MAJOR: In accordance with military usage, I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the cavalry under my command during the recent and still pending campaign against the enemy in Middle Tennessee:
It may be proper for me to premise that when I assumed command of this division, on the 24th day of November, near Columbia, I found present only Capron's old brigade of the Cavalry Division, Army of the Ohio, composed of the Fourteenth and Sixteenth Illinois Regiments and Eighth Michigan Cavalry, numbering in the aggregate about 800 mounted men, poorly armed and equipped, and I regret to say considerably demoralized by an unsuccessful campaign of some duration against an enemy superior to them in numbers, mount, and equipment. On this same day the Fifth Iowa Cavalry, Maj. J. Morris Young commanding, about 500 strong, reported to me, and on the day following Brigadier-General Croxton, with his fine brigade of the First Cavalry Division, was also placed under my command. Of the operations of General Croxton's brigade during the short time he was under my command I shall not attempt particularly to speak, though I desire to observe that upon all occasions both General Croxton and the officers and soldiers of his command conducted themselves in a manner becoming the high reputation which both he and they deservedly enjoy.
Early in the afternoon of the 24th, the infantry having arrived at Columbia, my troops were, by order of Brevet Major-General Wilson, withdrawn to the north side of Duck River and encamped directly opposite Columbia. I lay at this place until the evening of the 25th, picketing the river below Columbia as far down as Williamsport, and sending scouts across the river above, in the direction of Lewisburg. On the 25th I removed Croxton's brigade to Caldwel's house, six miles above Columbia, on the road to Raleigh [Rally] Hill. Capron's brigade, to which the Fifth Iowa had been temporarily assigned, was sent to take post on the Lewisburg pike at the crossing of Duck River, with instructions to scout toward Shelbyville and Lewisburg, and to picket the fords as far down as Huey's Mill. Croxton established a strong picket at Huey's Mill, which lay directly south of his camp, and also relieved the pickets from Capron's brigade at the fords below Columbia. In this position I lay until the 27th [28th]. On the morning of that day it became apparent, from the reports of my pickets, that the enemy were making preparations to force the passage of the river at Huey's Mill, at the Lewisburg pike, and at many intermediate fords. At 1 o'clock of this day, under orders from Brevet Major-General Wilson, I moved with Croxton's brigade for Hurt's house, on the Lewisburg pike, at the same time sending orders to Colonel Harrison, whom I then supposed to be in command of my First Brigade (Capron's), to fall back to that point. The head of my column reached the Lewisburg turnpike just after night-fall in time to find the Seventh Ohio Cavalry and detachments of the other regiments of Capron's brigade retiring in the direction of Franklin. Understanding the enemy to be in pursuit I directed Colonel Garrard, Seventh Ohio Cavalry, to send out one company to hold them in check, formed Croxton's brigade across the pike and sent orders to Colonel Capron to halt, reorganize, and form his troops. The enemy, however, did not come on, and later in the evening the Fifth Iowa Cavalry and the greater part of the Fourteenth and Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry, from whom Colonel Capron had been cut off by the enemy, came into camp, having gallantly charged through the superior force of the enemy, which had interposed itself between them and the rest of the command.
On the 28th [29th] we fell back, contesting the ground with the enemy's cavalry, across Harpeth River to the road from Franklin to Triune, where we camped for the night near Matthews' house, picketing the river at Davis', Henderson's, and Hughes' Fords. On the morning of the 29th [30th] the Fifth Iowa Cavalry was detached pursuant to orders of Major-General Schofield, and sent to picket the right of the army; they did not rejoin me until we reached Nashville. Croxton's brigade was posted on the immediate left of the infantry, covering the Lewisburg turnpike. General Hatch's division was interposed between him and my First Brigade, of which on this day Col. Thomas J. Harrison, Eighth Indiana Cavalry, under orders from Brevet Major-General Wilson, assumed command. Late in the afternoon of this day occurred the battle of Franklin. For the gallant part taken by General Croxton's brigade I respectfully refer to his report. Colonel Harrison's brigade held the extreme left and was not engaged. On the 30th [December 1] we retired by the dirt road north to Mayfield's house, near Brentwood, thence across the country to the Nolensville pike, and camped for the night on Mill Creek near the Widow Harris'.
On the morning of the 1st [2d] of December we retired to Nashville, and later in the day crossed the river and encamped in Edgefield. The week of rest allowed us here was assiduously devoted to recuperating and shoeing the horses of the command, pressing new ones from the surrounding country, refitting the command in respect to clothing, camp and garrison equipage, of which they stood in great need, and exchanging the infantry arms, with which the regiments of Capron's old brigade had been encumbered, for carbines. In these labors I was efficiently assisted by Colonel Harrison, commanding First Brigade, and by his regimental commanders. In spite of the proverbial inefficiency of the ordnance department, Colonel Harrison, by untiring efforts, succeeded in procuring sabers sufficient to arm all his regiments; Burnside carbines for the Fourteenth and Sixteenth Illinois Regiments, and revolvers for the Eighth Michigan. In the matter of horses we were not quite so fortunate—the Fifth Iowa Cavalry, which was sent to Hopkinsville, Ky., procured a full remount for themselves; the Seventh Ohio Cavalry, which during our stay in Edgefield was stationed at Hyde's Ferry to watch the river in that direction, procured eighteen horses from the country in their rear; the other regiments perhaps twenty horses altogether. By dismounting the Eighth Michigan and Fourteenth Illinois Cavalry, however, pursuant to orders from Brevet Major-General Wilson, I was able to efficiently mount the Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry and Seventh Ohio Cavalry. My mounted troops I placed under command of Colonel Harrison and my dismounted regiments under command of Col. James Biddle, Sixth Indiana Cavalry, who, on the 7th of December, joined me with his regiment dismounted, so that when offensive operations began I moved with one brigade mounted, composed of the Fifth Iowa, Seventh Ohio, and Sixteenth Illinois Regiments, commanded by Colonel Harrison, with an aggregate strength of 1,340, and a dismounted brigade, composed of the Sixth Indiana and Fourteenth Illinois Regiments, commanded by Col. James Biddle, of an aggregate strength of 759. The Eighth Michigan Cavalry, being armed with only pistols and sabers, and the Third Tennessee Cavalry, which reported to me on the 13th of December, for the most part without arms (their arms having been taken away from them by order of Brigadier-General Hammond, upon their return to my division from his brigade, with which they had been serving), I left in camp at Nashville.
On the morning of the 12th of December, in accordance with orders from the brevet major-general commanding corps, we broke camp, classed the river, and moved to the vicinity of Heiferman's house, near the Charlotte pike; there we remained in bivouac during the two following days.
At 4 o'clock on the morning of the 15th of December, in accordance with Special Orders, No. 3, from corps headquarters, I broke camp and moved on the Charlotte pike to the exterior line of fortifications, which I found occupied by McArthur's division of General A. J. Smith's corps. My orders required me to advance upon the enemy at 6 a.m., but as General McArthur's troops did not get in motion until long past this hour, and when their movement began advanced at first on the precise line by which I was directed to move, and as the orders contemplated a simultaneous attack, both by the infantry and cavalry, all along the line, my division covering the right and rear of the movement, I was delayed for several hours beyond the time designated. It was about 11 o'clock, as nearly as I can remember, that I received a message from Major-General Wilson, through a staff officer, notifying me that everything was in readiness for the attack, and directing me to advance. In order to answer the fire of a battery, which the movements of General McArthur's troops had previously developed on the commanding heights beyond Richland Creek, I had previously posted two pieces of Lieutenant Smith's battery in position near Douglass' house in the low ground on this side of the creek. I at first ordered Colonel Biddle to advance with his regiments deployed across the pike, and with a strong skirmish line covering his front to cress the creek, drive in the enemy's skirmishers, and assault the enemy's barricades on the crest of the ridge beyond, Harrison to hold himself in readiness to follow up Biddle's attack with his mounted brigade. But the movements of the dismounted cavalry were so slow, owing, I suppose, partly to their being unused to maneuver as infantry, partly to the difficulty in crossing the creek, and partly to their sabers, which the commanding officer of the Fourteenth Illinois Cavalry had, with a singular shortsightedness, permitted his men to bring with them, that I finally ordered Harrison to pass the dismounted brigade and attack the enemy with all possible energy. My order was executed with commendable celerity. The Fifth Iowa dismounted and engaged the skirmishers sharply in the neighborhood of the pike, finally crossing the creek and driving them from their covert, while the Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry, passing to their left, crossed the creek and charged mounted up the long slope to the ridge upon which the enemy's battery and dismounted men in barricades were posted. The object of this charge was to capture this battery, or, at least, to disperse the supports and shoot down the horses before the guns could be moved, in which case I confidently anticipated the guns would fall into our hands, even though the charge should be repelled by a counter-charge. I never saw a charge more gallantly made or more persistently pressed than this. It failed only by a few moments. Major Beeres, commanding, came upon a stone wall, over which he could not leap his horses. The delay necessary to pull it down sufficed for the enemy to limber up and move the guns, which they incontinently did, the cavalry which had been supporting them also mounting and riding away in haste. A few prisoners, however, fell into our hands. The enemy, retiring by the pike, made a second stand near Cochran's house, from which, however, Harrison hustled them with amusing celerity, and drove him rapidly to Davidson's house. Here, along the ridge beyond a little creek which empties into the Cumberland this side of Davidson's and opposite Bell's Mill, the enemy took up a strong position, his left resting upon the river and his line stretching some distance across the pike; his artillery posted near the house swept the bridge and the pike beyond it, and his dismounted men, strongly posted in barricades, which I suppose he had previously constructed with a view to such an emergency, commanded at close range all the crossings of the creek. Harrison's men, in the energy of his pursuit not observing, or at least not appreciating, the advantages of the enemy's position, attempted to follow the enemy's rear directly into his works, and in this too gallant effort one company of the Seventh Ohio was roughly handled, losing one man seriously wounded, and several captured, including Lieutenant Little, the commanding officer. Our advance being stayed by this repulse, the enemy opened a sharp fire from his battery, doing us, however, no damage. This continued until I brought up Lieutenant Smith with his battery, who, taking position near the pike, soon closed out his rebel adversary. I had now accomplished the limit of the day's work assigned me, but there being still some hour or two of daylight left, I was determined not to give the enemy rest if it could be avoided. Colonel Harrison reported, and my own observation justified his opinion, that the enemy's position was too strong to be carried by my small command, prisoners reporting Chalmers' whole division to be in our front. I had strong hopes, however, that if I could obtain the co-operation of General Croxton's brigade I might capture the enemy's guns, and, if he should make too determined a stand, perhaps a good part of his force. I was encouraged to think by an officer who came to me from General Croxton that the condition of things in his front might permit this, and I accordingly maneuvered my troops so as to attract the attention of the enemy to me, while Croxton, who was now a long distance to my left and rear, should comply with a request which I sent him to close up on my left and swing around so as to envelop the enemy's right and cut him off from the Charlotte pike, which here bears considerably to the south—that is, toward the enemy's right. In this way I hoped we might double him back upon the river, when I felt sure we should make short work of him. In the meantime I sent an officer to notify the commander of one of the gun-boats which lay in the river above my right that by dropping down to near Bell's Mills he might enfilade the rebel line; this information he speedily took advantage of and the tremendous discharges of his heavy guns contributed largely, I doubt not, to the already serious demoralization of the enemy. I was disappointed, however, in my anticipations of General Croxton's aid. I was informed late in the evening that orders from Brevet Major-General Wilson prevented his complying with my request. I learned this when it was too late to make other dispositions in time to follow up my advantage in case my attack should succeed, and accordingly, after throwing my mounted men to my left, I went into bivouac, ordering everything to be in readiness for movement by 4 o'clock on the following morning, and instructing Colonel Harrison, with the first break of day, to execute the movement which I had requested General Croxton to make. I must not neglect to mention that in this day's operations we captured near fifty horses, so rapidly were our lines advanced.
At break of day on the following morning Harrison advanced, as I had instructed him, only to find the enemy's works abandoned. I pushed Harrison forward on the road by which he had retreated, moving with Harrison and the battery myself, and ordering Colonel Biddle to follow with his dismounted brigade and my ammunition train of four wagons, We marched down the Charlotte pike near a mile; there following the enemy's trail we diverged by a dirt road to the left, crossing the Hardin pike at the brick church, nine miles from Nashville. From there, following the valley of the Little Harpeth, I reached the Hillsborough pike about 2 p.m., where, posted on the ridges north of Murray's house, we found the enemy in some force and with artillery, which they opened upon us. The first round from Lieutenant Smith's guns, however, silenced their battery, and at our first advance they retired, after exchanging a few shots with our skirmishers, their main force by the road east toward the Franklin pike, and a few down the Hillsborough pike toward Harpeth River. On reaching the pike I found a brigade of General Knipe's division upon it in my rear, and, having had no communication with the brevet major-general commanding the corps during the day, I halted and dispatched a messenger to notify him of my whereabouts and to request instructions. At nightfall the messenger not having returned, and General Knipe's troops being still in the position in which I found them, I went into bivouac, covering the pike and the cross-road by which the enemy had retreated. In our haste to overtake the enemy, on discovering their evacuation of the position they had taken at Davidson's, we left behind us a battery of six guns abandoned by the enemy. They were afterward discovered, as I am informed, by the forces of the gun-boat flotilla and sent into Nashville. I submit that I am entitled to claim these as the capture of my division.
On the morning of the 17th I moved at 4 o'clock in the morning down the Hillsborough pike, driving the enemy's pickets, whom we found in barricades on the ridges beyond Brown's Creek; forded the Harpeth River, and moved by the dirt road past Moore's and Davis' into Franklin, where I struck the flank of the rebel rear guard of cavalry, who were there posted to prevent the passage of the river by General Knipe's division, which had advanced down the Franklin turnpike. On discovering my approach they immediately withdrew their artillery, and as my skirmishers advanced they retired precipitately down the Columbia pike to the high ridges south of the town. Here there fell into our hands all of the rebel and our own wounded of the late battle of Franklin, besides some 17,000 rations. The Seventh Ohio Cavalry, charging through the town, captured some fifty of the enemy's rear guard, and would have pressed the pursuit farther had I not sent them word to stop. Passing from my right over to the Columbia pike, I found Brigadier-General Knipe with his advance, which had followed my charge through the town. On conferring with him it was agreed that he should continue his advance by the Columbia pike, while I took the Carter's Creek pike to the right of this. Accordingly, I moved down the latter pike, three miles and a half, to Reams' house, and from there sent Harrison with the Fifth Iowa by a cross-road to strike the right of the enemy's rear guard, which I judged from the sound to be heavily engaged with General Knipe. The enemy retired so rapidly, however, that this attempt failed, and, Harrison returning, we bivouacked two regiments and artillery at Reams', the Fifth Iowa three miles farther from the pike. On the following morning, starting at 5 a.m., I moved down the Carter's Creek pike to —— house, and from there by the dirt road east into Spring Hill, coming up here, as at Franklin, just in time to turn the enemy's flank and compel him to retire precipitately before the forces advancing down the main pike. Here, together with the Fifth and Seventh Divisions of the corps, I halted by order of Brevet Major-General Wilson to await rations, and on the day following I returned with my dismounted regiments to this place to remount them.
For the subsequent operations of Colonel Harrison's brigade I most respectfully refer to the report of that officer.
I will forward at an early day a list of casualties, which cannot be furnished at this time for the want of the subreports.
I cannot close my report without expressing my deep regret that the corps commander should have ordered my two best regiments transferred to another divisions, while I received in their place one dismounted regiment, not distinguished for its efficiency.
The campaign, though short, called for great endurance on the part of officers and men; long, tedious marches in cold and constant rains were endured without a murmur, and it is a pleasure, as well as a duty, for me to report that both officers and men did their duty nobly.
To the energy and gallantry of Col. Thomas J. Harrison much of our success is due. No colonel in the army has a more brilliant record, and I hope he may receive his well-earned promotion at an early day. Col. Israel Garrard, Lieutenant-Colonel Baird, and Major Beeres deserve especial mention for their good conduct and able management of their regiments.
To the officers of my staff' my thanks are due. Capt. E. T. Wells, assistant adjutant-general; Capt. T. F. Allen, inspector; Capt. J. J. Kessler, provost-marshal; Lieuts. L. T. Morris and W. R. Lowe, aide-de-camp, and Lieutenant McKee, ordnance officer, were distinguished here, as on many other fields, for their devotion to duty and gallantry in the discharge of the same. Chief Surgeon Train was always on hand, and through his energy and zeal our wounded were well and promptly attended to.
Assistant Adjutant-General, Cavalry Corps.
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. 597-602
