Tullahoma, Tenn., November 22, 1863.
We have been moving about so much lately that I have omitted
to write my usual quota of letters. A little more than a week ago, General
Slocum received orders to remove his headquarters to Murfreesboro; we arrived
there about a week ago Friday, and established ourselves in Rosecrans' old
headquarters, the residence of a rebel congressman. Before the war, it must
have been a very elegant house, and even as we found it, stripped as it was of
all furniture, it seemed quite magnificent to us after living in tents. My room
had been the front drawing room and was still decorated by a white marble
mantle-piece and bronze chandelier. Every room in the house had a fine, open
fireplace in it.
We lived here very comfortably till last Monday, when
General Slocum was ordered to Tullahoma on account of a new disposition of
troops along the road. We left Murfreesboro Wednesday morning; that same
morning Colonel Rogers started home on a sick leave, so that I became acting
Assistant Adjutant General of the corps for the time being. The day was a
perfect one, and both ourselves and horses felt in fine spirits for a march.
Our intention was to ride to Shelbyville that day, about twenty miles. We
passed through some of the finest farming country in middle Tennessee, and had
a fine chance to see and enjoy it. Much of the land had been used for raising
cotton, and occasionally we would meet a wagon-load of this valuable article on
its way to Nashville. I don't know when I've enjoyed a ride so much as I did
the one that day. We arrived in Shelbyville about sunset. This town is the
second in size in Tennessee, and has been a very pretty place, almost like a
Northern one; it has been the stronghold of the Unionists of the State. During
Wheeler's raid the place was entered by the rebels, and every store and many of
the houses were stripped of every article of value.
A gentleman named Ramsay invited the General and myself to
stop at his house; we accepted the invitation and were treated with great
hospitality. Our host was one of the leading Union men of the county, and we
have since learned that it was in a great measure owing to him that the
neighborhood had been kept so loyal. The county voted against secession by a
very large majority. We left Shelbyville about eleven o'clock the next morning.
Our ride that day was through a much wilder country than we had passed through
on the day preceding; much of the road was nothing more than a cart-path
through the woods, but this was very favorable for horseback riding, and we got
along pretty fast. General Slocum came near meeting with a severe accident that
afternoon. We were galloping along quite fast when his horse, a large, heavy
animal, struck a bad place in the road and fell forward upon his knees; before
he could be recovered he rolled over on his side, pinning the General's leg to
the ground. We all sprang from our horses, and, after some little struggling on
the part of the horse, the General was extricated from his dangerous position.
We all thought his leg was broken, for he looked deadly pale, but he relieved
our anxiety by saying that he was all right, and after lying down a few
minutes, he mounted his other horse and we rode on again. Tullahoma was reached
about six P. M., after a ride of twenty-three or four miles.
SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written
During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 156-8
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