Cumberland Blood: Champ Ferguson's Civil War

8. “I have a begrudge against Smith”

110 8 ) “I have a begrudge against Smith” IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1864, FERGUSON DISCOVERED that he could no longer operate independently along the border. He then joined with the Confederate army but found that his brutal form of warfare would not be tolerated. By the end of summer, Ferguson found it hard to remain in Tennessee. The Federals now had the manpower to hunt him down, and he could expect no quarter if caught. One Rebel recalled that “it got so hot thereabout, the Federals were swarming so in Tennessee (like bees) that [Ferguson and his men] concluded the better part of valor was to get away.”1 The Confederate authorities had also had enough of Ferguson’s independent crusades. In August General Joseph Wheeler, commander of cavalry in the Army of Tennessee, ordered Ferguson and his company to duty with the army. General John S. “Cerro Gordo” Williams picked up Ferguson and some of the other independent companies at Sparta and began moving to join the Army of Tennessee , then fighting in Atlanta.2 Williams was a veteran of the Mexican War, where he earned 111 “I have a begrudge against Smith” his nickname after leading his 4th Kentucky Volunteers on a charge up the heights of Cerro Gordo. Now, as the commander of a severely depleted cavalry division, he began the march to Georgia. In East Tennessee the command learned of the death of John Hunt Morgan. The famous raider had been shot while attempting to escape capture and his body had been paraded though the streets of Greenville, draped across the back of his horse. His men believed—erroneously—that he had been killed after he had surrendered, and this caused Williams’s men to lose whatever discipline they had left. They could not contain their anger at the supposed outrage. The men retaliated against all the Federals who fell into their hands. The problem became so acute that Williams ordered the court martial of three privates and a lieutenant. They were found guilty, and Williams ordered them hanged, over the objections of the court.3 Near Rogersville, Tennessee, Williams received an order from the commander of the Department of Southwest Virginia, General John C. Breckinridge, to change course and bring his men to Saltville , Virginia. The area was being threatened by Union General Stephen G. Burbridge, who was making a raid from Kentucky. Williams marched to Saltville and joined the small band of Confederate militia and regular troops who were defending the town. When he arrived on the cold, foggy morning of 2 October, he found that he was the senior officer present. He took command and began directing the defense of the town.4 On the Union side, General Burbridge’s hopes were high. As far as he knew, the only Confederate troops between his army and the saltworks were a small brigade of cavalry and a few old men and boys from the local militia. Yet even as his Federals were cooking their breakfast, the Confederates were reinforcing Saltville. The Rebels assembled about 2,800 troops to face 4,500 Federals, but Burbridge failed to deploy his full force. Instead, he divided the units to make several piecemeal attacks on the Confederate works without ever bringing into battle more than 2,500 men at one time.5 The Rebel defensive line followed the rough terrain surrounding Saltville. Northeast of town Sanders Hill and Chestnut Ridge dominated the area. Between the two hills was Cedar Branch, a 112 “I have a begrudge against Smith” small stream in a deep ravine that passed close to the house of “Governor” James Sanders and emptied into the North Fork of the Holston River near the river road ford. To the left of the ford the Confederates had fortified the yard of a small log church near Elizabeth Cemetery. The main attack came on the Confederate right, in front of Ferguson and the Rebels along Chestnut Ridge. About halfway up the defenders had dug a series of rifle pits; their main works were along the crest of the ridge. The attack on the forward line came as the Federals advanced down Sanders Hill and up Chestnut Ridge in front of Williams’s men. In addition to Ferguson’s small company, Williams’s division consisted of the depleted brigades of Felix H. Robertson and Ferguson’s neighbor from Tennessee, George D. Dibrell. The...