The Lone Star Defenders 28

The Lone Star Defenders 28

“One of Long’s regiments was formed near the fork of the road, the

Fourth Michigan was being placed there, and the enemy tried again

and again to take our battery. It fought magnificently, and the guns

were made to radiate in all directions and did splendid work, our men

supporting them well. One of the guns, by the rebound, had broken its

trail off short, so that it could not be drawn from the field. When the

rest of the pieces had been withdrawn Colonel Minty called for men to

draw off the piece by hand. Captain Burns took about twenty men of the

Fourth Michigan Cavalry down and helped pull it off, though the enemy

were very close to us. While this was taking place, heavy firing was

heard in our rear, for the cavalry with which we had been fighting had

followed us, and had us in a pretty tight box, as follows: a brigade of

infantry in our front and partly on our left; a division moving on our

right and but a short distance off; three brigades of cavalry in our

rear. Stoneman and McCook threw up the sponge under like circumstances.

We decided we must leave the railroad alone, and crush the enemy’s

cavalry, and consequently withdrew from fighting the infantry, who now

became very quiet, probably expecting to soon take us all in.

 

“The command was faced to the rear as follows: Our brigade was formed

on the right hand side of the road, each regiment in columns of fours

(four men abreast); the Fourth Regulars on the left; Fourth Michigan

center; Seventh Pennsylvania on the right, Long’s brigade formed in

close columns with regimental front, that is, each regiment formed in

line, the men side by side, boot to boot, thus:

 

MINTY’S BRIGADE

 

FOURTH FOURTH SEVENTH

U. S. MICH. PENN.

 

o o o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o o o o o

 

 

LONG’S BRIGADE

 

FIRST OHIO

 

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

 

THIRD OHIO

 

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

 

OHIO

 

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

 

“The last regiment was deployed in rear of the others so as to take in

a large space of ground and pick up prisoners and trophies. You see,

we were to break through the enemy, smashing them, and Long was to

sweep over the ground and pick them up. This was soon determined on,

for there was no time to lose. A few of our men were in front of us,

dismounted, skirmishing with the enemy, and they were told to throw

down the fence where they were. The enemy all this time was keeping

them engaged as much as possible, while a large force of them were

building rail barricades. We were formed just below the brow of the

hill, skirmishers on the crest of it, the enemy’s artillery to our left

and front playing over us, and bullets and shells flying thick over our

heads. We drew saber, trotted until we came to the crest of the hill

and then started at a gallop. Down the hill we went, the enemy turning

canister upon us, while the bullets whistled fiercely, and the battery

away on our right threw shells. We leaped fences, ditches, barricades,

and were among them, the artillery being very hot at this time. You

could almost feel the balls as they passed by. The Fourth Michigan and

Seventh Pennsylvania went straight forward to the woods, the field over

which they passed being at least a half a mile wide, with three fences,

one partially built barricade, and a number of ditches and gullies,

some very wide and deep. Of course many of the men were dismounted, and

upon reaching the woods they (our men) could not move fast, and they

turned to the right and joined the main column in the road about one

and a half miles from the start. The Fourth Regulars (my regiment, as

I joined it when the charge was ordered) could not keep parallel with

the rest of the brigade on account of high fences in our front, and

seeing an opening in the fence we turned to the left, and struck out on

the main road, coming upon the enemy in the road near their battery,

and sending them flying. We were soon among the led horses of the

dismounted men in their rear and among the ambulances, and a perfect

stampede took place, riderless horses and ambulances being scattered in

all directions, we in the midst of them, shooting and cutting madly.

A part of our regiment, with some of the Fourth Michigan and Seventh

Pennsylvania, dashed at the battery, drove the men from the pieces, and

captured three of the guns. Private William Bailey, a young Tennessean

from near McMinnville, who belonged to Fourth Michigan Cavalry (he was

associated with me at headquarters as scout), shot the captain. We

brought away the guns, and the charge continued for about two miles,

when we halted for the command to close up. Colonel Long’s brigade did

not charge in line as it was intended, for, finding that the ground was

impracticable, it formed in column and followed the Fourth Regulars.

Colonel Murray’s command, instead of sweeping all to the left, as we

supposed they would do, turned to the right and followed Long. Had

Murray done what was expected, both sides of the road would have been

cleaned out.

 

“Immediately after the charge and while we were pushing through the

woods it commenced to rain, and poured in torrents. The command was

now started for McDonough, but before the whole of it had moved off,

Long’s brigade, which had been moved to cover the rear, was fiercely

attacked by the infantry of the enemy. Colonel Long fought them for

about two hours, when, his ammunition giving out, he was obliged to

retire. (Here Long was wounded twice.) The Fourth Michigan and Seventh

Pennsylvania were formed in the rear, Long behind rail barricades which

had been hastily thrown up. The Fourth United States Regulars being

out of ammunition were sent on to McDonough, where the Ninety-second

Illinois Mounted Infantry divided ammunition with some of us near this

town. One of Long’s regiments assisted the Fourth Michigan and Seventh

Pennsylvania. Long passed his men through when the enemy came on us.

Then we had it hot and heavy, the enemy charging several times, but

were repulsed. All this fighting here was done dismounted, and was for

the purpose of holding back the enemy until our main column could get

out of the way. Our battery (three pieces) during this fight burst

one gun and wedged another, getting a shell part way down it, so it

could not be moved either way, so we had one gun only, but that was

used with effect, the enemy meanwhile playing their artillery into our

columns all along the road. You see our two brigades had to do all the

fighting, lead the charge, and cover the retreat. As soon as our men

had passed on about a mile, our rear-guard followed, and we were not

molested again. We pushed slowly on to McDonough, crossed Walnut Creek,

and near morning lay down in the mud for sleep. How tired we were I

cannot tell, and men would tumble prone from their horses, and it was

next to impossible to awaken them. Frequently two or three men would

fall asleep upon their horses, who would stop, and the whole column

behind them would naturally do the same, too, supposing that there

was obstruction ahead. Hundreds of men were sometimes asleep in that

way upon their horses in the mud for an hour or so at a time. During

this time I fell asleep for about two hours, and awoke drenched to the

skin, for it was raining, and fearfully dark and very disagreeable.

About two o’clock we found a place to stop. I never before that knew

what fatigue meant, for I had not slept a wink for the nights of the

17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th until the morning (about 2 A. M.) of the

21st, except what I had when riding along. We had had but three meals,

and but little time to eat them, had fought seven pretty hard fights,

besides skirmishing, etc., etc. At daybreak the next morning we started

on again. At Cotton River the bridge was gone, the stream much swollen

by rain, so that it could not be forded and the horses were obliged to

swim it. As the current was very swift, we had a terrible time crossing

it. We, our brigade, lost one man and about sixty horses drowned here,

and nearly all our pack-mules also. We could not get the wagon with the

two disabled guns across at all, and rumor said they were buried here,

and the site marked as the graves of two soldiers of the Fourth United

States Cavalry. It was terrible to see the poor wounded carried across,

some fastened on horses, while others were taken over in ambulances.

We all finally got over, but if the enemy had pushed us here most of

the command would have been captured. We were now nearly all out of

ammunition, and many an anxious glance I gave to the rear, it being a

relief when all were over. We then crossed South River bridge, burning

all the bridges for ten miles each side, and camped that night at

Lithonia. The next day we returned to our camp at Peach Tree Creek,

having made a complete circuit of the two armies of Hood and Sherman.

We did not do all we hoped we could when we started, but _we did all we

could_. Notwithstanding what we had suffered, General Sherman was much

dissatisfied with us, expecting more from us than lay in our power (or

his either) to accomplish.

 

[Illustration: G. A. MCKEE

 

Private Company C, Third Texas Cavalry]

 

“In the above narrative I have drawn very largely from a letter written

August 28, 1864, by Captain Burns (as stated before), printed in a

work called ‘Minty and the Cavalry,’ though about all I have written

occurred under my own observation. We captured three stands of colors

claimed to belong to the Third Texas Cavalry,[4] Zachariah Rangers, and

Benjamin’s Infantry.

 

“Our aggregate loss in First and Second Brigades, killed, wounded, and

missing, was 14 officers, 192 men.”[5]“ROBERT M. WILSON,

“Company M, Fourth United States Cavalry.”