- Joined
- May 18, 2005
- Location
- Spring Hill, Tennessee
A Forlorn Hope
1 December – 14 December
Before sunrise, the evidence of the slaughter was becoming frightfully obvious. In the morning twilight, the field was seen covered with motionless, rigid bodies. Many of the conscious and seriously wounded had already been recovered from the field. The scenes of death that enveloped the fields were ghastly and nearly inconceivable. Bodies had been literally ripped to pieces by canister shot and shell. Men that had initially fallen only slightly wounded were struck over and over again by minnié balls until their bodies looked as if they had been nearly shredded. The ground that the Sixteenth and their consolidated regiment had passed over was littered with bodies. This was the same ground that Gist, Carter, Cockrell, Deas and Manigault's brigades had passed over in their approach to the works. The slaughter was immense. The ditch that they occupied throughout the night was—in some places—overflowing with corpses. The life's blood of the boys had poured out of their carcasses and pooled in thick coagulated puddles that slowly drained down the ditches in rivulets. It was clear the most horrible slaughter had taken place from the thickets of the Locust grove to the salient angle of the main line in front of the Carter's cotton gin. In that space, there laid nearly one half of the killed of the Confederate forces. Roysdon Etter was horrified by the scene presented in the morning.
Bob Carden—who had fortunately missed the fight with the Sixteenth—arrived on the battlefield the following morning. He and his comrades carefully stepped among the bodies in search of their dead and gravely wounded friends. "I never saw as many dead as were on the ground in front of the Yankee breastworks." In search of some of the boys in the Locust grove, Carden saw "and counted 19 balls that had hit one sapling from the ground to the height of a man's head." The grove was probably reminiscent of the scene in front of Atlanta that he witnessed; however, this scarring had occurred in only five hours as opposed to days and weeks of gunfire. The survivors of the Sixteenth found a large number of their mutilated comrades along the approach to and in the outer ditch of the main line. Sergeant A. J. Kersy, Howard Cantrell, F. M. Boyd, George Donnell, Sergeant Sam Lusk, John Brown, Lieutenant Pettit and many others lie stiff and cold. While the boys collected the dead and prepared them for burial, Carden continued to the retrenched line at the Carter House. Approaching the works, he "…saw a Yankee officer who had been wounded, I don't know how badly but he looked kind of glum as he had not got in good humor since the battle."
Lieutenant Talley could walk without assistance by mid-morning. He returned to the field "to see that Captain Holman's grave was plainly marked and easily located." The dead from the regiments of Carter's brigade and in fact the whole army were being buried by company and regiment in front of the works where they had attacked. The grave trenches were dug parallel with the road "about eighteen inches deep, and separated by a thin wall of earth." "Each grave is marked by a little board, with the name, company and regiment carefully cut in it." As the morning passed, it became clear just how severe the loss in the consolidated regiment and division as a whole had been. The 8th/16th/28th consolidated suffered no less than ninety-five casualties not counting Colonel John H. Anderson who was commanding the consolidated regiment and was at least slightly wounded. That is a total of fifty-one killed or mortally wounded and no less than forty-five wounded. These are only the known casualties and do not reflect the true numbers. The number of wounded men will always surpass the number of killed. This battle did inflict an excessive number of deaths compared to other battles, but the actual number of wounded will never be determined. Folk lore states that Lieutenant William H. White lost a portion of his ear in this battle, but was never reported as wounded—he was still considered effective in the ranks. Others left the army on December 4th with permission to recover from their slight wounds away from the over-burdened hospitals in Franklin and beyond. No less than four men from the consolidated companies A, D & E were included in this number.[3]
Extensive research reveals that the Sixteenth Tennessee—alone—suffered a reported twenty-two killed or mortally wounded and sixteen wounded; these are only the known casualties. If the Sixteenth went into the fight with approximately one-hundred-and-ten men, the casualty percentage easily neared or perhaps surpassed fifty-percent once again. The Eighth Tennessee also suffered a loss of twenty-two killed and another eighteen wounded at the minimum. The Twenty-Eighth lost at least seven killed and no less than ten wounded. At least fifty-one men from the consolidated regiment were buried in the days following the battle. A few of this number lingered on the verge of death for up to two months. Sergeant Major Thomas Potter was clearly disturbed by the loss of life. An entry in his diary in the days following the battle reveals a true tragedy. He recorded this slightly reworded version of Shakespeare's "The Rape of Lucrece"—apparently in reference to the Army of Tennessee and the Battle of Franklin.
The whole of the army had suffered terribly in the attack. The official casualty number that Hood reported to Richmond came to 4,500 killed, wounded and missing. Later, that number was adjusted to 6,252. Approximately 1,750 of that total were killed in action or died of mortal wounds in the days and weeks following the fight. The Rebels had eventually committed nearly 22,000 men in the combat that night and lost one-third of that force. The true number of wounded may have easily reached 7,500 including the slightly wounded that were still considered "effective." The officer corps of the Army of Tennessee suffered irreparable loss. Brown's division lost its commander and all four brigade commanders. General Brown was wounded in the action very early on, and every officer of his entire staff was wounded except Major Joseph Vaulx. The brigade's own General Carter was mortally wounded in the gut and carried to the Harrison House south of Winstead Hill. There, he suffered in a downstairs room in horrific pain with constant fever. General Gordon had been captured east of Columbia Pike in the midst of the fight. Major General Patrick Cleburne was the highest ranking officer to be killed along with four other brigadiers (Granbury, Strahl, Gist and Adams). Many of the other brigades of the army lost severely in the officer corps as well. Carnton Mansion and its lawn were covered with wounded. In fact, nearly every structure in the town was occupied by one or more wounded from the battle. While Lee's and Stewart's corps marched on toward Nashville in trail of the Federal forces, Cheatham's men were occupied all day December 1st burying their dead.
[1] Etter, p. 33.
[2] Talley, Final Segment.
[3] Talley, Talley Memoir, Final Segment: The Boston Herald (Boston, MA) January 16, 1865, p. 4. If an average of four men per company of the consolidated regiment were furloughed for wounds or disability following the battle, no less than forty men could be added to the list of casualties in the consolidated regiment. This would bring the total casualties of the 8th/16th/28th Tennessee to a loss of approximately one-hundred and thirty-five. It's likely that the effective total of the consolidated regiment went into the fight with about than three-hundred-and-fifty "effectives." This number reflects an approximate loss of 45%. General Brown's report of the battle suggests that his division consisted of about 3,750 effectives for the fight. He stated that Gist's brigade was the largest, followed by Strahl's brigade. Both Carter and Gordon's brigades were about equal in number. This would probably give an approximate total of 875 men for Carter's brigade. Almost two weeks after the battle, the effective strength of the brigade was listed as 654 men under arms. The difference in effectives equates to approximately 222 men. Since the 1st/27th Tennessee acted as skirmishers, and according to Sam Watkins, didn't participate in the action on the front lines, the above number should be divided by two to get an approximate number of casualties for both the 8th/16th/28th consolidated as well as the 4th Conf./6th/9th/50th consolidated. That result equates to a loss of one-hundred and eleven men per consolidated regiment.
[4] Potter, Potter Diary, December, 1864. The author that believes this was written in reference to the Battle of Franklin as it was written immediately following the battle. The actual Shakespearian poem doesn't include any reference to Herod. Herod was a Roman client king of Judea in the Herodian kingdom. He is described as a "madman" and was "prepared to commit any crime in order to gratify his unbounded ambition." Potter's diary has no other mention of poetry or twist on poetry. Was this addition of Herod by Potter intended to represent Hood regarding the slaughter at Franklin? Was Potter in some way condemning Hood for the failure at Spring Hill and the disaster at Franklin? Why did Potter change the words? The first line of the first three lines was completely original by Potter. The last four lines were altered and represent lines 764 thru 767 of the original poem.
1 December – 14 December
Before sunrise, the evidence of the slaughter was becoming frightfully obvious. In the morning twilight, the field was seen covered with motionless, rigid bodies. Many of the conscious and seriously wounded had already been recovered from the field. The scenes of death that enveloped the fields were ghastly and nearly inconceivable. Bodies had been literally ripped to pieces by canister shot and shell. Men that had initially fallen only slightly wounded were struck over and over again by minnié balls until their bodies looked as if they had been nearly shredded. The ground that the Sixteenth and their consolidated regiment had passed over was littered with bodies. This was the same ground that Gist, Carter, Cockrell, Deas and Manigault's brigades had passed over in their approach to the works. The slaughter was immense. The ditch that they occupied throughout the night was—in some places—overflowing with corpses. The life's blood of the boys had poured out of their carcasses and pooled in thick coagulated puddles that slowly drained down the ditches in rivulets. It was clear the most horrible slaughter had taken place from the thickets of the Locust grove to the salient angle of the main line in front of the Carter's cotton gin. In that space, there laid nearly one half of the killed of the Confederate forces. Roysdon Etter was horrified by the scene presented in the morning.
Daylight has come. There is no enemy near us. We now look for ded and wounded which are many. Oh how bad I feel to look at my comrades torn to peaces by those missels of deth.[1]
Bob Carden—who had fortunately missed the fight with the Sixteenth—arrived on the battlefield the following morning. He and his comrades carefully stepped among the bodies in search of their dead and gravely wounded friends. "I never saw as many dead as were on the ground in front of the Yankee breastworks." In search of some of the boys in the Locust grove, Carden saw "and counted 19 balls that had hit one sapling from the ground to the height of a man's head." The grove was probably reminiscent of the scene in front of Atlanta that he witnessed; however, this scarring had occurred in only five hours as opposed to days and weeks of gunfire. The survivors of the Sixteenth found a large number of their mutilated comrades along the approach to and in the outer ditch of the main line. Sergeant A. J. Kersy, Howard Cantrell, F. M. Boyd, George Donnell, Sergeant Sam Lusk, John Brown, Lieutenant Pettit and many others lie stiff and cold. While the boys collected the dead and prepared them for burial, Carden continued to the retrenched line at the Carter House. Approaching the works, he "…saw a Yankee officer who had been wounded, I don't know how badly but he looked kind of glum as he had not got in good humor since the battle."
I asked him if I could do anything for him and he looked at me as though he would like to kill me. I told him it would be a pleasure to me to help him in any way I could and he said I could give him a drink of water which I did. I saw another poor fellow who was still out in the breastworks. I think from his uniform he was an artilleryman. He was sitting with both hands up holding his face, his eyes were about closed and his face had a greenish color.[2]
Lieutenant Talley could walk without assistance by mid-morning. He returned to the field "to see that Captain Holman's grave was plainly marked and easily located." The dead from the regiments of Carter's brigade and in fact the whole army were being buried by company and regiment in front of the works where they had attacked. The grave trenches were dug parallel with the road "about eighteen inches deep, and separated by a thin wall of earth." "Each grave is marked by a little board, with the name, company and regiment carefully cut in it." As the morning passed, it became clear just how severe the loss in the consolidated regiment and division as a whole had been. The 8th/16th/28th consolidated suffered no less than ninety-five casualties not counting Colonel John H. Anderson who was commanding the consolidated regiment and was at least slightly wounded. That is a total of fifty-one killed or mortally wounded and no less than forty-five wounded. These are only the known casualties and do not reflect the true numbers. The number of wounded men will always surpass the number of killed. This battle did inflict an excessive number of deaths compared to other battles, but the actual number of wounded will never be determined. Folk lore states that Lieutenant William H. White lost a portion of his ear in this battle, but was never reported as wounded—he was still considered effective in the ranks. Others left the army on December 4th with permission to recover from their slight wounds away from the over-burdened hospitals in Franklin and beyond. No less than four men from the consolidated companies A, D & E were included in this number.[3]
Extensive research reveals that the Sixteenth Tennessee—alone—suffered a reported twenty-two killed or mortally wounded and sixteen wounded; these are only the known casualties. If the Sixteenth went into the fight with approximately one-hundred-and-ten men, the casualty percentage easily neared or perhaps surpassed fifty-percent once again. The Eighth Tennessee also suffered a loss of twenty-two killed and another eighteen wounded at the minimum. The Twenty-Eighth lost at least seven killed and no less than ten wounded. At least fifty-one men from the consolidated regiment were buried in the days following the battle. A few of this number lingered on the verge of death for up to two months. Sergeant Major Thomas Potter was clearly disturbed by the loss of life. An entry in his diary in the days following the battle reveals a true tragedy. He recorded this slightly reworded version of Shakespeare's "The Rape of Lucrece"—apparently in reference to the Army of Tennessee and the Battle of Franklin.
Downfall to Herod's night, one as hell. Dim register and notary of shame. Vast sins concealing chaos, nurse of blame.
O, Comfort killing night; image of hell! Dim register and notary of shame! Black stage for avarice and murderous hell! Vast sins concealing chaos! Nurse of blame.[4]
O, Comfort killing night; image of hell! Dim register and notary of shame! Black stage for avarice and murderous hell! Vast sins concealing chaos! Nurse of blame.[4]
The whole of the army had suffered terribly in the attack. The official casualty number that Hood reported to Richmond came to 4,500 killed, wounded and missing. Later, that number was adjusted to 6,252. Approximately 1,750 of that total were killed in action or died of mortal wounds in the days and weeks following the fight. The Rebels had eventually committed nearly 22,000 men in the combat that night and lost one-third of that force. The true number of wounded may have easily reached 7,500 including the slightly wounded that were still considered "effective." The officer corps of the Army of Tennessee suffered irreparable loss. Brown's division lost its commander and all four brigade commanders. General Brown was wounded in the action very early on, and every officer of his entire staff was wounded except Major Joseph Vaulx. The brigade's own General Carter was mortally wounded in the gut and carried to the Harrison House south of Winstead Hill. There, he suffered in a downstairs room in horrific pain with constant fever. General Gordon had been captured east of Columbia Pike in the midst of the fight. Major General Patrick Cleburne was the highest ranking officer to be killed along with four other brigadiers (Granbury, Strahl, Gist and Adams). Many of the other brigades of the army lost severely in the officer corps as well. Carnton Mansion and its lawn were covered with wounded. In fact, nearly every structure in the town was occupied by one or more wounded from the battle. While Lee's and Stewart's corps marched on toward Nashville in trail of the Federal forces, Cheatham's men were occupied all day December 1st burying their dead.
[1] Etter, p. 33.
[2] Talley, Final Segment.
[3] Talley, Talley Memoir, Final Segment: The Boston Herald (Boston, MA) January 16, 1865, p. 4. If an average of four men per company of the consolidated regiment were furloughed for wounds or disability following the battle, no less than forty men could be added to the list of casualties in the consolidated regiment. This would bring the total casualties of the 8th/16th/28th Tennessee to a loss of approximately one-hundred and thirty-five. It's likely that the effective total of the consolidated regiment went into the fight with about than three-hundred-and-fifty "effectives." This number reflects an approximate loss of 45%. General Brown's report of the battle suggests that his division consisted of about 3,750 effectives for the fight. He stated that Gist's brigade was the largest, followed by Strahl's brigade. Both Carter and Gordon's brigades were about equal in number. This would probably give an approximate total of 875 men for Carter's brigade. Almost two weeks after the battle, the effective strength of the brigade was listed as 654 men under arms. The difference in effectives equates to approximately 222 men. Since the 1st/27th Tennessee acted as skirmishers, and according to Sam Watkins, didn't participate in the action on the front lines, the above number should be divided by two to get an approximate number of casualties for both the 8th/16th/28th consolidated as well as the 4th Conf./6th/9th/50th consolidated. That result equates to a loss of one-hundred and eleven men per consolidated regiment.
[4] Potter, Potter Diary, December, 1864. The author that believes this was written in reference to the Battle of Franklin as it was written immediately following the battle. The actual Shakespearian poem doesn't include any reference to Herod. Herod was a Roman client king of Judea in the Herodian kingdom. He is described as a "madman" and was "prepared to commit any crime in order to gratify his unbounded ambition." Potter's diary has no other mention of poetry or twist on poetry. Was this addition of Herod by Potter intended to represent Hood regarding the slaughter at Franklin? Was Potter in some way condemning Hood for the failure at Spring Hill and the disaster at Franklin? Why did Potter change the words? The first line of the first three lines was completely original by Potter. The last four lines were altered and represent lines 764 thru 767 of the original poem.
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