Today in History:

950 Series I Volume XVI-I Serial 22 - Morgan's First Kentucky Raid, Perryville Campaign Part I

Page 950 KY., M. AND E.TENN., N.ALA., AND SW.VA. Chapter XXVIII.

village, from which direction the other brigade of this division, then under command of yourself, and the division of General Churchill were approaching. Our artillery was here ordered to advance to a nearer position, and our line of battle followed immediately on under a rapid fire from the field pieces of the enemy. The guns of our battery were thrown into position upon an uncovered field about 600 yards from the enemy's line of battle, which was formed some 50 yards in rear of their batteries. Our line of battle rested its center immediately in the rear of our battery in the following order: The Second Tennessee, under Lieutenant-Colonel Butler, on the left and toward the pike; the Fifteenth and

Thirteenth Arkansas (temporarily consolidated), under command of Colonel Polk and Lieutenant Colonel [A. R.] Brown, on the right; the Forty-eighth Tennessee, under Colonel Nixon, and the Fifth Tennessee, under Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, in the center. An artillery duel, continuing an hour and a quarter, now commenced, which resulted in a loss to our side of 7 wounded of the Forty-eighth Tennessee, 2 killed and 1 wounded of the Second Tennessee. The dead and wounded of the enemy by grape, canister, and shell, which their ground afterwards exhibited, showed that our artillery had been worked with great skill.

In pursuance of an order from General Cleburne I here detailed a company from the Second Tennessee, under command of Captain J. J. Newsom, as sharpshooters, to occupy a position near the barn, situated upon a hill to theleft of the pike, for the purpose of picking off the horses and gunners from the enemy's battery. A similar detail was also made from the Fifteenth Arkansas, under Capts. [O. S.] Palmer and [G.] Dixon, to occupy a position upon the right of our line in a skirt of woods and ascertain the extreme left of the enemy's line. This company was under the eye of General Cleburne, who was preparing for a flank movement upon the enemy with Colonel Vaughan's brigade, then under your personal command and which you had formed in line of battle upon the right of my brigade. Sharp work soon took place between the enemy and the companies of Captain Newsom on the left and Captains Palmer and Dixon on the right. The position of my brigade remained unchanged until the forward movement was commanded to the entire division. The enemy commenced a confused retreat; their scattered forces extended from the right of the road through the corn fields on the left for half a mile. In this charge the Forty-eighth Tennessee, under Colonel [G. H.] Nixon, captured 165 prisoners, including several commissioned officers of high rank. Our success, I am sorry here to day, in the capture of a greater number of prisoners was interfered to say, in the capture of a greater number of prisoners was interfered with in the detachment of two of my regiments by a staff officer of another division, who, it seems, was ordered to have a section of battery supported, and mistaking his own line of battle, thus unfortunately detached two regiments of my own people. The error was remedied as soon as possible, but unfortunably not early enough to carry out what my brigade would otherwise have accomplished.

The loss of the brigade in this engagement was small in the number of killed. Captain Douglas and Lieutenant [Benjamin] Hardin, of the battery, were slightly wounded; Colonel Polk, Fifteenth Arkansas, badly wounded in the head, and Captain J. J. Newsom, company of sharpshooters, Second Tennessee, seriously, if not mortally.

The brigade was ordered to rest for one hour about 1 1/2 miles in advance of the scene of the first action in a woodland to the right of the road near a building called Zion's Church, after which it was again formed in line of battle. This was near the hour of 1 o'clock-the


Page 950 KY., M. AND E.TENN., N.ALA., AND SW.VA. Chapter XXVIII.