly forward, driving in my pickets, when the infantry, with the exception of Smith's brigade, from some cause which I cannot explain, made a shameful retreat, losing two pieces of artillery. I seized the colors of the retreating troops and endeavored to rally them but they could not be moved by any entreaty or appeal to their patriotism. Major-General Bate did the same thing, but was equally as unsuccessful as myself. I hurriedly sent Major Strange, of my staff, to Brigadier-Generals Armstrong and Ross, of Jackson's division, with orders to say to them that everything depended on their cavalry. They proved themselves equal to the emergency by charging on the enemy, thereby checking his ****her advance. I ordered the infantry to retire to Stewart's Creek, while my cavalry encamped during the night at Overall's Creek.
James Clark penned his last wartime epistle to Martha in January 1865 from the Clayton Hospital Mess at Columbus, Georgia. He noted that he had been wounded at the battle of Murfreesboro, a slight wound in the wrist. He wrote, "I was so exposed coming out of Tenn. that it became very sore.... Many men have lost their toes & some their entire feet." Reynolds's Brigade officially made the transition to become Palmer's brigade during this time. Joseph Benjamin Palmer, 1825-1890, having a name very similar to the organizer of the 58th North Carolina has caused some confusion in records relating to the regiment. Palmer, a prewar Unionist, attorney, and politician entered the Confederate Army upon Tennessee's secession. He led a consolidated brigade in the Franklin- Nashville Campaign, but was detached during both big fights. His command, attached to Edward Walthall's Division did take part in covering the retreat. In the final reorganization of the Army of Tennessee he was placed in command of a brigade composed of the remnants of 38 Tennessee regiments and two battalions. His brief association with the men of Reynolds' Brigade went well, but he lost them in the April 9, 1865 reorganization…. Jeffrey Craig Weaver ]
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