Granbury's Texas Brigade: Diehard Western Confederates

8 Chickamauga

101 chapter eight CHICKAMAUGA The coming battle of Chickamauga would offer the Arkansas Post prisoners their first taste of combat since their exchange, and put the 7th Texas through a crucible of fire. During the battle, the Texans would perform extremely well, maintaining good discipline and performing everything asked of them while suffering many casualties. From a strategic point of view, Chickamauga would be a pyrrhic victory for the Confederacy, as Bragg would fail to follow his success with a quick strike at Chattanooga; but from the perspective of the men in the ranks, the battle would prove an unqualified success. This phenomenon demonstrates the importance of a localized perspective to the morale of the western Confederates. At Chickamauga, the Arkansas Post brigade would first display the fighting prowess that would make them, along with the 7th Texas, into the shock troops of the Army of Tennessee. At dawn on September 18, 1863, Brigadier General Bushrod R. Johnson ’s division, including Gregg’s Brigade and the 7th Texas, initiated the Battle of Chickamauga when they began pushing toward Chickamauga Creek. They encountered stiff resistance from the Federal cavalry posted there but by mid-afternoon had gained a foothold on the west bank.1 John Bell Hood soon arrived on the field, taking command from Johnson, and in the gathering darkness pushed ahead with Gregg’s and Jerome Robertson’s brigades until they reached the Vinyard house on the Lafayette Road. Granbury’s Texas Brigade 102 On the morning of September 19 a firefight developed around the Vinyard house, and soon the 7th Texas found itself engaged. Rosecrans ordered the Union brigadier general Jefferson C. Davis to turn the Confederate left around the Vinyard farm, and Davis in turn sent the brigade of Colonel Hans Heg across the Lafayette Road into the dense forest. Moving without skirmishers, the Yankees soon ran into the Confederate skirmishers of Gregg’s Brigade, who had not been engaged since the day before. Heg’s men loosed a volley into the Confederate ranks, but Gregg soon had his brigade advancing.2 The 7th Texas under Granbury marched on the left flank of the brigade. Gregg and his men drove Heg back before running into Federal reinforcements along the Lafayette Road, and there the Confederates halted.3 Brigadier General William Carlin’s brigade of Davis’s Division joined Heg in a counterattack that drove back Gregg’s Brigade.4 During this period the 7th Texas suffered heavily. Granbury took a hit when a ball struck him in the lower abdomen, not penetrating the skin but leaving extensive bruising that produced a painful wound.5 Major Khleber M. Van Zandt replaced his fallen colonel as commander of the regiment. To the north, fighting around the Brotherton farm in the middle of Rosecrans ’s line gradually spread south toward the northern end of the forces engaged around the Vinyard farm. Near dusk Colonel Emerson Opdycke, leading the 64th and 125th Ohio Infantry Regiments, ran into the battered Tennesseans of Gregg’s Brigade amid the tangle of woods east of the Lafayette Road. The Tennesseans repulsed the attack, and as a silence fell over the field Gregg himself rode out to reconnoiter in front of his brigade. Advancing too far, he ran into the skirmish line of the 64th Ohio, which ordered him to surrender. Refusing, Gregg instead turned his horse to ride for safety before a ball struck him in the neck, knocking him from his saddle. The Ohioans gathered around the fallen Texan and divested him of his spurs and sword. Suddenly, from out of the woods, a group of Texans from Robertson’s Brigade charged forward and recovered the unconscious officer and his horse. Colonel Cyrus Sugg of the 50th Tennessee took command of Gregg’s Brigade.6 While Gregg’s Brigade saw heavy action, Deshler’s Texans had not yet engaged the enemy. The morning of September 19 found Cleburne and his division still at Pigeon Mountain, several miles south of the main action north of Lee and Gordon’s Mill. At noon, Cleburne received orders to move his men north toward Bragg’s headquarters near Thedford’s Ford 103 chickamauga over the Chickamauga. The Irishman started his troops northward, and they marched at the “quick” and the “double quick” for six miles before they reached Thedford’s Ford around 4 p.m. Here the soldiers had the “pleasure ” of wading the Chickamauga. Cleburne...