Today in History:

351 Series I Volume XLV-I Serial 93 - Franklin - Nashville Part I

Page 351 Chapter LVII. CAMPAIGN IN NORTH ALA. AND MIDDLE TENN.

(Third) upon his left, being immediately on the right of the Columbia pike, the Fiftieth Ohio and Seventy-second Illinois Volunteers in the first line, and the One hundred and eighty-third Ohio and Forty-fourth Missouri Volunteers in the second line. Moore's brigade (Second) was placed on the right of Strickland's, and in order to cover the Carter's Creek pike was deployed in one line in the following order: Eightieth Indiana, Twenty-third Michigan, One hundred and twenty-ninth Indiana, and One hundred and eleventh Ohio Volunteers,numbering from right to left, as in the cases of all the other brigades mentioned Runger ordered fifty men of the One hundred and eighty-third Ohio (Strickland's second line) to report to him, and they were placed by Colonel Moore between the One hundred and twenty-ninth Indiana and Twenty-third Michigan. By noon a tolerably good line of breast-works had been erected along the front described, and in a portion of the line a slight abatis had been constructed. A small locust grove and some fruit trees in front of Ruger's division had been used for this purpose, and some Osage orange hedges about a small inclosure in front of Stiles' brigade on the left had also been made good use of. One line of this hedge parallel to Stiles' left front was slightly thinned out and left standing and in the end proved most useful. The remainder of the hedge was used along the front of the Third Division, but there was not sufficient material near at hand to make the line continuous, nor was there time to stake it down, so that it amounted simply to a slight obstruction of small branches and twigs that could offer no serious obstacle to an advancing enemy, except as the thorny nature of the Osage orange made it an unexpectedly troublesome thing to handle or remove under fire. The artillery of the corps had been moved to the north side of the river early in the morning, under the direction of Lieutenant-Colonel Schofield, chief of artillery, and a portion of it placed in the fort.

As the troops of the Fourth Corps came in, later in the forenoon, four* batteries from that corps were ordered to report to me, and I assigned them positions as follows; First Kentucky Light Artillery, four guns, on the left of the Columbia pike, in the line of the One hundredth Ohio Infantry; Sixth Ohio Light Artillery, four guns, on the right of the Columbia pike, just west of Carter's house; and Battery B, Pennsylvania Volunteers, at the Carter's Creek pike. Although not strictly in the order of occurrence, it will tend to greater clearness to add that about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when an attack by the enemy in force had become more immediate, other batteries of the Fourth Corps were placed in position by Lieutenant-Colonel Schofield and Captain Bridges, chiefs of artillery of the Twenty-third and Fourth Corps, respectively, viz: Battery M, Fourth U. S. Artillery, and Battery G, First Ohio Light Artillery, were thus placed near the left of Stiles' brigade, Third Division, Twenty-third Army Corps; Battery A, First Ohio Light Artillery, was placed in reserve near the Columbia pike; and Bridges' Battery Illinois Light Artillery, was placed near the center of Strickland's brigade, Second Division, Twenty-third Corps. About noon, some appearance of the enemy's cavalry being reported on the Carter's Creek pike, I called the attention of the commanding general to the fact that Ruger's division could not reach any secure point at which to rest on the right, and shortly after Brigadier-General Kim-

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*Only three mentioned in the context. But Bridges' report (p. 320.)

adds the Twentieth Ohio.

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Page 351 Chapter LVII. CAMPAIGN IN NORTH ALA. AND MIDDLE TENN.