The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-10-11
break did occur is as we'll established in

| Now when this break occurred, when
Corp'l Spohr denies did occur, the 111th
| Ohio, on the immediate right, did not break,
but held their line-ofbattle intact. Corp'l
| Spohr says the 11lth Ohio was not at the
| immediate right of Carter Hill, but some
| 1900 feet farther to the right. This is an
abs lutte mistake, and l will proceed to
prove it such.
l quote from the official report of the
battle as given by Col. Orlando H Moore,
who was in command of the Second Brigade,
| Second Division, Twenty-third Corps, After
congratulating all the regiments of the bri-
| gade for their magnificent valor, he said ::
| Il quote paragraph from the official order.)
| HEADQUARTERS SECOND BRIGADE, SECOND d.
VISION, TwENTY-THIRD CORPS. NASHVILLE
| Dec 3 1864
| General Order, No. z.
| e The heroic spirit which inspired the
| command was forcby illustrated by the gallant
| conduct of the 1llth Ohio (Coi. Sherwood com
| manding) on the left flank of the brigade. When
| the enemy carried The works on their left, they
| stood firm and crossed bayoneis, holding their
By command of Col. Orlando H. Moore COM
H. ii. HALE, Adjutant- General
Now, let us see from the official records
| what troops restored the line and saved
| the day. 1t was the brigade of the i'm
mortal Col Opdycbe NOW dead), of Ohio
Col Oydycke was made Brevet Major
| General for his magnificent conduct at
| Franklin. He restored the broken line.
| Now let us see what happened TO your
humble correspondent, that Corp1 Spohr
| never heard of at Franklin, and who could
not have been in command of the line, says
| Spohr, because he was only Lieutenant
| Colonel In fact, COrp'l Spohr doubts If L
was in command of anybody at Franklin.
| quote from Waggoner's War History of
! Northwestern Ohio Soldiers, page 1919:
In the Atlanta campaign, in which his
regiment (111th Ohio was 80 days under
| fire, Col. Sherwood was never absent from
| his regiment which bore a conspicuous part
| in those forest battles. In the battle of
! Franklin, Nov. so, 1864, his command was
| on the right of the Franklin pike, near the
| Carter House, on the left flank OF his brl-
! gade His men fired two rounds of ammu-
milton, and many OF their guns were made
worthless from long continued firing. The
| lines on the left Of the regiment broke, and
| their trenches were occupied by Hoods adj
vance During the closing hours of the en-
gagement Col. Sherwood was in command
| of the brigade "-the battle-line.
The well-known war correspondent,
Lumas, writing from Columbia, Tenn, Dec
| "a, after the battle of Nashville, and seven
| DAYS after he had reoccupied Franklin, said,
when he had gone over that portion of the
| battlefield of Franklin, where the 1l1th
| Ohio stood and held the line on the Both
day of November:
81 have seen great many bloody battle
| fields, have participated IN some said 10 be
the hardest, or among the hardest, battles OF
| the war, but never saw evidences OF so ter
rible conflict as can be seen in front of the
! line occupied by the 111th Ohio. | counted
| II locust trees in one cluster, the size of a
mans thigh, that were literally shot off
with musket-balls. In grove covering
about one-half the regimental front l think
! there were not less than 200 such trees shot
down. How men could ever be prevailed
upon to charge and recharge so repeatedly
| against such wall of fire is strange to me.
| And that our men stood the shock so re-
peatedly, and this too after our left had
given away, is equally as strange"
The National Cyclopedia of American
| Biography says:
after the battle of Franklin, Nov. 80,
! 1864, one of the decisive engagements of the
war the officers of the Second Division,
| Twenty-third Corps, forwarded a recon-
mendation to the Secretary OF War asking
Col. Sherwood's promotion to Brigadier-
General for long and distinguished service
and special gallantry at the battle of Frank
! lin President Lincoln accordingly con-
ferred upon him that rank"
This seems to indicate that the officer I'M
known to Corporal SpOhn was pretty well
known in the army and the War Office In
| Washington as no other Lieutenant Colonel
of Gen. Schofed's army at the battle Of
Franklin was brevetted Brigadier-General
! for services in that battle.
The Nashville daily Times of Dec g. 1864,
| in discussing the conspicuous regiments that
participated in the battle of Franklin, said ::
"This fine regiment 111th Ohio was
exposed to the shock of the rebel charges
at Franklin and sustained them with signal
valor It's losses were very severe, being 25
| killed and so wounded; of its officers, Lieut..
Bennett and Serg't-Maj Curtss were killed
C&pts Southworth and Bowling were Sc
verely wounded; also Lieuts. Baker and
Kintigh. This regiment was where many
! instances of bayOnet fighting occurred. The
rebel loss al this point was frghtful. An
| officer informs us that many of the rebel
| wounded were actually trampled to death
by their own men in the furious charges,
| while their cries and groans were most APP
palling."
The Ohio Military Agent, Daniel r. Tay-
| Tor, forwarding from the front the casualties
of the Ohio regiments at Franklin, said:
"Our men have done nobly. The 111th
is reported as having occupied one OF the
hottest positions"
| Corpl Spohr ssys the 111th Ohio was
1000 feet TO the right of the point where
the fercest fighting took place. | need not
add any further proof that Corp'I Spohr is
mistaken. He also says the oath Mo. was
not at Franklin-not in the West. A de-
tachment of the oath Mo. was at Franklin,
under command of Captain, just as stated
in my former article.
/ And now comes Corp'l Spohr, who served
in the army five months before the war
ended, and whose first battle was Franklin.
liSome 80 years have elapsed, and new gene
IIrati0n Of men and women are on the stage
of life. He seeks to cast discredit upon the
veterans, most of whom are dead, who fought
the battle OF Franklin. The Corporal claims
he stood amid the fiercest of the conflict, and
that the line stood firm.
Fortunately for truth and history, Ohio
has prepared record Of all her soldiers. In
the Official Roster of Ohio, where every in
divIdual soldiers record is printed, and the
casualties of every company, | find the battle
record of Corp'l Spohr's company-Vol. 8, p.
leland l find by this record that Corpl
Spohrs company, which is Co. K, 1880 Ohio,
had 129 men, including those transferred
from other regiments; that it took the field
Nov. IS. 1864, and s.:ved until Gen. john
ston's surrender, near Raleigh, on the Goth
| of AnriI 1863 WHEN the xuar Wae ovar a