I wrote this post for my Facebook page on Memorial Day, but just thought that it might interest a few of you as well, so thought I'd share the link. The photographs include additional information - and remember that I'm a complete newbie and my Facebook audience is too!
Its definitely written for amateurs. Feel free to share - its set to public so even if you aren't on FB you should be able to see it. Let me know if you have any trouble. Tina
PS Edited to add -- here's the "guts" of the post - but there are some pictures that you'll miss out on if you don't click on the link -
Freeman Thomas was born in Williamson County in May 1845 and was a slave. He probably ran away when the Civil War broke out and went to Nashville which was under Union occupation beginning in February 1862. When African-Americans were finally allowed to serve in the military as soldiers, not just as laborers, he enlisted in the 12th Infantry of the US Colored Troops on August 12, 1863 along with 50 other men from Williamson County who enlisted in the same unit. This regiment was largely composed of laborers who had been building fortifications around Nashville for the Union Army - such as Fort Negley. The 12th US Colored Infantry provided railroad guard duty at various points in Tennessee and Alabama on the line of the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad until December, 1864. As part of that work they were involved in repulsing Confederate General Hood's attack on Johnsonville on November 2, 4 and 5, 1864. They saw action at Buford's Station, Section 37 of the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad, November 24. They marched to Clarksville, Tenn., and skirmished near there on December 2, 1864. Their most significant fighting was during the Battle of Nashville December 15-16, 1864. They then pursued General Hood to the Tennessee River December 17-28, saw more action at Decatur, Ala., December 27-28. They finished their service by providing railroad guard and garrison duty in the Dept. of the Cumberland until January, 1866. Freeman Thomas was wounded in action at the Battle of Nashville, Dec. 16, 1864 but survived and was honorably discharged on Jan. 16, 1866 with this regiment. I found him next in the 1870 Census living in Limestone, Alabama working as a railroad laborer - presumably a place he had become familiar with during his time in the Army. He marries his wife Pattie there, and by 1880 they have moved back to Williamson County and started their family. They sharecropped and eventually bought a home on Hillsboro Road. Later in life Freeman became a stonemason and bought a second home at 108 Church Street in downtown Franklin - the site of today's Brownstones. His daughter Ola May Thomas Davis attended college and was a school teacher in Franklin. His son T.F Thomas lived in St. Louis with his wife and worked for the Post Office. His son Ed lived in Nashville and worked as a waiter in a hotel. Freeman died at approximately 91 years of age in 1936 and his family had a military headstone installed at the Toussaint L'Overture Cemetery in Franklin, Tennessee his honor. Please be sure to click on the individual pictures for more details about his life.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.10154117283883346.1073741861.822068345&type=1&l=2e47ada025
OCTOBER 18 and 21, 1864.--Raids on the Nashville and Northwestern
Railroad, Tenn.
Report of Lieut. William L. Clark, Twelfth U. S. Colored
Infantry, Assistant Inspector Railroad Defenses.
OFFICER ASST. INSPECTOR RAILROAD DEFENSES,
DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND,
Eastern Section Nashville and N. W. Railroad, Section 20,
October 25, 1864.
SIR: In compliance with instructions received yesterday from your
office, dated October 22, I have the honor to report the following
particulars of the attack upon trains at section 36, Nashville and
Northwestern Railroad, on the morning of the 18th instant; also, on the
afternoon of the 21st instant:
The track repairers at section 36 were taken prisoners by McNary's
gang (variously estimated at from 15 to 40 men, while some place the
number at exactly 23) on the night of the 17th, about 12 o'clock, and
held till late on the following morning, and made by McNary to draw
the spikes from a rail and remove the fastenings at its end so as to be
loose. The gang then drew back from observation, and in this condition
of affairs the first a. m. train passed safely by them, except that a
shower of bullets was poured in, which wounded a surgeon, Hogle,
Engineer E. Andrews, and killed a boy, who was cook and brakeman,
dead on the bunk, where he happened to by lying. The second a. m.
train came to the loose rail and ran off; the engineer and fireman were
wounded. Everybody was stripped of whatever money, watches, or
valuables they had which pleased the fancy of the robbers. The
locomotive was upset and slightly injured by cutting places with axes.
One box-car was burned, but their efforts to burn the flat-cars loaded
with iron, which composed the balance of the train, were not successful,
and these were slightly injured. The third train, loaded with sawed
timber from Ayres' saw-mill at section 29, ran up and was fired into.
All hands jumped off and were robbed, except Engineer W. H. Stevens,
who ran the train back to section 32, White Bluffs, in safety. Mean time
the first train, Civil Conductor Charles White, arrived at Sneedville, and
Col. Murphy, who was on board, had the telegrapher, G. W.
Leedon, send a dispatch to Lieut. Orr, at White Bluff's, to come on
with his cavalry. The dispatch was promptly obeyed, and Lieut. Orr
arrived with twenty-five men twenty minutes after the gang had taken
their departure, and pursued them a short distance unsuccessfully, and
his horses being tired and inferior he returned. A wrecking train was
dispatched with hands from Gillem's Station, section 51, to clear the
road, and Lieut. Cox, with a detachment of Company B, One
hundredth U. S. Colored Infantry, and Capt. Frost, with a detachment
from companies of the Twelfth U. S. Colored Infantry from Sullivan's
Branch, were sent to section 36, and the road made clear on the
following morning, 19th instant.
Again on the 21st instant, as the p. m. train for Johnsonville was
passing section 36, it was signaled by the section foreman, whose cook
had informed him she had seen men tearing up the track. Capt. O.
B. Simmons, military conductor, had the train stopped, and with his
large train guard pursued the bushwhackers, whose numbers could not
be ascertained, for a considerable distance, but as they were mounted
the pursuit was unavailing. Civil Conductor Charles White fastened
down the rail and the train passed on. Afterward the gang returned and
burned the house and commissary of the section foreman, who lay
in the bushes in sight. They also burned nearly all the negro and other
dwelling along the railroad for two miles. Piles of wood at sections 38
and 39 were burned, and various estimates placed the loss in wood at
from 3,000 to 15,000 cords. The wood being in several ranks close to
the road many ties were burned at the ends, and the rails warped by the
intense heat, so that the 3 o'clock train for Nashville could not pass.
The telegraph operator at Sneedville called operator at White Bluffs,
section 32, and while calling the line was cut before getting and
answer. Capt. J. W. Dickins, at Sneedville, went to the burning
wood with part of this company, and arrived in time to hear the
retreating bushwhackers laughing and talking, but was not able at that
time (11 o'clock night) to do anything, and returned to Sneedville. On
the 22d Military Conductor Capt. Van Skike, from Nashville, found
out the condition of the road at sections 38 and 39, and took a detail up
from White Bluffs and repaired the road as soon as possible so that
trains ran through on the 23d of October.
I have made no delay in gathering the materials from authentic sources
for this report, and hope it may prove acceptable.
WILLIAM L. CLARK,
First Lieut., Twelfth U. S. Colored Infantry,
Division Inspector Eastern Section Nashville and Northwestern R. R.
Maj. JAMES R. WILLETT,
First U. S. Vet. Vol. Engrs., and Chief Insp. Railroad Defenses.
Source: Official Records
CHAP. LI.] RAIDS ON NORTHWESTERN RAILROAD, TENN. PAGE 877-77
[Series I. Vol. 39. Part I, Reports. Serial No. 77.]
*********************************************************************************
Nashville, TN after battle report:
Report of Capt. Henry Hegner, Twelfth U. S. Colored Troops, of operations
December 15, 1864--January 21, 1865.
HDQRS. TWELFTH REGT. U. S. COLORED INFANTRY,
Kingston, Springs, Tenn., February 4, 1865.
SIR: I have the honor to make the following report of the part taken by the
Twelfth Regt. U. S. Colored Infantry during the last campaign in
Tennessee and Alabama:
During the battle of Nashville, on the 16th day of December, 1864, while
charging a battery near the Franklin pike, Maj. A. J. Finch, commanding
Twelfth Regt. U. S. Colored Infantry, was severely wounded, and the
command of the regiment devolved on be by virtue of seniority. At the time
I assumed command the regiment had been repulsed and a few minutes
partially disorganized. With the assistance of the other officers I reformed
the regiment, and in accordance with orders from brigade headquarters, took
position a short distance to the left and rear of the portion of the
battle-ground on which we
had fought, and remained in that position until ordered to advance and take
position on the left of the army. On the 17th of December we moved
forward to Franklin. On the 18th we marched out with the army, but after
proceedings a few miles we received orders to countermarch, and returning
through Franklin marched across the country toward Murfreesborough,
where we arrived on 21st day of December. On the 23d, 24th, 25th, and
26th, we moved by railroad, via Stevenson and Huntsville, to a point on the
Memphis and Charleston Railroad, where, the bridges having been burned,
we had to leave the cars and march toward the Tennessee River, where we
arrived at daybreak on the morning of the 27th. The regiment crossed the
river in transports and landed on a small peninsula, being the first regiment
to land south of the river. In accordance with orders received from brigade
headquarters I immediately threw four companies, under command of
Capt. A. M. Bowdle, across a deep bayou, to be deployed as skirmishers
and cover the construction of a bridge, which was soon completed, when the
remaining companies crossed and were deployed as skirmishers, the enemy
having in the meantime opened the engagement with cavalry and artillery.
After some lively skirmishing, in which we lost very little, we advanced
gradually, and occupied Decatur, Ala., at 6 p.m. On the evening of the 28th
of December we resumed the march, and arrived at Courtland on the 30th,
and marched on 31st beyond Jonesborough.
On the 1st day of January we marched to and occupied La Grange. On the
2d we moved back to Jonesborough, where we arrived on the 3d, and
marched on the 4th and 5th to Courtland, and arrived at Decatur on the 7th;
crossed the Tennessee River on the pontoon bridge and got on the cars on
the 8th; arrived in Stevenson about midnight, after having a skirmish with
some guerrillas, who had placed obstructions on the track and demanded the
surrender of the train. On the 9th the regiment proceeded by rail to
Nashville, where it remained until the 20th, on which day it marched for this
point and arrived here on the 21st of January, 1865.
Casualties: It is my painful duty to record the death of Capt. Robert
Headen and Lieut. Dennis Dease, also the murder of Lieut. D. G.
Cooke by men of Forrest's command. Commissioned officers killed, 3;
wounded, 3. Enlisted men killed, 10; wounded, 99.
The severity of the weather, want of transportation, tents, and blankets, the
passage of numerous streams, and the hardships incident to a winter
campaign, have had a serious effect on the men of the regiment. Many of the
men have been left at various points along the route through sickness.
The conduct of the officers has been so good that I feel it would be injustice
to mention one and not remain all. Among the enlisted men I must mention
Corpl. Miner Carter, Company C, who took up the national colors after two
of the color-bearers had been shot down; also, Private E. Steel, Company
I, who took the regimental colors, and, after the regiment was falling back,
remained alone in the open field, in spite of the murderous fire of the
enemy, until called by his officers to return.
Losses in battle, sickness, severe exposure, have lessened our number
materially, but a little rest and our regiment will soon have its ranks filled
up again with tried soldiers on the field of battle.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
HENRY HEGNER,
Capt., Cmdg. Regt.
Lieut. T. L. SEXTON,
Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen., Second Brigade U. S. Colored Infantry.
Source: Official Records
PAGE 546-93 KY., SW. VA., TENN., MISS., ALA., AND N. GA. [CHAP. LVII.
[Series I. Vol. 45. Part I, Reports, Correspondence, Etc. Serial No. 93.]