I
left home* to rejoin the battalion near Murfreesboro. After a ride of nineteen
miles I, with several others of Allison's Company, stopped for the night with
Colonel E. S. Smith's Battalion, within two miles of Murfreesboro.
I
will here pause to make a few remarks in reference. to the movements of the
Confederates at other points.
Fort
Henry, on the Tennessee River, fell into the hands of the Federals on February
6th. General Grant, making Fort Henry his base of operations, moved against
Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River.
General
Buckner, with about nine thousand five hundred rank and file, surrendered the
latter place to Grant on the 16th.
About
this time the Confederates at Bowling Green, Kentucky, fell back to Nashville
before General Buell. By the 23d the last of the Confederate troops evacuated
the latter place, falling back to Murfreesboro.
Nashville
was formally surrendered by the Mayor to General Buell on the 25th of February.
So
I found quite a number of infantry, cavalry and artillery at Murfreesboro under
the command of General Albert Sidney Johnston.
That
portion of Johnston's army which was now with him at Murfreesboro, and known as
the Central Army, was composed of three divisions, commanded respectively by
Major-Generals Hardee, Crittenden and Pillow, and one "reserve"
brigade under Brigadier-General Breckinridge. Each division was composed of two
brigades, making a total of seven brigades.
Bennett's
Battalion, which was afterward consolidated with McNairy's, belonged to
Hindman's Brigade and Hardee's Division.
_______________
*The
last time I saw home until June 3d, 1865.
SOURCE:
Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second
Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p. 133-4
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