Diary of Private Adam S. Johnston, June 7, 1862

Left Camp Sliver and arrived at Camp Haste, 12½ miles. At 2 o'clock, got orders to fall in again for fight. We marched about one mile, feeling our way cautiously as we went, understanding that fifteen thousand rebels had crossed the Tennessee river and were moving on us, between the river and town, in haste. There were two companies of the 79th Pa. Inf. detailed and sent down the river in front of Chattanooga, to advance slowly and cautiously to feel the enemy; while a force of cavalry was sent around to come up the river and advance until they would meet, if not fired upon. The rest of our army, with six pieces of artillery, passing down' the river on the right, about one mile and a quarter from the river, to the centre, and our brave commander, General Negley, at the head of our forces, gave us the order to left face and advance toward the river and town. On we went to the top of a high hill or mountain in sight of the town, which surprised the rebels in their forts and town to see the Yankees in sight; so the orders, “Lie down, infantry, flat to the ground, and be ready to support your batteries,” was no sooner given than it was obeyed. We could see the rebs coming out of their forts and pits like bees out of a scap, and turning their artillery on us; so feeling that our cavalry and infantry might meet, and hearing they were across the river, might fire on each other when meeting, four men were detailed off the head of each company, to be sent down to the river as skirmishers, to report to them, and then return to the hill again. As I was one of the front files, it so happened to be my lot to go, and on reaching the river the rebs opened fire on us from the other side, killing two men and wounding several of our force. At three o'clock we opened our batteries on them and their town, shelling them hard, and causing them to silence their guns, only four shots of theirs reaching us. We shelled the town until four in the evening, causing them all to move out of the town and call for reinforcements from the Gap, which was all we wanted, to draw them out with this feint attack, so that our army might go in, which it did without being interrupted, the rebs having evacuated the place. So we returned back to camp for the night, making a march of 14 miles.

SOURCE: Adam S. Johnston, The Soldier Boy's Diary Book, p. 15-6

Official Reports of the Campaign in North Alabama and Middle Tennessee, November 14, 1864-January 23, 1865: No. 208 — Reports of Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau, U. S. Army, commanding District of Tennessee, of operations December 4-12, 1864.

No. 208

Reports of Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau, U. S. Army, commanding District of Tennessee,

of operations December 4-12, 1864.

MURFREESBOROUGH, TENN., December 8, 1864—12 m.

GENERAL: I beg leave to report that everything is in first-rate condition here. The railroad south of this is believed to be uninjured, as well as the railroad between this and Overall's Creek, five miles north. From a point half a mile beyond that creek the railroad is believed to be destroyed north beyond La Vergne. The block-houses Nos. 5 and 6 were abandoned, and the garrisons arrived safely here. These garrisons received orders from Captain Hake, at La Vergne (who said he acted under the orders of General Thomas),to abandon the block-houses. They did so, with the enemy all around them, and, much to my surprise and their own, reached here without loss, coming though the country. On Sunday [4th] last the block-house at Overall's Creek was attacked by General Bate's division with a battery of artillery, and seventy-four shots fired at it, doing it no damage. In the afternoon a force of three regiments of infantry, four companies of the Thirteenth Indiana Cavalry, Colonel Johnson, with a section of artillery, went out from here, under General Milroy. The force of the enemy was unknown to me. This force attacked and routed the enemy, showing great spirit and courage. Our loss in the affair was 4 killed and 49 wounded. The loss of the enemy was unknown, for although we took possession of the field night closed in at the end of the fight, and I ordered our forces to return at once to the fortress, which they did. Colonel Johnson, Thirteenth Indiana Cavalry, with four companies of his regiment, being cut off from Nashville by the enemy, joined me here and has rendered very efficient service. On Monday [5th] the enemy were re-enforced by two brigades of infantry and 2,500 of Forrest's cavalry, under Forrest in person. On Monday evening and during Tuesday and Wednesday [7th] the enemy demonstrated against the fortress at all points as well as against the town. They were very impudent and skirmished heavily with us, especially on the Nashville pike, coming up to within a mile of the fortress. On Wednesday the enemy's infantry had moved around on the Wilkinson pike, about one mile and a quarter northwest of the fortress. The major-general commanding will not have forgotten the very spot, being near where Negley's command was formed at the battle of Stone's River, a little farther south. Not knowing where the main body of the enemy was, I sent General Milroy, with seven regiments and a battery, on the Salem pike, with directions to swing around to right, returning parallel to the works along the line of the woods west and northwest of the fortifications. The enemy was encountered on the Wilkinson pike behind breast-works made of logs and rails, and infantry and cavalry utterly routed and driven off in great confusion, Forrest's cavalry making the finest time, to the right, across and down the Nashville road, I have seen in many a day.

Our loss was about 30 killed and 175 wounded. The loss of the enemy unknown, though it largely exceeded ours. Immediately after the fight I ordered our forces to return to the fortress. In this fight we captured 207 prisoners, including 18 commissioned officers. We captured also 2 guns of the enemy (12-pounder Napoleons), and have them now in position on the fortress.

Just before General Milroy fell upon the enemy Buford's division of cavalry attacked Murfreesborough and entered the town, shelling it fiercely, knocking the houses to pieces. With a regiment of infantry and a section of artillery I drove the enemy out of the town, and I have not heard any more of them in any direction since. All is perfectly quiet here to-day, which doubtless results from the fact that the enemy was badly whipped. In these fights the troops have behaved with exceeding courage and I am glad to say that the new troops have not been at all behind the old in the exhibition of steadiness and courage.

I heard from General Granger on Monday last by telegram and he was all right at Stevenson, having had great difficulty from high water in reaching there, going but eight miles a day for three days. The wires in that direction were cut at 4 p.m. on that day, and I have not heard from him since.

Perhaps you have not heard of the enemy's loss of generals at the battle of Franklin; I have it definitely from prisoners; it is this: Killed, Major-General Cleburne, Brigadier-General Gist, Brigadier-General Strahl, Brigadier-General Adams, Brigadier-General Carter, Brigadier-General Granbury, and three others wounded. It is reported by citizens here that Bate was killed on yesterday, and I think the report very probably true.

I shall ask leave to make a more detailed report, calling attention, amongst other matters, to the deportment of individual officers and men.

I am, general, very respectfully, &c.,

LOVELL H. ROUSSEAU,        

Major-General.

Brig. Gen. W. D. WHIPPLE,
        Chief of Staff.

_______________

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE,        

Murfreesborough, December 12, 1864.

Dispatches from General Thomas of the 5th and 8th instant received last night. Railroad train to Stevenson for supplies will take this dispatch to be forwarded. Wires down between this and Stevenson. On the 8th instant I dispatched by courier by way of Gallatin reporting operations here on the 4th instant. The enemy attacked the block-house at Overall's Creek, fired seventy-four shots, doing no damage. I sent three regiments, under General Milroy, to its relief. The enemy (Bate's division) were routed and driven off. We took some prisoners, near thirty, but no guns. Loss of the enemy unknown, as night closed in before the fight was over. Our troops, new and old, behaved admirably. We withdrew at night. The next evening Bate returned, skirmished with amid drove in our pickets, and threatened the fortress; pretty heavy skirmishing till the 7th, when the enemy moved around on the Wilkinson pike, northwest of the fortress. He was re-enforced by Forrest with 2,500 cavalry and two divisions of infantry. On the evening of the 6th he made a breast-work of logs and rails on Wilkinson's pike, from which he was driven on the 7th by General Milroy with seven regiments of the garrison here; a pretty severe engagement, lasting perhaps three-quarters of an hour. The rout was complete, infantry and cavalry running in every direction. The fight was well conducted by Major-General Milroy, and the troops behaved most gallantly. We took 207 prisoners, including 18 commissioned officers, 2 pieces (12-pounder Napoleons) of artillery, which were at once placed in position in the fortifications, and 1 stand of colors belonging to the First and Third Florida. Our loss in the fight at Overall's Creek was 5 killed and 49 wounded, and on Wilkinson's pike about 175 killed and wounded, 1 missing. I reported these facts a little more fully in my dispatch of the 8th, which may not have reached you. I am subsisting off the country, which I think I can do. Before the fight on the Wilkinson pike, Buford's division of cavalry took possession of about one-half of the town of Murfreesborough, shelling it vigorously and destroying many of the houses. With a section of artillery and a small force of infantry, I drove them, wounding and killing 30 and taking 25 prisoners. A captain of artillery left his boots, letters, sponges, staff buckets, on the ground. We lost one man wounded. The enemy's cavalry all around, but I think in small bodies. We forage without molestation. No enemy near here that! know of. Cheatham reported coming this way through Triune. All right here, and will endeavor to keep it so.

LOVELL H. ROUSSEAU,        

Major-General.

Brig. Gen. W. D. WHIPPLE,
        Chief of Staff.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 45, Part 1 (Serial No. 93), p. 612-5

Diary of 4th Sergeant John S. Morgan: Monday, June 22, 1863

Man of 29. still tied to his post, near a mutiny in the regt on his acct. News Negly whips Jonston. Grant holds Vicksburg where stands courthouse.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 7, January 1923, p. 491

A Slave-Catching General

General Hooker, commanding on the Lower Potomac, is not more addicted to slave-catching than the Gen. McCook at Nashville, referred to by our own correspondent – himself a Kentuckian.  The following corroborating testimony is by the correspondent of the Pittsburgh Gazette, writing from Nashville:

The Jackson Mississippian, in recording the feats of Lieut. Trotter, at Fort Donelson, says that while he was engaged in shooting down five Federals in a pile, with a single revolver, his servant, a negro boy, ran up to assist him, “and while fighting manfully by his side, was shot down by the enemy, when his mater, with one wipe of his bowie-knife, killed the man who slew his servant.”  Terrible monster, and devoted servant, were they not?  Some of our Generals make it a rule to see that none of the negroes become devoted to them in the same style.  When one comes into the camp of Gen. McCook – “a big bellied and profane Brigadier” – he takes particular care to have the man spotted, recorded, guarded, and returned to the man who first applies for him.  Gen. McCook received a lengthy notice in the secesh papers here for his liberality in returning the slaves of individuals who have been engaged in the rebellion.  He swears “he’ll have no G-d d----d Abolitionist in his command.”  He is the individual to whom the correspondent of the New York World lately referred in a letter from this place.  He has long been a disgrace to the army – is a man without sense, modesty or discretion, and is entirely out of place as the commanding and superior officer of such a man as Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau, of Kentucky, whose brigade is in his division, or Gen. Negley, whose brigade was in the same deplorable condition.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

Arrival of Gen. Mitchell

NEW YORK, May 28 – A special dispatch to the New York Herald, dated Nashville, May 27 says that Generals Mitchell and Negley arrived here to-night.  They report everything quiet at Huntsville, Alabama, and that the Union feeling is increasing.

Jere Clemens and Judge McCane, and family are the prominent Unionists.

Gen. Mitchell speaks of his position in Alabama, as permanent.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 31, 1862, p. 3

The Slaughter Pen: Stones River National Battlefield

Boys you must get out of here!  You are surrounded!

– James Negley, Brigadier General, commanding 2^nd Division Center Wing

The jumbled rocks you see here sheltered the four Union regiments of Miller’s brigade during a hard two-hour-long fight.  Rebel bullets whined and ricocheted, wounding many.  Men in blue from Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania grimly held on tight inside this limestone labyrinth.

Then General Sheri-dan’s troops, who had been fighting on our right ran out of bullets, broke ranks, and ran.  General Negley called for a retreat as waves of gray-clad soldiers threatened to overwhelm his men on three sides.  This stone stronghold turned into an ankle-twisting death trap.

Many of the men who fought here had seen the huge slaughter pens of Chicago’s meatpackers.  When they saw so many dead and wounded men stacked here the soldiers called this place “the Slaughter pen.”

SOURCE: Interpretive Marker, Stones River National Battlefield, pictured at right.

The Kentucky Grand Army

The Kentucky Grand Army

There are about 115,000 troops in Gen. Buell’s department, divided into three brigades of from 3,000 to 5,000 each and four grand divisions from 20,000 to 30,000 each.  The division commanders are:

1.  General Alexander McDowel McCook.

2.  General George H. Thomas.

3. General Ormsby M. Mitchell.

4. General Thomas L. Crittenden.

Gen. Thomas has left the line, at Somerset and London, on the road to East Tennessee.  Gen. Mitchell has the center, and is now at Bowling Green.  Gen. Crittenden has the right of the line, and with a portion at least of his command, has co-operated with Gen. Grant at Fort Donelson.  The division of Gen. McCook is the “reserve,” and is in the rear of bowling green.

This army has some of the best military talent in the country among its leading officers, as it has also some of the best troops.  The following are among the brigade commanders: –

General Ebenezer Dumont, of Indiana.

General AlbinSchoepf, of D. C.

General Thomas J. Wood, of Kentucky.

General William Nelson, of Kentucky.

General Richard W. Johnson, of Ky.

General Jerre T. Boyle, of Kentucky.

General James S. Negley, of Penn.

General William T. Ward, of Kentucky.

Also of Colonels commanding brigades: –

Colonel John B. Turchin, 19th Illinois.

Colonel William B. Hagen, 41st Ohio.

Colonel Joshua W. Sill, 33d Ohio

Colonel Henry B. Carrington, 18th regulars.

Colonel Edward N. Kirk, 34th Illinois.

Colonel Mahlon D. Manson, 10th Indiana.

Colonel Carter, 1st East Tennessee

There are five other brigades (Twenty in all) but we have not the names of their commanders at hand. – Chicago Tribune.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, February 20, 1862, p. 2