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19. The Battle of Nashville
- Louisiana State University Press
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1. Stanley F. Horn, The Decisive Battle of Nashville (Baton Rouge, 1956), 24–30; Connelly, Autumn of Glory, 507–8. 2. Horn, Battle of Nashville, 58; Jacob D. Cox, Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, 2 vols. (New York, 1900), 2:352–53; Pierce, Second Iowa, 140. CHAPTER 19 The Battle of Nashville T he Nashville of 1864 sat entirely in the bend of the Cumberland River. Two lines of defense ran in semicircles roughly two miles apart, cutting across the main pikes from west to east: the Charlotte, Harding, Hillsboro , Granny White, Franklin, Nolensville, and Murfreesboro. Within the interior defense line stood three main forts and a chain of other bastions. At the exterior line the pikes—running west, southwest, and south—measured on average about two miles apart. The setting resembled half of a wheel facing out from the river: with a hub (the city); spokes (the pikes); and rim (the exterior defense line). Beyond this General Wilson had cavalry stationed along the Cumberland above and below Nashville to prevent enemy cavalry from breaking the Union line of supply from Louisville.1 With the full backing of General Thomas, Wilson readied his cavalry at Edgefield. For the first time all horsemen had seven-shot repeating rifles. Both generals thought (as events later proved) that horsemen would be vital to crushing Hood’s forces. Lincoln and Secretary Stanton urged Thomas to attack immediately. But he delayed, and General in Chief Grant threatened to relieve him. Once Thomas finally felt ready, an ice storm with temperatures plunging to ten degrees below zero hit northern Middle Tennessee on December 9, rendering movement hazardous. Maj. Gen. Jacob D. Cox—commander of the Third Division, XXIII Corps—later recalled that “men and horses were seen falling whenever they attempted to move” and that the scene provided a “constant ” source of “entertainment.”2 304 The Nashville Campaign 3. TICW, 1:320–53; ORS, 65:413–623; Andes and McTeer, Loyal Mountain Troopers, 200–220. 4. Horn, Battle of Nashville, 76–80; Wilson, Under the Old Flag, 2:109; Keenan, Wilson’s Cavalry Corps, 98; Cox, March to the Sea, 104–6; Carter, First Regiment, 225; OR, 45(2):155. 5. McKinney, Education in Violence, 409; Wilson, Under the Old Flag, 2:110–11; Keenan, Wilson’s Cavalry Corps, 99–100; Welcher, Union Army, 2:604; Pierce, Second Iowa, 142–43. Only four regiments of Tennessee Union cavalry (1st, 4th, 10th, and 12th) would be fully engaged in the Battle of Nashville and the pursuit of Hood during the last half of December 1864. A few companies of other regiments (2nd, 3rd, and 6th) would serve as support units. Gillem had some regiments (8th, 9th, and 13th) with him in East Tennessee. The 5th, with General Milroy at Murfreesboro, participated only in a sideshow of the main event. Prosser’s brigade at Decatur became involved largely after the pursuit ended by attacking wagon trains of Hood’s depleted force.3 When the ice storm broke at Nashville on December 12, Thomas ordered Wilson’s 12,000-man Cavalry Corps with its 9,000 horses across the Cumberland from Edgefield. Hatch’s and Johnson’s men rode over a pontoon bridge, while Knipe’s and Croxton’s men slogged over the railroad bridge planked for the occasion. The cavalry eventually assumed a position on Thomas’s right, west of the city between Charlotte and Harding pikes, behind Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith’s infantry corps, down from St. Louis. During the positioning of troops, hundreds of horses fell with their riders. Sgt. W. R. Carter wrote that “the horses could not draw the artillery and wagons over the slippery surface .” Thomas delayed his attack until the roads improved. Wilson explained to his division commanders on the afternoon of the fourteenth that the cavalry would advance on Smith’s right by ten o’clock the next morning toward Hood’s left rear.4 General Thomas planned to destroy the Army of Tennessee by assaulting the enemy’s line along Hillsboro Pike, pushing it back west to east onto its own troops, and then getting Wilson’s cavalry, followed by Union infantry, south behind the enemy’s route of escape. Despite a dense early morning fog on the fifteenth and a blunder by Smith’s corps by cutting in front of Wilson’s cavalry, the horsemen stood ready to advance on the infantry’s right by ten o’clock. Hatch’s division, with Story’s...