Granbury's Texas Brigade: Diehard Western Confederates

18 Nashville

229 chapter eighteen NASHVILLE Nashville and beyond began the final phase in the history of Granbury’s Brigade. Amazingly, although their leaders had perished at Franklin, and the chances for the Confederacy looked bleaker than ever, an intrepid band of four hundred Texans stayed with the Confederate cause until the bitter end, proving once again their allegiance to the Confederacy, regardless of the odds or the costs. In the wake of Franklin, Hood had a choice: either he could retreat and end the campaign, or he could follow the Federals to Nashville. Being a fighter and gambler, Hood chose the latter course, ordering an immediate pursuit of Schofield. On the morning of December 3, 1864, the battle-shocked soldiers of Granbury’s Texas Brigade began the trek toward Nashville as part of the tail end of the army. That night the Texans took position on the hills south of the city. Captain Foster noted that it became “very clear and cold.”1 Hood immediately made dispositions to besiege the Federals. He placed Cheatham’s Corps on the right, Lee’s in the center, and Stewart’s to cover the left side of the line. He intended to force the Federals to come out of their entrenchments and attack him. However, the Confederates actually suffered much more from the “siege,” with no shelter, scarce firewood, and no shoes in the cold December weather. Hood’s position, as finally established, stretched more than two miles from east to west. Cleburne’s old division held the right flank of the army. Granbury’s Texas Brigade 230 The right flank of Cleburne’s Division rested on or near the Nolensville Pike as it ran southeast from Nashville. From this point the Confederate line ran southwest to just south of Montgomery Hill, and thence almost due west across the Granny White Pike to the Hillsboro Pike. Along this latter road the Confederates constructed five redoubts four hundred yards apart and numbered (from north to south) 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. They manned these unconnected, partially constructed earthen fortifications with Stewart ’s III Corps. The line was too long to be adequately defended by the decimated survivors of Franklin. Also, because the position was concave toward Nashville, it deprived Hood of the advantage of interior lines. These weaknesses made it even more difficult for Hood’s infantry to defend their overextended position. As the cavalry skirmished with the Federals, the infantrymen continued to cope with the material privations and harsh weather as best they could. On December 4, Granbury’s Texas Brigade moved toward the Murfreesboro Pike, and later in the day Hood ordered them toward the city, within reach of the Federal artillery. There, according to Captain Foster, the Texans constructed breastworks and “lay behind them all day.” On December 5 Foster reported intermittent shelling of the Confederate position.2 The weather rapidly deteriorated in the Tennessee winter, and soon the conditions became “bitterly cold” and included misting rain that froze as it fell. In this weather, the Texans soon erected “winter quarters,” including huts constructed out of corn stalks, as well as shelters in the shape of an “old fashioned chicken-coop,” which the men constructed “out of rails,” then covered with dirt. Lieutenant Collins noted ruefully that “when the boys would bounce out early in the morning to answer to roll-call, their dens would be steaming like a bed where an old sow and a litter of pigs had roosted over night.”3 Because of a lack of shoes, many of the Texans tied blankets around their feet, but a new type of footwear soon appeared. As Captain Foster reported, “At Brigade Head Quarters there has been established a Shoe Shop, not to make shoes, for there is no leather.” Rather, the Confederates would “take an old worn out pair of shoes and sew Moccasins over them of green cow hide with the hair side in. The shoe is put on and kept there, and as the hide dries it draws closer and closer to the old shoe. I am wearing just such foot coverings now,” wrote Foster, “and they are about as pleasant to the foot and about as comfortable as any I ever had.”4 231 nashville While at Nashville, Hood also received the stragglers and slightly wounded from Franklin as well as those units that had guarded the wagon train during the campaign. This number included...