The National tribune., 1883-07-19
BLOODY BATTLE.
A Soldiers Description of the Field
Of Franklin.
10 the EdItor NArIoSAn TRrnuxr:

action of Bradley's gallant brigade is concerned
and right here want to send greeting to the boys
of the Third brigade, Second division, Fourth Army
Corps and especially to the Sixty fourth and
Sixty-inh Ohio volunteers: First, because of our
long-coatinued association in the campaigns Of the
South second, because when the Sixty-fourth and
Sixty fifth were in front TO receive the shock of
battle, i'll rear as support, the Second brigade,
Second Army Corps, felt easy to the final result
of the issue, and third in remembrance of the last
run we had together.
Comrade Brown fully describes the situation at
Columbia, well as the start and TO Spring
HILL Bradley left the road before reaching the
town. The second brigade, led by the Fihy-sev-
enth Indiana, pushed forward the to the
main cross-street, where the head of the column
was turned TO the east and down that street we
went at rafting pace in column of four, right in
front, IN the face oil a CALLING fire from FORESTS
cavalry We soon struck the village cemetery,
where heard the command given i'll clear, steady
tones by Colonel Blanch: Form line on first COM
pany-by companies your left into line-double-
oucIx-marcilih The column was the double
quick when the order was given, and the bullets
were scattering, around like rain on the roof.
The first company kept up the gait like profess
Siona pedestrians In for big stake but into
line we went, heter-skelter over moss-eovered
tombstones and sunlSen graves upsettlng marble
slabs and flower vases, and making the very earth
tremble Over the city of the dead, with the tread
of war, into line we went. the last company reach
ing the line with short, quick stop against
fence that reminded me of the sehooiboy's game
of crack the whip" FORESTS troopers were on
the crest of low hill three or four hundred yards
off, and started to charge us, but, after we'll
directed volley from the Fifty-seventh Indiana, he
suddenly changed his mind and withdrew with
haste than grace and felt for left further
to the north, where he ran against Opdyck with
rs little satisfaction to himself when he struck
Bradley and Lane. Alter short stay at our first
position, were moved to the right to protect
Bradey's left and be IN supporting distance in case
assistance was required As the battle waxed hot
ter, further still to the right we went and took
final position Immediately in Bradleys and
threw up n line of earthworlls, but such the
heroism OF Bradley's brigade and the unexplained
torpor OF Hood, 1t was never used The battle
over, the road was kept open, and Schofeds great
blunder remedied by the extraordinary fight
ing of that grand Third brigade. seconded and
sisted somewhat by the First and Second
The retreat to Franklin was in the order mar
rated by Comrade Brown. Arriving near Franklin
the Second and Third brigade covered the road
well in advance of main line, and were left
there to receive the first shock of battle and,
finally, to be swept down and trampled under by
the massed columns of an enemy that probably
numbered fifty to one
Now, this formation was q greater error than
was made at Columbia, and can find no language
sufficiently expressive to condemn it, unless could
swear like regular army officer!
THE SITUATION AT FRANKLIN
Look at the situation! Even a mule driver
would condemn il proof of bad generalship.
a West Point military education is not everything;
experience and common horse sense count for
something in war; | ought to know, having
fought from Shiloh through al the various
paignS of that great failure Major General Don
Carlos Buelhltwito could march his troops further
and do less fighting than any other general and
battles of his suceessor-od " Rosy,-and through
all the battles of that grand hero-dear old Pap
Thomas
The works in the immediate vicinity of the Spring
Hill road We're strong and afforded good protection
to the troops in them, and they were sufficiently
manned too, to have successfully resisted Hoods
army if they had not been compelled to hold their
force to save our two brigades
In front, distance of five six hundred yards,
the field was entirely clear of obstruction, and
main line could have asked for no better place
in which to receive Hoods charge, even with a
greater force than he hurled against it that day.
But in place of sending those two brigades into
utiilZed IN strengthening any weak point that might
develop, they formed in brigade front, the
Second on the right and the Third on the left OF the
road, without sign OF protecting works and in the
| very line OF what anybody might have known was
| to be the main attack.
| Hoods expectation was to crush in center,
cut US III two, rush to the river capture the fcrd
cut off our retreat and then whip in detail, and
| twas not any lack of generalship on his part or
laundering, Schofeld's, but simply the bulldog
| pluck and fighting qualities of grand old army
in the terrible battle of all the that upset
| his calculations and retrieved Schofields error.
When Hood came through the gap of range
of hills running east and west about q mile
south of Franklin, he turned the heads of his col
umns right and left and erced around us from the
river above TO river below massed strong assault
ing column OF ten fifteen lines deep the Spring
Hill road, and with hardly moments delay put
all his forces in motion in the direction of the town.
All this could be seen with the naked eye by every
soldier in our army, anditseemsto me that the Off
Ger, high or low who responsible for the order
that placed those two brigades in that position and
then left them TO their fate ought TO have been shot
| under orders OF q drumhead court-martlai.
| THE BATTLE OPENS.
| Such was the condition of the center when the
battle opened. On, on, came Hoods trained veteF-
ans. their lines III perfect dress as though they
Gala-Gay parade. their trappings and mus
kets glitterng in the bright afternoons sunshine.
/ On, and still on they came, while our own boys
| stood watching their movements, admiring their
skill and counting the cost of the impending onset
Many an anxious eye turned to the rear, expecting
an order 10 Withdraw from such an unequal contest
and then to the front again only TO find the enemy
almost upon us. and, with tighter grasp upon the
trusted Enfield, awaited the order to fire. 1t came
and a blaze of fire shot out from those two brig
AIDES, but there not break, not Waver i'll the
| enemy's line On, on, they still came, tapping our
| TANKS and brushing us away like chatf before the
| wind. We brolze-we rant Then came contests as
| 10 whether they should reach the main line
first, and tell you, dear reader, it tolerahiy
even race! 1t was one OF those pedestrian contests
that sportsmen call go-as-you- please" and 1t
pleased the most of us to go like the devil
! When | reached the works found them full or
men that had not could they fire gun until
| these two brigades had got out of the way. l
turned to the field and saw it covered with the
| enemS, whose advance was then crowding over the
| works. Then came short, but terrible hand-to-
| hand fight.
Before that day I had seen three years of service
| in the army. had been at Shiloh, Stone River,
Perryville, ROoky-tace Ridge, Resaea and al the
set-tos that finally resulted IN giving Ms the keys
of Atlanta but never had witnessed such fighting.
had often seen pictures representing battles where
| well-dressed soldiers were graphing with one
another in hand to hand encounters where Off
GERS in parade dress on slick and prancng chargers
were forcing the fight at the point of the sword
| where artillerymen were defending their guns with
pike and AK, and | had set them down as mere
fancy sketches, evolved from the brain of some
imaginative painter who sacrificed truth to artistic
effect, but after that day willing to coneede
that my experience in battle up to that time had
been that of mere child and that the finest wrought
pictures of battles that had ever seen were mere
daubs compared with the spectacle presented at
that fight.
Hood had broken in our front and gained ground
to the brick house. but there he was met by OPP
dycll's brigade that had been brought forward by
Stanley in person, and all the troops that had es-
in the charge The yes of men, the rattle OF mus
kerry, the of artillery, the shouts by officers,
the sbrlcks and groans OF the wounded and dying,
We're the noises that now greeted ones ear. Stun
ming blows on the head with dubbed nusket
wicked thFusts with the sharp bayOnet; the flash
OF the glittering sword a. it was brought down on
the head of the enemy with strength born of C.es-
peretion; the red fame of the revolver and rifle as
they We're discharged i'll the very face of the foe,
the giant lick of the artleryman's AK, IL went
crashing through the brain of some desperate as
saiiant, were the sights that greeted the eye. \
battery of artillery was lost and won often that
1t would have taken the umpire of II professional
nine to have determined It's ownership. But that
kind OF fighting could not last long, and this one
lasted long enough according to Hoods report OF
| OF IT. TO leave 900 of his men dead on the field
We soon forced the rebels out of the works but
not until we had lost very heavily in killed, wound
ed, and prisoners.
A DESPERATE CONTEST.
Immediately In Che center, and for some distance
on either side of the road. the enemy held and
fought from the outside of our breastworks, while
our troops held line running parallel with the
south end of the brick house, and not five rods from