A few other accounts from the Missouri Brigade at Franklin....
S. C. Trigg, 3rd & 5th Missouri Infantry:
"I was a member of Company C, 3d Missouri Infantry, Cockrell's Brigade. When we arrived on the hill in sight of Franklin on the Columbia Pike, we were filed to the right and halted in a skirt of woods and ordered to rest at will. The brigade remained in this position only a few moments, when it was ordered into line for an advancement. About this time Col. Elijah Gates rode up and called our attention to two lines of infantry in front of us, at the same time saying: 'Boys, look in your front; we won't get a smell.' When we saw this, we too thought we would have a walkover.
"Seeing the nice, smooth field between us and the enemy's works, the writer with many others called on the Colonel for music and for a brigade drill. To this he readily consented and so ordered. As soon as we started the band began to play, and continued until the enemy's batteries began to rake our lines. One man was killed (Taliaferro) and one wounded (G. A. Ewing, of my company) before the music ceased. When we were near the works, the first line or advance column, which had been repulsed, met us and passed back through our lines. I did not inquire and never learned to what command the retreating troops belonged.
"The 1st Missouri continued its charge till we reached the obstruction of brush in front of the enemy's works, where we found Texans, Arkansans, Tennesseeans. We all worked together making gaps through this obstruction. Near these gaps were piled the dead in heaps of four and five, some from all the above-mentioned States. The writer helped to arrange and bury our dead the next morning. We buried one hundred and nineteen of our men in one grave near the pike, between the cotton gin and pike where we did our fighting. There were only three commissioned officers left in our brigade, one major, two lieutenants, and about one hundred men for duty.
"The writer was at Carthage, Springfield, and Lexington, Mo.; Elkhorn Tavern, Ark.; Iuka, Corinth, Port Gibson, Baker's Creek, Big Black, and the siege of Vicksburg, Miss.; in front of Sherman from Rome, Ga., to Lovejoy Station, Ga.; in rear of Sherman, battle of Allatoona Mountains, Franklin; then to Mobile and Blakely, Ala., where we surrendered April 9, 1865. In all the above-mentioned battles and sieges I never experienced anything equal to the battle of Franklin."
(Confederate Veteran, Vol. 19, p. 32)
Capt. James Synnamon, 2nd & 6th Missouri Infantry:
"I was with General Stuart [Alexander P. Stewart's Corps] in the battle of Franklin and was in the last charge, about sundown, when Stuart and Cheatham attempted to take the works from which our troops had been repulsed. It seemed to me that the air was all red and blue flames, with shells and bullets screeching and howling everywhere, over and through us, as we rushed across the cotton fields strewn with fallen men. Wounded and dying men lay all about in ghastly piles, and when we reached the works at the old cotton gin gatepost only two or three of my companions were with me. They went into the ditch, but I was tumbled over by a Yankee bullet and was dragged over and laid a prisoner by the old ginhouse. That night I was put into an ambulance and taken to Nashville and placed in a hospital, where I, with other prisoners, was kept on a diet of bread and water in retaliation for what was claimed to be Confederate cruelties practiced on Federal officers at Charleston."
(CV, Vol. 12, p. 582)
Excerpt from a letter by Brig. Gen. Francis M. Cockrell to a friend, published in the
Atlanta Intelligencer, April 5, 1865:
"Since I saw you last, I have gone thro’ a regular flint mill. My noble brigade has been almost obliterated. At Allatoona, Ga., I lost one-third of the number taken into the fight, and at Franklin, Tenn., I lost two-thirds having had every fourth man killed dead, or mortally wounded, and since died. This was by far the fiercest and bloodiest and hottest battle I have ever been in. My Brigade acted more handsomely, defiantly and recklessly than on any field of the war; and you know what it required to eclipse all former conduct on so many bloody fields. They march quietly, and boldly, and steadily through the broken and fleeing ranks of at least twice their own number, and no man wavered—all to the stop [step?], with colors six paces in front, just like a drill, and never brought their guns from a ‘right shoulder shift’ until within thirty or forty yards of the enemy’s works, and then fired by order, and hurled themselves against the works. It was grand and terrible in the extreme. Almost all were killed and wounded very near the works, or in the ditches of the works. I have no language to paint the scene. We hear that Colonel [Elijah P.] Gates has escaped the enemy, and is now somewhere in our lines. I hope it is true. He is the noblest and best soldier I ever saw.
"I had a rough time getting out of Tennessee, but would have ventured almost anything before falling into Yankee hands. I rejoined my brigade at West Point, Miss., January 20, 1865, just sixty days from the day I was wounded. I have been on crutches up to March 4, 1865. Laid them aside on that day to take an even start with Old Abe for the coming four years. I am in for that time, and four more if necessary forever if required. We arrived in Mobile February 4th and since then I have commanded French’s division.
"I am not well yet. My right leg is still not well. I have six pieces of bone which have worked out, and I think more pieces will yet work out."