-
4. Between the Battles
- Louisiana State University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
1. William S. Rosecrans, “From Tullahoma to Chattanooga,” in Cozzens and Girardi, New Annals , 412; Starr, Union Cavalry, 3:208–9, 211. 2. J. L. Brown, 1st Tennessee, CSR; Carter, First Regiment, 275–331; RAGT, 389–415. CHAPTER 4 Between the Battles G eneral Bragg regrouped his battered Army of Tennessee on January 3, 1863, at Tullahoma on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, thirty-five miles southeast of the Stones River battlefield. General Rosecrans encamped his Army of the Cumberland in and around Murfreesboro, with some supporting troops at Nashville and outposts along the Cumberland River at Fort Donelson , Clarksville, Gallatin, and Carthage. For now Old Rosy felt “winter rains made the country roads impassable for large military operations.” Meanwhile he and his generals “hardened . . . cavalry, drilled . . . infantry, fortified Nashville and Murfreesboro for secondary depots, and arranged . . . plans for the coming campaign.” As well, according to Union cavalry historian Stephen Z. Starr, “he begged, he pleaded, he lectured, he exhorted, and [even] hectored” Washington for more mounted “regiments . . . , firearms . . . , saddles and horse gear, and for more horses.” When the War Department could not meet his demands for horses expeditiously, it granted him authority to mount five thousand of his infantrymen with impressed horses from the countryside.1 In January the 1st and 4th Tennessee slogged through inclement weather to Nashville from Louisville by different routes: Edwards via Lexington and Johnson due south via Glasgow. Each left behind his multiplying sick and dead in Ohio and Kentucky. The 1st Tennessee’s Lt. J. L. Brown of Cleveland, Tennessee , lingered with typhoid fever at Camp Dennison until succumbing on January 3. The few worldly goods he left behind for his brother included a “pair of pants, 1 pocket knife,” a blanket, and “one dollar & eighteen cents in money.”2 70 Beginnings 3. Brownlow to Johnson, Jan. 17, 1863, PAJ, 6:121–22. 4. Carter, First Regiment, 65–66, 324–25; OR, 23(1):30, 50, 23(2):20. Parson Brownlow, who saw his son, James, and Robert Johnson ride out of Louisville on January 13, commented that the 1st Tennessee was “a fine Regiment . . . , number[ing] 980.” But the men rode “wild and fresh horses, not suf- ficiently drilled to go into battle,” and he felt that, until they underwent further training, that the unit should remain at Nashville. He was also concerned about schemers in the regiment such as Maj. William R. Tracy of Chattanooga, who was “keeping up . . . bad feeling[s].”3 Johnson’s cavalry rode out shortly before a great snowstorm swept across the state, the “deepest in twenty years,” claimed Kentuckians. While the Tennesseans camped at Bardstown’s fairground, the storm dumped twenty-six inches of snow, resulting in increased sickness and the deaths of three troopers . Then “bad roads and high waters” delayed their journey. At Munfordville Johnson shipped ahead by rail the regiment’s sick along with its tents and other equipment. On January 28 his weary men plodded slowly into Nashville one day behind Edwards’s troops. Expecting his son’s regiment, Governor Johnson “had new tents put up . . . with a bountiful supply of clean straw in each one, picket-ropes stretched, and plenty of wood for cooking . . . , nothing was left undone that would add to the comfort of the men.” But they had little time for comfort: On February 1 Brownlow led a two-company advance for Brig. Gen. James B. Steedman’s foot soldiers, marching well behind the trotting horseman toward Franklin. Both arrived too late to intercept Rebels heading toward a futile attempt to retake Fort Donelson. After returning from Franklin with “their horses . . . nearly all barefooted,” four other Tory companies , again under Brownlow’s command, pursued 150 mounted Rebels following an attack on one of Steedman’s forage trains near Nolensville.4 The Kentucky snowstorm scattered Edwards’s men over several miles before they concentrated at Horse Cave, just north at Glasgow. Sadly some companies had been ordered to turn in their tents before leaving Louisville, so the men stayed for days in “abandoned houses, stables and barns.” When the flakes stopped they “whiled away the time catching rabbits” in the snow. Reaching the Cumberland River at Nashville, they found only the railroad bridge with flooring to cross. Dismounted in a single file, they led their horses over the span. All made it across except for one unmanageable pack mule [3.235.199.19] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 14:07 GMT) Between the Battles 71 5. Eckel, Fourth Tennessee...