Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-08-23

d against cavalry, being miry and
e covered with fallen timber. AS the
; regiment of infantry broke, Dickey's
Q cavalry began To discharge their
: carbines and fell into disorder. /
e instantly sent orders to the rear for
4 the brigade to form in line of battle,
t which was promptly executed" F"
t The success and result of this attack
t can be estimated by considering
. this further extract from General
/ Sherman's report: "The check sus-
? tained by us at the fallen timbers
/, delayed our advance, so that night
came on us before the wounded
were provided for and the dead
buried and our troops being tagged
J out by three days hard fighting"
J (it will be remembered that this
was the only fighting they had on
the third day., exposure and pri-
walton, / ordered them back to their
camps where they now are"
A BRIGADIER-GENERA
OF MURFREESBORO.
On the 10th of June, 1862, before
he had recovered from his wound,
at the earnest solicitation of prom
inent citizens of North Alabama, he
was ordered to Chattanooga to take
command of four regiments of cav-
airy, which had seen but little if
any service. He arrived on the 10Th
of June, and began at once to have
his horses ShOd and his men made
ready for move. He was then
but a Lieutenant-Colonel though
assigned to this command as Brig
adier-General, to which rank he
had been recommended for promo
tion, and the appointment was sub
sequently made on the 2lst of July.
After some delay and trouble with
his Colonels, growing out of the
! question of rank, he moved from
| Chattanooga ON the Sth of July, |
with about two thousand cavalry |
rank and file. In five days he had |
crossed the mountains, fought a Sc
we're battle at MurfreesborO," and /
| with his two thousand cavalry, by |
hard fighting and successful bluff, |
captured General Crittenden, with |
seventeen hundred infantry, four |
pieces of artillery, six hundred |
horses, forty wagons, twelve hun
dred stands of arms and ammuni-
ton, and large quantity of cloth
ing and supplies. A Union writer
estimated their loss at one million
dollars. In five days more he had
driven the Union cavalry from Leb-
anon, captured three picket posts
around Nashville with one hundred
and forty-three prisoners, burned
four important bridges near the
city, railroad station and a large
supply CT railroad wood, and made
ir Gn,0ouo1 ATaI-oY, 1
who was pursuing him with a
largely superior force. On the 21st
of July, 1862, the day his commits
sionas Bfigadier-General bears date,
while he was tearing up railroad
track, burning bridges and doing
much damage, he was so completely
surrounded that his escape seemed
impossible, and telegram was act
ually sent to General Buell. that he
had been captured, with eight hun
dred men; but when the mountain
passes were all guarded, and the en-
emy moving on him on every road,
he coolly and quietly led his men
out of the trap set for him, by taking
the dry bed of a creek, with steep
banks, that concealed him from
view, running parallel with the
McMinnville road, and passing al
most under the troops drawn up in
line of battle on this road to inter-
cept him.
On the 23d he Joined Bragg at
Sparta, where he was for the first [
time furnished with a section of
artillery, and as our army moved {
into Kentucky, was ordered to assist
in protecting its left flank, which he |
did. {
ORGANIZES A NEW COMMAND IN =
MIDDLE TENNESSEE.
But Forrest was best suited to in t
action; and, at his own q
request, turned over his brigade in t
Bragg's army on the 9th of Sep l
tember, 1862, at Bardstown, Ken {
lucky, and in five days had marched s
one hundred and sixty-five miles &
and was at MurfreesbOrO, Tennessee, r
to organize a new command. /
BY the first of November, 1862, he a
had organized new brigade, thirty t
FIVE hundred strong, and being 7
to retake the capital of his v
State, had persuaded General Breck- 4
inridge, then in command, to per- 4
NIT him, with his own force and
three thousand infantry under Gen s
eral Roger Hanson, to attempt it. d
The movement was made; but Just n
when the attack was about to begin, I
and when Forrest felt confident of t
success, an order came to retire. n
HIS FIRST RAID INTO WEST TEN. i
NRssER, 3
On the 10th of December, 1862, .
Forrest was ordered to move with =
his new brigade of raw cavalry, 4
armed only with shot guns and such 7
weapons as they picked up in the f
across the Tennessee river a
to destroy the railroad cOmmunica- q
ton between Louisville and Mem "
phis. He called attention to the \
almost unarmed condition of his O
but, in reply, was or E
dered by General Bragg to move at Y
once. Sending an agent forward tn q
percussion caps out of
Memphis, he started, BY the 18th !
he had crossed the Tennessee river q
at Clifton, swimming his horses and g
ferrying over his men, artillery and I,
train, with leaky old ferrybOat, in o.
a cold, pelting rain, that destroyed
most of his small supply of percus. n
sion caps. Fortunately, his agent =
arrived that night with a fresh sup v
ply, and he began his arduous task
on the 10th, after sinking and con-
cealing his ferrybOats to make safe
his return. In two weeks time, r.
without three thousand raw and t.
almost unarmed cavalry, in a small 81
district of country, surrounded on \
three sides by the Tennessee and n
Mississippi rivers, and on the fourth Il
by the Memphis and Charleston n
railroad, thronged with Union \
soldiers, marching an average Of g
twenty miles day, he fought three G.
heavy battles, had almost daily II
burned fifty railroad g
bridges, destroyed so much of its Il
as to render the Mobile i
and Ohio railroad useless there the ]
rest of the war, captured eighteen Il
with two thousand five L
hundred prisoners, took and disa- Il
hIed ten pieces of field artillery, n
carried off fifty wagons and ambU- 81
Iances, with their teams, captured i
ten thousand stands of arms and one Il
million rounds of ammunition, and G.
L. =.