Today in History:

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

Page 527 Chapter LVII. CAMPAIGN IN NORTH ALA. AND MIDDLE TENN.

Ohio Volunteers, Captain Ebenezer Grosvenor commanding, and the Second Battalion, Fourteenth Army Corps, Captain D. H. Henderson, One hundred and twenty-first Ohio Volunteers, commanding. I moved on the left of Colonel Morgan's brigade, and formed in rear of, and in support of, his line of battle, on the Murfreesborough road, left in front, resting at the picket-line. Shortly afterward I sent Lieutenant-Colonel Espy with the Sixty-eighth Indiana to protect the left flank and guard against a sudden movement of the enemy to turn Colonel Morgan's left, should any be attempted, and I pushed that regiment well out to the left of Rains' house to such a distance as to insure the safety of the skirmishers of the Fourteenth U. S. Colored Troops, then pressing rapidly forward. By order of Colonel Morgan I followed the movements of his line of battle, pushing my two remaining regiments well up to the enemy's works near Rains' house, and protected them under the slope of the hill. The skirmish line of Colonel Morgan's command now met with strong resistance and his first line of battle being checked in its movements by the fire of the enemy posted behind his line of entrenchments, Colonel Morgan ordered me to assault with the Eighteenth Ohio and the Second Battalion the works in my front. He at the same time indicated, by pointing to certain trees in the woods, the earth-work I was to strike and carry if possible. I communicated the order to my command and went forward myself to assist in the execution. Before arriving at the works we had to pass over a corn-field completely covered and enfiladed by the enemy's work. Two picket fences also stood right in our path, and these we had to remove. This accomplished, Captain Grosvenor moved rapidly with his command, by the right flank, at double-quick across the field, striking the salient of the enemy's work. The regiment charged gallantly over the palisade defense in front of the angle of the work, and succeeded in gaining with near 100 men the interior of the work. The testimony of all the men and officers in sight shows that Captain Grosvenor led the head of his regiment full upon the enemy's work, discharged his pistol in the very face of the enemy, and while springing over the embankment he fell forward dead, shot by two balls. Lieutenant Samuel W. Thomas fell instantly killed while removing the palisades so as to admit his men. His body lay within ten feet of the works. In the meantime I led the Second Battalion in person to the assault of the right and southern angle of the work. In this I was ably assisted by Captains Henderson, Brown, and other officers of the battalion, and all that could be was done to bring the line to an assault of the work. But the troops were mostly new conscripts, convalescents, and bounty jumpers, and on this occasion, with but few honorable exceptions, behaved in the most cowardly and disgraceful manner. The enemy, seeing the men hesitating and wavering, fired a heavy volley and stampeded the whole line. In vain the officers, tried to rally the men; in vain the old soldiers rushed forward themselves; the line broke, and nearly all the men fled from the field. This great misfortune left the enemy free to converge his whole fire upon the Eighteenth Ohio, which he did, and finally drove it, stubbornly fighting its way, off the ground. Captain Benedict, second in rank in the Eighteenth, was wounded soon after the death of Captain Grosvenor, and, being temporarily disabled, was succeeded in command by Lieutenant Charles Grant. Captain D. H. Henderson, One hundred and twenty-first Ohio Volunteers, Second Battalion, while heroically endeavoring to rally his disordered men, was severely wounded, and after the retreat left the field.


Page 527 Chapter LVII. CAMPAIGN IN NORTH ALA. AND MIDDLE TENN.