The Battle Rages Higher: The Union's Fifteenth Kentucky Infantry

Chapter 9. Fighting Kentuckians All the Time

CHAPTER 9 Fighting Kentuckians All the Time The ground crunched beneath the brogans of the 267 veterans of the Fifteenth Kentucky as they stirred on the morning of May 3, kindling fires for their morning coffee. The temperature had dipped below freezing again the night before, and frost covered the ground; the sunny South indeed, the men snorted. There had been rumors of advances for weeks. One campfire gossip had claimed several days ago that the regiment was about to be ordered to rejoin the brigade, but the orders had never come. The order to fall in finally came that morning, and the Kentuckians began moving south toward Ringgold. The rest of the First Division was only a few hours down the road. The next day, as Carlin's men spent the day drilling at their camp on Taylor's Ridge, the Fourth Corps appeared on their immediate left at Catoosa Springs.1 The night of the sixth was coolon Taylor's Ridge, the wind blowing through the fields, chilling the men in bivouac. But as officers began circulating , the men forgot all that. Eight days' rations, three cooked, and be ready at dawn; that was the order. The campaign was about to begin. Cheers began to well up here and there like scattered picket fire. The noise swelled as the men set about preparing for the march. A few men in every unit fired their muskets into the air, burning off wet ammunition . Everybody set about minimizing their packs for the next day. One of the items included in the standard army ration was candles. This was well enough in camp but dead weight on the march. Over in the Thirtyseventh Indiana, a soldier cut his candles into pieces, placed them 207 208 The Battle Rages Higher , Buzzard Roost (May 81 Adairsville (May 18) Kingston Gillem"s Bridge (May 19) TENNESSEE Cassville THEATLA TA C MP IG The Roule of Ihe 151h Kelliu k."" IH6~ / , - Acworth (June 51 ..,," Burnt Hie ory P'C etrs (May 26) Mill NeWHo~ (June 27) Kolb"s ' Church Ezra Church nty Peachtree Cree (July 20) ATLANTA ... Atlanta East T Oulsld Allanla (September 8) \ I \ ~\ Western - - - RR Jonesboro (August 31·Septemb r 1) Fighting Kentuckians All the Time 209 around his tent and lit them. Men in other regiments across the ridge had the same idea about the same time, and the ghostly flicker of candlelight qUickly spread across the camps of the Fourteenth Corps. Then somebody climbed a tree and placed more lit candles among the branches. Soon, most of the trees in the area were laden with candles. The luminous glow could be seen for miles as the celebration continued for the next two hours.2 Davis's division led the Fourteenth Corps toward Tunnel Hill at dawn. The Fifteenth Kentucky followed with the rest of the First Division . Davis began skirmishing with Confederate cavalry only a short distance down the road, but the rebels faded back in front of him as the column pushed toward Tunnel Hill. The Federal advance entered Tunnel Hill by 11:15 A.M but stopped only long enough to determine that the rebels had not had sufficient time to do serious harm to the railroad before moving on. The Fifteenth Kentucky camped for the night with its brigade near the Trickum Road west of Dalton.3 Carlin's brigade struck Confederate skirmishers almost as soon as they got started the next morning, marching south a little after nine. "Advance a very little, making a show of your force, so that it may be seen by the enemy," Sherman had ordered Palmer that morning. It seems unlikely that the enemy was all that impressed when the Fifteenth Kentucky and the rest of the Fourteenth Corps halted about a half-mile southwest of Buzzards Roost, the locals' name for the heights on either side of one of the gaps through the ridge, around ten-thirty. The hastily created Mill Creek Lake was in front ofthe Federals, a fort was visible in the gap, and Buzzards Roost was loaded down with rebel cannon, grinning at them like the teeth of a predator. And then there were those buzzards.4 Palmer set his lines directly west of Buzzards Roost, Jefferson Davis's division on the right flank and slightly forward, Baird to Davis's left rear, and the Fifteenth Kentucky with the rest ofJohnson's First Division on Baird...