Franklin Battle of Franklin - Rebels assaulting without a fire arm

jack1492

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Has anyone ever run across any reference to Confederate soldiers at the Battle of Franklin complaining they did not have a fire arm. I heard they were told to pick up sticks or fire arms from any fallen comrades during the battle. Anyone else run across a reference to this?
 
Someone told me years ago they took a tour of the Carter house and the tour guide told them there were some CS troops that complained they had no firearm yet were being ordered into the charge. They were told to pick up sticks.
 
Someone told me years ago they took a tour of the Carter house and the tour guide told them there were some CS troops that complained they had no firearm yet were being ordered into the charge. They were told to pick up sticks.
Never heard that before about Franklin... but heard it done at Shiloh or Murfreesbore
 
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I can believe maybe 1 soldier. Maybe someone who was called out of some other duty to join the fight. But surely not more than a handful of men did this.
 
Well, I have indeed read the account of men, I believe Mississippians, charging works at Franklin with nothing but sticks. I was sure I had read the account in Thomas Connolly’s “Autumn of Glory,” but I just got through thumbing through it and can’t find it. But it is, in fact, written somewhere- maybe not Connolly but somewhere. It is now bugging me to no end. Hopefully, I’ll figure out where I read it. I know it was written as a refutation to Hood’s belief that the AOT was scared to attack entrenched positions.
 
I have not read of accounts of carrying sticks, but I know that the Army of The Tennessee CS had a shortage of shoes, and ammunition. It well could be a shortage of rifles as well. With out ammo they would have just as well been carrying a stick. Winston Groom in his book “Shrouds of Glory” describes that one Corps Commanders Surgeon ordered the soldiers without shoes to wrap their feet with raw cowhide. Winston Groom also made a comment that to me was humorous. He described the Army of the Tennessee charging their Northern brethren with being of Yankee Canine decent and addressing them with loud oathes.
 
I have not read of accounts of carrying sticks, but I know that the Army of The Tennessee CS had a shortage of shoes, and ammunition. It well could be a shortage of rifles as well. With out ammo they would have just as well been carrying a stick. Winston Groom in his book “Shrouds of Glory” describes that one Corps Commanders Surgeon ordered the soldiers without shoes to wrap their feet with raw cowhide. Winston Groom also made a comment that to me was humorous. He described the Army of the Tennessee charging their Northern brethren with being of Yankee Canine decent and addressing them with loud oathes.


Groom's book is a joke; I wouldn't believe him if he said day was light and night was dark. I bought that book when it came out and found it so full of errors I returned it as defective, and got my money back.
 
Well, thanks for the comments. I agree, I doubt one single infantryman with Hood lacked a small arm. My sister told me about 20 years ago that a tour guide of the Carter house told her group that story. Since I am writing a book I had hoped to keep some details hidden from this public forum. The rest of the story is Hood detached at least 150 cannoneers (that I know of) (without their cannons) and likely 70 to 150 more at Columbia whose orders were to take the anticipated captured Union guns (at Spring Hill) and turn them on the Union army. They captured no cannon there but when these men got to the front line of Franklin some officer may have said that to these several hundred men to pick up sticks or take the firearm of their fallen comrade but we may never know.
 
Well, I have indeed read the account of men, I believe Mississippians, charging works at Franklin with nothing but sticks. I was sure I had read the account in Thomas Connolly’s “Autumn of Glory,” but I just got through thumbing through it and can’t find it. But it is, in fact, written somewhere- maybe not Connolly but somewhere. It is now bugging me to no end. Hopefully, I’ll figure out where I read it. I know it was written as a refutation to Hood’s belief that the AOT was scared to attack entrenched positions.

I have finally figured out what I was thinking about. Not surprisingly, I was confused. What I had read so long ago was in reference to Stones River, not Franklin. During the fight at Stones River, unarmed Mississippians under Chalmers were ordered to attack Union positions with only cedar sticks.

Not sure how I confused the two, but there ya go…

So, after two years, I can finally say I cleared that up!
 
I have finally figured out what I was thinking about. Not surprisingly, I was confused. What I had read so long ago was in reference to Stones River, not Franklin. During the fight at Stones River, unarmed Mississippians under Chalmers were ordered to attack Union positions with only cedar sticks.

Not sure how I confused the two, but there ya go…

So, after two years, I can finally say I cleared that up!

I still can’t remember where I initially read the account, but I was able to find one brief account of that charge here:

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/01/26/day-one-of-the-battle-of-stones-river/

“The Confederates pushing up the Nashville Pike under Brig. Gen. James Chalmers struck Brig. Gen. Charles Cruft’s brigade of Palmer’s division west of Cowan’s Farm. Chalmers’s poorly armed Mississippians (some carrying only sticks) surged forward with a Rebel yell, crossing cotton and wheat fields. Stopping 50 yards from Cruft’s men, they began trading fire with the Federals. For half an hour the two sides blasted away at each other, with the Confederates taking heavy casualties, including Chalmers, who was knocked unconscious by a piece of shrapnel to the forehead. Finally, the Confederates began to fall back.”
 
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