Posted on 01/20/2003 5:39:50 AM PST by SAMWolf
![]() are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
|
|
After the battle of Franklin on Nov. 30, Maj.Gen. George H. Thomas, commanding at Nashville ordered Gen. Schofield to fall back to that city, where Thomas had been industriously engaged for some time in collecting an army of sufficient strength to drive the Confederate forces under Gen. Hood out of the State of Tennessee. Gen. A. J. Smith, with three divisions of the Army of the Tennessee, had been expected to arrive from Missouri in time to reinforce Schofield at Franklin, but he did not reach Nashville until the last day of November. ![]() Hood's army was organized as follows:
Nashville is situated on the south side of the Cumberland river. In December, 1864, several turnpike roads radiated from the city between the southeast and southwest, all running through a country somewhat broken. Six miles due south are the Brentwood hills, along the east side of which ran the Franklin pike, while the Hillsboro pike ran along the western base. Two creeks rise in these hills, their sources being less than a mile apart. Brown's creek flows northeast, emptying into the Cumberland above the city, and Richland creek flows northwest into the river some distance below. Along the ridge between the two streams ran the Granny White pike. The Nolensville pike entered the cite from the southeast, crossing Brown's creek not far from the Chattanooga railroad, while north of the railroad, and between it and the river, ran the Murfreesboro, Chicken and Lebanon pikes. Another range of hills near the city had been fortified by order of Thomas. ![]() Hood followed Schofield from Franklin and during the afternoon of Dec. 2, his cavalry engaged the Union skirmishers in front of Nashville. The next day the whole Confederate force appeared, the Federal skirmishers were crowded back, and Hood proceeded to form his main line on the hills immediately south of the Union fortifications. The morning of the 4th found his salient on Montgomery hill, within 600 yards of the Union works. Cheatham's corps on the right occupied a position behind Brown's creek, extending from the railroad to the Franklin pike , Stewart's corps formed the center and lay across the Granny White pike, while Smith's corps on the left extended the line to the Hillsboro pike. From there to the river below, across the Hardin and Charlotte pikes, and from Cheatham's right to the river above the cavalry was posted. Having taken this position Hood did not attack the works in front of the city, but spent several days in reducing some of the smaller outlying garrisons and blockhouses along the railroad. This gave Thomas time to complete his preparations, to mount and equip his cavalry and thoroughly organize his troops. Gen. Grant in Virginia and the authorities at Washington grew impatient at the delay, fearing that Hood would eventually elude Thomas' pass round Nashville, and invade Kentucky as Bragg had done in the summer of 1862. But Thomas was guarding the fords and bridges with his cavalry, and the gunboats of Fitch's squadron were patrolling the river above and below the city. Gen. Lyon, with a detachment of Confederate cavalry, did succeed in crossing at Clarksville on the 9th with a view to destroying the Louisville & Nashville railroad, but Thomas despatched Gen. E. M. McCook, with two brigades of the 1st cavalry division, to look after Lyon, so that the latter's expedition proved fruitless. ![]() Grant, however, was of the opinion that Thomas should have given battle before the enemy had time to recover from the blow received at Franklin, and on Dec. 2, he telegraphed Thomas to leave the defenses of Nashville to Donaldson's division and attack Hood at once. Although this telegram was not an official order, its language was scarcely less imperative, but Thomas was so anxious to increase his force of cavalry, and so certain that he could do so within a few days, he decided to wait until he could attack with every assurance of success. In reply to Grant's telegrams Thomas said: "I now have infantry enough to assume the offensive, if I had more cavalry, and will take the field anyhow as soon as the remainder of Gen. McCook's division of cavalry reaches here, which I hope will be in two or three days. We can get neither reinforcements nor equipments at this great distance from the North very easily, and it must be remembered that my command was made up of the two weakest corps of Gen. Sherman's army, and all the dismounted cavalry except one brigade, and the task of reorganizing and equipping has met with many delays, which have enabled Hood to take advantage of my crippled condition. I earnestly hope, however, in a few more days I shall be able to give him a fight." This explanation was evidently not satisfactory, either to Grant or to Sec. of War Stanton, and Thomas was again urged to attack the enemy in his front. It was a case of the man at the desk a thousand miles away trying to direct the operations of the man in the field. The record of Thomas at Mill Springs and Chickamauga ought to have been a sufficient guarantee of his ability to command an army or to plan a campaign, yet that record availed him nothing now, when the secretary of war and the lieutenant- general of the Federal armies were "spoiling for a fight." On the 6th Grant sent another telegram to Thomas, directing him to attack at once, and to wait no longer to remount his cavalry. To this Thomas replied that he would make the necessary dispo- sition and attack, "agreeably to your orders, though I believe it will be hazardous with the small force of cavalry now at my command." This elicited a sarcastic telegram from Stanton to Grant, in which he said: "Thomas seems unwilling to attack because it is hazardous, as if all war was any but hazardous. If he waits for Wilson to get ready, Gabriel will be blowing his last horn." ![]() To such sneers as this the hero of Chickamauga paid no at tention but went quietly ahead completing his arrangements for a battle that was to forever destroy the usefulness of Hood's army as a factor in the War of the Rebellion. By the 9th he was ready to attack, but a severe storm came on, covering the ground with a thick coating of sleet, over which it was impos- sible to move troops with that celerity so essential to success in making an assault on an enemy. On the 9th Gen. Halleck telegraphed him as follows: "Lieut.-Gen. Grant expresses much dissatisfaction at your delay in attacking the enemy." To this Thomas replied: "I feel conscious I have done everything in my power, and that the troops could not have been gotten ready before this. If Gen. Grant should order me to be relieved, I will submit without a murmur." He seems to have had a premonition of what was about to occur, for on the same day Grant asked the war department to relieve Thomas and turn over the command of the army at Nashville to Schofield. When notice of this order was received at Nashville, Thomas called a council of his corps commanders and asked their advice, informing them that he was ordered to give battle immediately or surrender his command. The council was unanimous in the opinion that it was impracticable to make any attack until the ice should melt. The order relieving Thomas was then suspended, but on the 13th Grant again became impatient and ordered Gen. Logan to proceed at once to Nashville, and the next day started for that place himself to assume command of the army in person.
|
On Sept. 20, 2001, at the BONPS meeting at Father Ryan High School, Mr. Ken Flies of Minnesota gave a presentation on the role of U.S. Minnesota soldiers at the Battle of Nashville and at other conflicts during the Civil War. On Dec. 16, 1864, Shy's Hill was overrun by U.S. trooprs who routed the famous Confederate Army of the Tennessee. The BONPS website states that Shy's Hill was captured by U.S. Minnesota troops. The front line of the attack on the salient angle of the hill and on the hill's eastern slope and fields was manned by the 5th, 7th, 9th, and 10th Minnesota regiments. These Minnesota regiments suffered over 10% of the Union casualties at Nashville. This was the single bloodiest date in any battle of any war in the history of the United States for Minnesota.
The 8th Minnesota- the famous Indian Regiment- took the most casualties at the same time in nearby Murfreesboro stopping the attack of Bedford Forest, thus preventing his employment at the Battle at Nashville. The 11th Minnesota was guarding the railhead at Edgefield north of Nashville.
In the Civil War, Minnesota contributed only 11 infantry regiments. Minnesota was the frontier and had only 175,000 citizens. The previously mentioned 5th, 7th, 9th, and 10th were member of the highly mobile XVI Corps that became its own small army in the trans- Mississippi region and became known for their fighting prowess as the "Gorilla- Guerillas."
The 7th, 9th and 10th Minnesota regiments engaged at Nashville each traveled over 10,000 miles in the war, most likely a record for any regiments in the war. In addition to their exploits at Nashville, The Guerillas saved Bank's Army on the Red River. At Tupelo, it was one of the few units to defeat Bedford Forest, and it stopped Price in Missouri and Arkansas.
The Guerillas were only a few of the famous Minnesota regiments and fighters. Others included the 1st Minnesota that took the highest percentage of casualties of any Union regiment in the war when it took 89% casualties at Gettysburg.
The 2nd Minnesota Regiment took the highest number of Union casualties at Chickamauga, holding the right flank against Hood at Snodgrass Hill. The 2nd also initiated the attack on Missionary Ridge at Chattanooga that routed Bragg.
The 3rd Regiment was the first Union regiment to enter Little Rock. The 4th was the first union regiment to enter Vicksburg. The 1st Minnesota Light Artillery saved the Union at the Sunken Road at Shiloh. Minnesota was one of only two states to contribute companies to each of the two famous U.S. Sharpshooters Regiments that fought in over fifty engagements in the war.
In addition to these exploits in the Civil War, seven of the eleven Minnesota regiments (the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th regiments) all fought in the Dakota Indian War that broke out in 1862. These regiments included all of the Minnesota Regiments that fought at Nashville.
Other than Custer's battle at Little Big Horn, these regiments in the Dakota War fought the largest Indian battles ever conducted in the U.S. Lessons learned fighting against superior numbers of a highly mobile enemy along with the harshness of fighting and living on the frontier shaped the Minnesotans and made them the renowned fighters they became.
This presentation will focus on the Minnesota regiments with particular focus on those in the XVI Corps who fought at Nashville. The background of the Indian War and the Minnesotans exploits in this war and the condition and personalities of Minnesota that shaped the character of these men will be highlighted in the presentation.
Biography of Ken Flies:
In 1995 after 35 years in the computer industry, Ken Flies moved back home to the Hill Country of southeastern Minnesota, where his family has lived continuously for almost 150 years and which is the home of a large number of the Minnesota soldiers who fought at Nashville.
Since returning to Plainview, MN, Ken has been the founder and Executive Director of The Center for Rural America Arts, which has established the Jon Hassler Professional Theater, the Rural America Writer's Center and the Plainview Area History Center. Ken is also a member of the Minnesota State Historical Society.
Ken is a former member of the Twin Cities Civil War Roundtable and a current member of the Rochester and Hiawatha Valley Civil War Roundtables in Minnesota. He has lectured to numerous Roundtables, History Centers and schools.
His interest in the Civil War stems from a love of history and his grandmother's stories of her maternal and paternal Grandfathers, both of whom died in the Civil War. One a Pennsylvania native was with the Tenth Minnesota Regiment at Nashville and died and is buried in Tennessee and the other was with the First and also the Twenty-Third Connecticut Regiments and was captured in Virginia and died and is buried at Andersonville in Georgia.
In 1998, Ken's poem- An Ode to a Soldier Long Forgotten- about a soldier from the Hill Country and the Tenth Minnesota, who fought at Nashville, won the Editor's Choice Award of the National Library of Poetry and in 1999 the Editor's Choice Award of the International Library of Poetry.
In May 2000 Ken produced and directed an original play about soldiers from the Hill Country and their exploits at The Battle of Nashville, titled The Guerillas from the Greenwood.
In other news, former UN arms inspector Scott Ritter was quoted defending his online pursuit of an underaged woman as "research for a book": I Led Three Lives: Inspector, Iraqiflack; Staturapist.
Sung by the survivors of the CS Army of Tennessee in their retreat after Nashville (to the tune of "Yellow Rose of Texas"). (Source: Shelby Foote, "Civil War: A Narrative (Red River to Appomattox).)
|
|
![]() |
Donate Here By Secure Server
FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
|
It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.