The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-11-08
The Tenth Indiana at ailI Springs.
To the Editor NATIONAL TRIBUNE:


On the night of the 18th of November, 1852,
I met Col Frank Wolford, of Kentucky at the
house of Mr.. Neal, ON the Cumberland River,
near Huntsville, Tenn, the first time I had
met him since the Friday after the battle of
Mill Springs, on that battlefield on which
we had both been engaged the Sunday previous,
and before Gen. Thomas had made MS report
of that battle.
AT the meeting at Nesl's house. Col. Wolfcrd
said TO NE: "Col. Kise, do you know why
Gen. Thomas never reported that part of the
battle of Mill Springs fought by your regiment
and my command early on the morning of that
battle, and before the Fourth Kentucky came
to our support? It was the most desperate
fighting / have seen since the war began" /
said / could not tell him, but supposed Gen.
Thomas had reported ali that part of the battle
he saw or personally knew anything about.
The Colonel replied: In justice to the troops
engaged, it should have gone into the record"
/ noticed in The TRIBUNE of the l1th
inst. an article on the battle of Mill Springs
in which the reports of both General Thomas
and General Crittenden the Confederate
commander in that battIe) are publish
ed General Crittenden appears to know
something of the movements OF the Tenth In
diana that morning, for he says-after telling
about coming on the pickets and driving them
in, and about company Of skTInishes from the
Mississippi regiment advancing On the left OF
the road, and after narrating what they did in
driving a body of the senemy, that they
then crossed back to the right of the road. Now,
the left of the road to Gen. CrittendeD, it Will
be remembered, was the right of the road to the
Federal forces, and there was where they were.
Gen. Crittenden then goes on to say: Follow
ing this company of skirmishers on the left Of
the road to the point where it crossed to the
right the regiment of Col. Cummings Nine
tenth TENNESSEE kept straight on, crossed
field about $50 yards wide at d0uble-quick,
and charged into the woods where the enemy
were sheltered, driving back the Tenth Indiana
regiment until it was re-enforeed."
THE REGIMENTS POSITION.
AS that time we had been engaged for full
one hour, had shot away nearly all our am
musition,-the cartridge boxes were full when
we wentto the front and engaged the enemy
and some forty or fifty men of the Tenth
Indiana had been killed and wounded. The
enemy had fanked US right and left, and was
in full force in our front, in the woods, where
Gen. Crittenden says they charged. The Fourth
Kentucky had not yet come to the front, and /
ordered the regiment TO fall back. Just at
that time, and after giving the ordar, saw the
Fourth Kentucky coming through the woods
and to the front On my left. q part of the
Tenth joined onto the Fourth, and the rest
(about two thirdsl fell back to our camp in the
edge of Logansfield, where they soon rallied, fell
in line, and had their car5Fidge-boxes refilled.
just at that time Gen. Thomas came mp from
the rear. and that was the time Gen. Thomas
refers TO in his report: :" found the Tenth
Indiana formed in front OF their encampmeHt
apparently awaiting orders" A battery was
then moving out towards the battlefeld,=I
think it was Einny's batteTy,--and Gen. Thomas
ordered me to follow in its rear, and support it
If necessary. did so, and went to the front,
passing the battery, as it appeared there WAS no
=. 80 = IL e II
Fourth Kentucky, and after firing and skiPnish-
ing for perhaps some twenty or thirty minutes
with force of the enemy that appeared in
field in our front and right, Gen. Thomas
ordered me to move TO the right of the Eurtho
Kentucky, as it was at that time closely engaged
and severely pressed on the right, and that is
the time I suppose that he ordered Col. Van
Cleve with the Second Minnesota regiment to
take the place of the Fourth Kentucky and
Tenth Indiana, which regiments were nearly
out of ammunition" The Second Minnesota
did take the place of the Tenth Indiana, but
the Fourth Kentucky still continued their fir
ing, and Lieutenant Colonel Croxton, of the
Fourth, was present, asking assistance to be
sent to the right of that regiment. I right
faced the Tenth Indiana and marched in rear
of the Fourth Kentucky to the right of the
road, (which Gen. Crittenden called the left,)
which brought me onto the same ground
the regiment had been fighting on early in the
morning, and on which several of our dead
were still lying with the same woods Gen. Crit
tenden speaks OF IN his report in nay front again.
BAYoSEP CHARGE.
In the meantime the quartermaster of the
Tenth Indiana appeared on the field with a
fresh supply of ammunition, and the men filed
their cartridge-boxes again, and at once began
firing into the enemy in the woods. After fir
ing fesF rounds | ordered the men to move
yre1sla md aaT1 nm hn. 'ba
were breaking and running to the rear, when
/ ordered :" d charge bayonet," which had the
effect, with the firing that was still kept up by
some of the men, to rout the rebels and run
them again into the field that General Critten-
den speaks of being about $50 yards wide"
Just at that time my horse became entangled
in grapevine so that could neither get him
forward nor backward. Ny attention was called
to the fact that the Ninth Ohio was coming up
in my rear. / got down to leave my horse and
go on afoot when Colonel McCook rode I'D to
me and asked me if / could get my regiment
little to the left and let him, on my right
which did by wheeling my seven left COM
panies to the left and coming up in line par
allel with the road on our LETT. Major 4. O.
Miller, of the Tenth took charge of the three
right companies, and took them to the right
and west of the field mentioned IN General
Crittenden's report, where they routed the
rebel force that had been shooting at us across the
field, and drove them down to the house that
General Crittenden describes az "a on the left of
the road, and took possession of it; and there
is where and when the five officers of the
medical staff" were taken that General Thomas
mentioned in summing up the number of pris-
oners taken; for they had turned the house
into hospital for their wounded. The Ninth
Ohio went into the $50 yards field shooting
as they went, fer the enemy was concentrating
in their front and making preparations TO give
tEem warm reception. After firing several
rounds the Ohieans charged them with bayo-
nets fixed, and soon put them TO rout many of
them being the same men the Tenth had
charged and drove out of the woods into the
field. At the same time a continual firing was
kept up along the line OF the Tenth indiana,
Fourth Kentucky, and i supposed, from the
roar of musketry still further on the left, where
the Minnesotaians and Tennesseeans were en-
gagged.
THE BEGINNING OF THE BATTLE
General Thomas says "About $50 O'clock on
the morning of the 1874 the picl1ets from VOL
lords cavalry encountered the enemy adVaue-
ing on our camp General Crittenden saws:
. Soon after daylight OF the morning of the
18th the cavalry advanced and cana in con-
tact with the enemy Now, the sun rose that
morning at 7.29 o'clock, Pittsburg time. It
was full daylight, and must have been past
$50 o'clock when Colonel Manson was informed
of the attack on tho pickets, and about
o'clock when the Tenth Indiana and WoIfords
cavalry got to the front and took their position
on the battlefield for il was half mile south