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December 25.--Army headquarters at Bainbridge, on the Tennessee River. The pontoon was being laid across the river as rapidly as the arrival of the boats would allow. General Cheatham came into the main road this morning, and in rear of Stevenson's corps moved to the river, where a line covering the bridge was formed, Cheatham occupying the right and Stevenson the left. General Stewart's corps, upon arriving at the point where Cheatham's corps came into the main road, was put into position so as to protect both roads. Forrest was in battle at Sugar Creek. See elsewhere this document.
(Remember the Army of Tennessee was stretched out for about 10-15 miles and was moving slow with the horrible weather. That's why Forrest and Walthall were critical to their survival. Sugar Creek is perhaps 20 miles from the crossing site at Bainbridge Ferry.)
December 26 to January 2, 1865, inclusive.--The pontoon was completed by daylight on the 26th instant, and the army was occupied two days in crossing--Lee's and Cheatham's corps on the 26th, and Stewart's and the cavalry on the 27th. On the 28th the pontoon was withdrawn. The march was resumed, upon striking the Memphis and Charleston railroad, immediately down the road, in the order of crossing the river, to Burnsville, Miss., where, on the 31st, a circular was issued to corps commanders, directing further movements, as follows: "Lee's corps to move to Rienzi, on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, Cheatham's corps to move to Corinth, and Stewart's corps to remain at Burnsville until further orders." Cheatham's corps arrived and established camps at Corinth on January 1, and Lee's and Stewart's corps at their respective destinations on January 2, 1865. Army headquarters were at Tuscumbia from the 26th to the 28th of December, inclusive. On the 29th General Hood, with Colonel Mason and his personal staff, remained during the day at the terminus of the railroad near Tuscumbia, awaiting the train, which did not arrive until late at night. He reached Burnsville on the evening of the 30th, remained there until the morning of the 2d of January, and from thence came by cars to Corinth. [28 Dec Hood’s trains passed through Leighton, 29 Dec Gen. Thomas abandoned pursuit]
This information is from a document Hood’s Nashville Fiasco in the Giles County, TN Library.... LDC-1989
“In November 1864, Confederate General John B. Hood combined 40,000 infantrymen and 5,000 cavalry headed by Forrest for one last assault on Federally held Nashville. He crossed the Tennessee River near Florence, Alabama, hoping to get between Nashville and the Federal forces under Schofield stationed in Pulaski. Schofield sent a division of 4,000 to slow Hood at Lawrenceburg. The two armies moved up the valley of Dry Creek to Campbellsville. There they engaged in a skirmish and the Yankees retreated up Minnow Branch and took refuge behind fortifications at Lynnville. After dark they moved up to Columbia.
Hood confronted Schofield at Franklin and after one of the bloodiest battles of the war, 4,300 men lay dead, among them General John Adams of Pulaski.
Hood followed Schofield to Nashville where he had gone to the aid of General Thomas. There the two armies were locked in battle for a day and a half before the Confederate line gave way. Hood's army retreated right through Giles County hoping to cross the river and avoid capture. Forrest, who had missed the Battle of Nashville, covered Hood's retreat. The weather was bitter cold and many men were shoeless and Thomas' army was right behind them. The retreat was almost a continuous battle and the Columbia and Pulaski Turnpike was strewn with battle equipment, dead horses and men.
At Richland Creek Bridge just south of Buford Station, Forrest set up six cannons and engaged in a two hour fight. There was no victory but it enabled the Confederates to reach Pulaski.
Hood spent the night in Pulaski at Hawthorne Villa sleeping in the same bed that his pursuer, Union General Stanley, had slept in just a few nights before.
[Two armies, same road]
On Christmas Day, 1864 Hood, with 4,000 cavalry and 2,000 infantrymen, left Pulaski on the Lamb's Ferry road followed by Thomas with all his cavalry and 3 corps of infantrymen. General Forrest set up his cannon atop Anthony Hill and surprised the enemy whose troops jammed the road almost all the way back to town. Leaving them to disentangle themselves and bury their dead, the Confederates moved on and camped near Sugar Creek. Next morning under a heavy fog, they drove the Yankees into the creek capturing many men and horses. Hood's forces crossed the river at Bainbridge on Dec 27. The Federals showed no disposition to renew the attack. This was the last significant action in Tennessee.
It was during the crossing that a Rebel fell into the mud. He scrambled out and spoke his mind, "Now ain't we in a hell of a fix: a one-eyed president, a one-legged general, and a one-horse Confederacy".
After the repulse at Sugar Creek, the Federals fell back to Pulaski where they remained in camp under General R.W. Johnson until the end of the war in 1865."
The official report of the Tennessee Campaign from Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest is presented at the end of this document and contains much more detail written by the man who was there. Certainly he had writing assistance from his staff, but the basic facts were from his first-hand knowledge. It has been interesting to compare the conclusions reached independently and from much different viewpoints by Generals Forrest and Thomas.
Below is an excerpt from the memoirs of Calvin Livesay who was with Company C of the 63rd Virginia Infantry. This is his version of the campaign in Tennessee and the retreat south.
“I was not started to the army after being away several weeks, but Stoneman made a raid on Macon, where he was captured, and this caused plans to change and I was sent to the Convalescent Camp at Macon, Georgia and stayed five weeks. Here we had varied experiences. We would go out foraging, crossing the Okmulgee River. We would gather peas, roasting ears, occasionally a chicken, and once in a while a stray porker would be carefully brought into camp. This was blackberry season and we would make good use of these berries for there was an abundance of them.
We were now, after a stay of five weeks, sent to the army near Atlanta and reached it the day Hood started for Tennessee. The day of our arrival a battle was fought and Ephraim Hampton, cousin of Tom, was killed. About this time there was an armistice for ten days for the purpose of Commissioners meeting to try for terms of peace. Hood was marching three months before he reached Nashville. He was moving pontoon bridges on wagons, seventy in number. At Florence [Alabama] he put his bridges to cross the river. There was no fighting going on, only a little skirmishing.
In the winter of '64 we reached Nashville. About seven days after the crossing of the Tennessee the Battle of Franklin was fought. Our brigade [was] not in this battle, having been detailed to guard the wagon train. [This quirk of fate probably saved the life of Whit Parker and his descendants. Whit had been wounded in Atlanta and was probably not too quick on his feet at this point.] We were in hearing of the battle. We knew there was severe fighting going on, for I had never heard such cannonading. I was on the battlefield the morning after the battle and saw many of the dead and wounded, both Yankee and Confederate. This was one of Hood's rash moves, not caring how many men he sacrificed. He was a born general, but inhumanly heartless when it came to the battlefield. They told me the ground was covered with dead men so thickly that you could step from one to another. Those who saw this battle say for the time it lasted it was the severest of the war. Luckily, my regiment escaped or we might not have been spared to tell the story. I failed to tell of the Yankee fortification at Franklin. In front of the army was a picket line, fortified. After this was an abatis of trees cut, felled and sharpened, pointing toward the approach. (This was cut all to pieces after the battle by shot and shell.) Behind this were the two lines of breast works. These Hood charged but did not dislodge the enemy from any except one. The next morning the Yankees were gone, having retreated toward Nashville.
Soon after this battle we resumed our march to Nashville. When we were near the city our brigade was put on picket behind a stone wall. The next day another brigade relieved us, to our surprise. The reason for this was soon made plain for General Forrest started with us to Murfreesboro. We were at this place for a short time when we had a battle of little importance. This was in December, 1864. We crossed the Duck River on Christmas Day.
We were now falling back toward Florence again. General Forrest was waiting before attacking again till he knew the result of the battle at Nashville. We could hear the roar of the cannon all day and in the night a courier came telling us to get out for Hood was beaten at Nashville and for us to meet the main army at Duck River. When we arrived there most of the army was across. We crossed this by ford. General S..D. Lee was wounded in retreat. He was our corps commander. Hood was now in full retreat to Florence, Alabama. Major General [Carter L.] Stevenson was now in command of our corps. None of my old mess was with me except Preston Parks. What has become of the rest I did not know. The enemy followed us until Christmas Day. This was the last fight of the retreat. Negroes were put in front and charged our lines. What a slaughter of them! They were filled with liquor and then charged. At one place I saw a German charge overt the breast works. He would not surrender and was shot down, drunk as a bear. They were hired substitutes for the North. General Forrest was doing much fighting, having his cavalry dismount and fight as infantry. I saw a number of mules mired and shot.
We arrived at the Tennessee River and crossed on the pontoon bridge. How we got the bridge there I do not know. We stayed in Florence for some time. It was while there that we, hungry as ever, started for a pea field. Preston Parks, Mike LaRue, and I were in the party. We got the peas, started back and then got lost. We would travel and return to the same field - again and again the same results. A cavalryman told us where the railroad was, contrary to what we thought. We met a guard coming to guard the pea field but we went on with the peas, unmolested.
There's more to the story just presented, but for now a pause to celebrate Christmas and give some thanks for making it this far. After January 1, we'll
do some This day in history with the Army of Tennessee 1865... That's the part that needs even more work than what you've just read escerpts from.
Rest up. I can use your help.
On December 20, 1864, the Union pursuit of the Army of Tennessee reached Columbia, Tennesseee. From the north bank of Duck River the Union artillery opened fire on the town. Bedford Forrest personally went down to the river bakn with a flag of truce and opened communication with Gen. Edward Hatch. Forrest told Hatch that the only occupants of the town were Union wounded, all Confederate infantry having already moved south and that Forrest's command would leave as soon as the Union pontoons arrived. The artillery fire ceased and both sides remained quiet until the pontoons arrived on Dec. 21.
December 25 will be the anniversary date for the engagement at Anthony's Hill just south of Pulaski.
On June 3, 2001, the Sons of Confederate Veterans held a memorial service at the cemetery on Anthony's Hill where the Confederate casualities of the engagement are buried. As part of that service a plaque of appreciation and thanks was presented to Mr. Mack Reynolds. This African American gentleman voluntarily tended the Confederate graves for over 50 years.
Driving southwest of Pulaski, the hills begin to steepen considerably, testing my old five-speed transmission and it’s leaky 6-cylinder engine. The soldiers in the Confederate and Union armies who traversed that area during Christmas week in 1864 must have been men of steel. The horses and mules that pulled those wagons deserved far more credit than they have previously been given. One of these challenges was Anthony’s Hill just five miles down present-day highway 11. The Confederate infantry under General E.C. Walthall which included Palmer’s Brigade (that carried great great grandfather Private Whitfield Monroe Parker) and the cavalry of General N.B. Forrest came up this hill on Christmas Day 1864. General Forrest noticed that the terrain provided a natural cover to slow the advancing 4th US Cavalry under General James H. Wilson.
The Confederate ambush late in the afternoon of 25 Dec 1864, halted the Union advance and captured one of Gen. Wilson’s prize cannons. According to Forrest's records, fifteen Confederates were killed and approximately forty were wounded in the ambush. The 63rd VA lost the services of Private Mitchell M. Bryant of Moccasin Gap, Virginia in that struggle. He had been reported in the Watts Hospital at Birmingham, AL back on 11 Nov 1864, a little over a month prior to his death.
Much of this hearty little army under Walthall and Forrest must have been walking wounded who were four hundred miles from their homes in the Holston Valley and under the care of the only Confederate force left for their protection. Over four hundred of these infantry serving in the rear guard action were considered as “ineffectives”. Whit Parker and Mitchell Bryant were probably in that number since both had previously been recorded receiving medical treatment for severe wounds.
Proving that he had compassion as well as grit, Forrest commandeered several supply wagons and dumped their low priority goods, thus making a place for the "ineffectives" to ride and stay with the column. Tim Morrison wrote that “these ‘ineffectives’ exhibited great bravery and determination in battle and responded to General Forrest's faith in them.
Mr. Tim Morrison has provided this local knowledge concerning Anthony’s Hill:
“Pvt. Bryant and 42 others lie at rest in the Chestnut Grove Cemetery on Anthony's Hill, almost on their battleground. Local residents buried these Confederate soldiers soon after the battle. Many wounded in the ambush died later, but some were probably stragglers that could not proceed any further with the column and perished at Anthony's Hill. The Chestnut Grove Methodist Church, established in 1859, cared for these graves and collectively referred to them as the "old Confederates." From the 1950s and well into the 1990s, Houston Newton and "Mac" Reynolds (of African descent) cared for the cemetery and preserved the knowledge of these soldiers for the present generation. Mr. Newton was buried in the cemetery he so lovingly cared for in 1998. Mr. Reynolds is buried a short distance from Anthony's Hill in the local black cemetery. The Reynolds family still owns the land where the ambush took place on that Christmas Day. The well-preserved road that led the Army of Tennessee to their destiny can still be walked. Identities of the sixteen Confederates were researched and recorded by Tim Burgess of Hendersonville, TN. Tim Morrison of Fayetteville, TN, discovered, coordinated, and directed the placement of 43 Confederate headstones that replaced primitive fieldstone markers and concrete blocks. Many other volunteers from multiple Sons of Confederate Veterans camps joined these two men in marking, preserving, and honoring these fallen Confederate soldiers
A few miles south of the present-day town of Minor Hill, highway 11 winds down from the hills and goes through a gap which immediately opens a view of the valley of the Sugar Creek. By the new highway bridge, dedicated to Sam Davis, there is a marker commemorating the battle on the morning of December 26, 1864 when Forrest again halted the pursuing Union Army long enough for the Confederates to gain some critical time in their retreat. The surrounding hills are very steep. General Forrest doubtless knew the pursing enemy had to use this narrow pass. Mr. Moore said the actual road that was there in 1864 followed a path slightly to the east of the current highway. The stream today on the 1st of May is healthy from the spring rains, but when Duke and I walked down to the edge, the couple of paths that we followed seemed to suggest that the water level was near summer pool. The stream is still a good forty feet in width. Duke immediately volunteered to check the water depth and confirmed that paddling was in order. His rotund little body affords maximum displacement so he easily bobbed to the surface and made his way to shore. We were within 50 feet of the current bridge and right in the bend of the river. The water at the next path only a few yards upstream was easily within wading depth for my soggy friend. An army could have quickly crossed this stream with a little care in frozen conditions that winter day in 1864.
On December 26 Sugar Creek must have been a formidable obstacle of which General Forrest took full advantage. Little has likely changed in this valley since then except for the new house built just off the highway downstream from the bridge and of course the nice concrete bridge itself which would have been mighty useful to the Army of Tennessee. The fertile hay fields this May day were just beginning to reach the apex of their growth and were a lush green unlike the frozen barrier these two armies would have encountered in December with the soft alluvial soil very quickly becoming a sea of mud. Duke and I brought home a small contingent of prized Tennessee ticks and the memories of his two brief swims in the refreshing spring stream.
I could feel a presence in this place, not unlike Winstead Hill or at Shiloh or Gettysburg. Two of my great great grandfathers may have been at this field one hundred and forty years before, the aforementioned Corporal James Patterson Cockerham with the 10th Tennessee and private (rank doesn’t accumulate in our family) Whitfield Monroe Parker on whose record I joined the Sons of Confederate Veterans). Whit was with the 63rd Virginia who stayed close to General Nathan Bedford Forrest between November 30 and December 28, 1864, not a bad choice in this war, if you were on his side. Regardless of the many facets of this man Forrest, I suspect his generalship during this brief period of a month saved Whit Parker’s life, thus contributing to my own more than a century later.
Major Duke Sizemore referred to above is a fat 14 year-old Border Collie and my research assistant.
This Confederate Army of Tennessee was tired and wasted by January 1865. They had suffered through the defense of Atlanta and then marched across northern Alabama only to be met at Florence on the Tennessee River by a better-equipped army. They witnessed a great number of their comrades slaughtered at Franklin (they took many a Union soldier with them, see notes later). These men were tested beyond the limits of their strength that November morning and the following weeks. The route between Sugar Creek and Lexington, Alabama crosses river bottom land in northern Lauderdale County, still cultivated as it must have been at the time of the war. Duke and I reached Lexington as the afternoon grew dim and our butts grew tired. Nothing of interest was observed in this small town, but closer attention during another visit may reveal the exact location of Baugh’s Factory’s or the road to nearby Bainbridge where the Army of Tennessee crossed their pontoon bridges to relative safety.
Baugh’s Factory sheltered the 10th TN back on November 5 and again on November 17 in the command of General Edward Hatch. The large building was a cotton mill which began it’s existence in 1845 as Lauderdale Factory built by Turner S. Foster. It was later purchased by Richard Baugh and reportedly had 125 employees prior to the war. The factory was built on the west bank of Shoal’s Creek near Andrew Jackson’s military road, later known as Jackson highway. “In the 1850s, the mill operated 34 looms, 1,150 spindles, employed 66 people and consumed 15 bales of cotton weekly. Before the war the mill was owned by Kennedy, Baugh, and Leftwich and operated 2,200 spindles, 70 looms, employed 125 people and had an annual production of nearly $90,000.” The retreating Confederate Army of Tennessee passed near this facility on their hasty retreat from Lexington preparatory to crossing the river at Bainbridge Ferry December 26-28, 1864. Indeed, two armies on the same road. There was reportedly a dam some 400 feet in length that interrupted the flow of Shoal’s Creek for use at the mill. I’m still on the search for this site.
Jackson’s military road, mentioned above, was ordered built by Andrew Jackson with U.S. funds and troops between 1816-20. This road shortened by 200 miles the route from Nashville to New Orleans for movement of supply wagons and artillery. The route followed in part Doublehead's Road between Columbia, TN and Muscle Shoals. After 1819 the US mail route was transferred from Natchez Trace to pass through Florence via the Military Road. A portion of Hood's Army of Tennessee followed the road to Franklin and Nashville while marching north in November, 1864. In later years it was called Jackson Highway. Now this is AL highway 47.
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