No. 7.
Report of Col. William W. Duffield, Ninth Michigan Infantry.
MURFREESBOROUGH,
TENN., July 23, 1862.
COLONEL: Although I had not yet formally assumed command of
the Twenty-third Brigade, yet, as Brig. Gen. Thomas T. Crittenden and the other
officers of the command have been captured and forwarded to Chattanooga, permit
me to submit the following report of such portion of the attack made on the
13th instant as came under my own personal observation:
I arrived here, after an absence of two months, on the
afternoon of the 11th instant, coming down on the same train with Brig. Gen.
Thomas T. Crittenden, the newly appointed commander of the post, and found that
several material changes had been made in the location and encampment of the
Twenty-third Brigade since my departure. Instead of the whole command encamping
together, as it had done, it was separated into two portions and several miles
apart. The brigade had never been drilled as such nor a brigade guard mounted.
Each regiment furnished its quota of officers and men and watched certain
roads; and, worse than all, the commanding officers of the respective regiments
were on ill terms with each other, and this feeling, upon one occasion, had
broken out into an open personal quarrel. The result was a great lack of
discipline and a bitter feeling of jealousy between the different regiments,
manifesting itself in the personal encounters of the men when they met upon the
street. There was no order, no harmony. The parts of the machine did not fit
well, and the commanding officers seem either not to have possessed the will or
the ability to adjust them. General Crittenden and myself, immediately after
our arrival, visited the several camps, discussed the impropriety of a divided
command, and decided upon a concentration; but as neither of us had assumed
command we deferred it until the morrow. But on the morrow the blow fell, and
the danger we anticipated became a reality. General Crittenden made his
headquarters in town, while I preferred camping with my own men, and therefore
pitched my tent with the five companies of the Ninth Michigan Volunteers.
The force then at Murfreesborough was as follows: Five
companies (A, C, G, H, and K), Ninth Michigan Volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel
Parkhurst commanding, 200 strong, together with the First Squadron Fourth
Kentucky Cavalry, Capt. Levi Chilson, 81 strong, were encamped three-fourths of
a mile east of the town, upon the Liberty turnpike; one company (B) Ninth
Michigan Volunteers, Captain Rounds, 42 strong, occupied the court-house, the
other companies of the Ninth Michigan Volunteers having been ordered to
Tullahoma a month since, while nine companies of the Third Minnesota
Volunteers, Colonel Lester (one company being on detached duty as train guard),
450 strong, and Hewett's First Kentucky battery, two sections, 72 strong,
occupied the east bank of Stone River, at a distance of more than 3 miles from
the encampment of the detachment of the Ninth Michigan Volunteers.
Orders were received from Nashville the evening of the 12th
instant directing the First Squadron Fourth Kentucky Cavalry to proceed
immediately to Lebanon. The total effective strength of the command at
Murfreesborough on the morning of the 13th instant did not therefore exceed 814
men, including pickets.
The attack was made at daybreak on the morning of the 13th
instant by the Second Cavalry Brigade, C. S. Army, Brig. Gen. N. B. Forrest,
over 3,000 strong, consisting of one Texas regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Walker;
the First and Second Georgia Regiments, Colonels Lawton and Hood; one Alabama
regiment, Colonel Saunders, and one Tennessee regiment, Colonel Lawton[?]. The
noise of so many hoofs at full speed upon the macadamized roads was so great
that the alarm was given before the head of the column reached our pickets,
about 1 mile distant, so that our men were formed and ready to receive them,
although they came in at full speed. The Texas and a battalion of one of the
Georgia regiments, in all over 800 strong, attacked the detachment of the Ninth
Michigan Volunteers. So fierce and impetuous was their attack that our men were
forced nearly to the center of the camp; but they fell back steadily and in
order, with their faces to the foe. But upon reaching the center of the camp
their line was brought to a halt, and after twenty minutes of nearly
hand-to-hand fighting the enemy broke and fled in the wildest confusion,
followed in close pursuit by one company as skirmishers. A squadron of cavalry
at this time launched at their heels would have utterly routed and annihilated
them. Indeed so great was their panic that their officers were unable to check
the fugitives for a distance of 7 miles, and Colonel Wharton,[?] commanding the
Georgia regiment, was subsequently arrested by General Forrest for misconduct
under the fire of the enemy.
During this attack both officers and men, with one single
exception, behaved very handsomely. There was no excitement, no hurry, and no
confusion. Everything was done calmly, quietly, and in obedience to orders. But
it is with the deepest shame and mortification that I am compelled to report that
one officer of Michigan has been guilty of gross cowardice in the face of the
enemy. Capt. John A. Tanner, of Company K, Ninth Michigan Volunteers, at the
first alarm left his quarters, abandoned his company, and fled from his command
under the enemy's fire, and I therefore inclose you herewith charges preferred
against him for violation of the Fifty-second Article of War. Capt. Charles V.
De Land, Company C, Ninth Michigan Volunteers, deserves special mention for
cool and gallant conduct throughout the action and the fearless mode in which
he led his company as skirmishers in pursuit of the enemy when repulsed. Also
First Lieut. Hiram Barrows, of Company A, same regiment, for the tenacity with
which he held his ground, although sorely pressed by the enemy. The loss of the
detachment of the Ninth Michigan Volunteers has been very severe for the number
engaged, amounting to 1 officer and 12 men killed and 3 officers and 75 men
wounded. The enemy's loss has been much more severe than our own. More than double
the number of their dead were buried with ours and their wounded are found in
almost every house. Among their wounded are a colonel, a major, two adjutants,
and one surgeon. I inclose you herewith the surgeon's report of the killed and
wounded of the Ninth Michigan Volunteers.
Not having been present at the subsequent surrender of the
detachment of the Ninth Michigan Volunteers, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Parkhurst, I can only state the facts as reported to me, which show that this
force, isolated and reduced by killed and wounded to less than 75 men, after
having held their ground from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m., were compelled to surrender or
be cut to pieces by the entire force of the enemy. I am reliably informed that
Company B, Ninth Michigan Volunteers, under command of First Lieut. L. J.
Wright, held the court-house against an incessant attack by a greatly superior
force from 4 a.m. till 7.30 a.m., and did not surrender till the enemy had
possession of the lower story of the building and had started a fire, with the
evident intention of burning them out.
Of the surrender of the Third Minnesota Volunteers and
Hewett's First Kentucky Artillery, under command of Colonel Lester, I cannot
speak from personal knowledge nor have I received any information from sources
sufficiently reliable to warrant my communicating to you any details. Indeed I
would much prefer not to do so. The circumstances of the case, as reported,
bear painfully on the honor of a brother officer now a prisoner of war, and who
is therefore unable to defend himself.
I inclose a list of killed and wounded of the Third
Minnesota Volunteers, furnished me by the assistant surgeon of that regiment,
amounting to 2 killed and 8 wounded,* one of whom was killed and 2 wounded in
line, the remainder in camp.
In the early part of this attack I received two gunshot
wounds, one passing through the right testicle, the other through the left
thigh. These, although very painful and bleeding profusely, did not prevent me
from remaining with my own regiment until the attack was repulsed, when,
fainting from pain and loss of blood, I was carried from the field, and was
therefore not a witness of what subsequently occurred. At noon the same day I
was made prisoner by General Forrest, but, in my then helpless condition, was
released upon my parole not to bear arms against the Confederate States until
regularly exchanged.
I remain, colonel,
your obedient servant,
WM. W. DUFFIELD,
Colonel Ninth Michigan Infantry, Comdg.
Twenty-third Brigade.
Col. J. B. FRY,
Asst. Adjt. Gen., Chief of Staff, Huntsville, Ala.
[Indorsements.]
SEPTEMBER 20, 1862.
Respectfully forwarded to the Adjutant-General. It is
gratifying to discover anything to mitigate the mortification of the affair at
Murfreesborough. This report seems to do so as far as Colonel Duffield is
concerned, but does not alter the general features of the affair.
D.C. BUELL,
Major-General.
I respectfully recommend that Capt. John A. Tanner, Company
K, Ninth Michigan Volunteers, be dismissed from the service for cowardly
abandoning his company at the battle of Murfreesborough.
H. W. HALLECK,
General-in-Chief.
Approved.
EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.
_______________
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
16, Part 1 (Serial No. 22), p. 800-3
