The National tribune., 1898-02-24

crossed the river just as the rebel cavalry,
which had crossed at Hugh's Ford, made
their appearance. / had just formed to meet
them, when Col. Dorr reported the rebel in
fantry crossing between my position and
Franklin, and knowing the danger of such a
move to the army if successful, left the LIST
Tenn. and I'd Mich. in position to resist the
| advance OF the cavalry, and hurried with the
| 9Th Iowa and 4th Ky. to meet the infantry,
and, If possible, drive them back I found,
however, the report to be unfounded, and at
once moved forward the ID Mich and 1st
Tenn, while Gen. Hatch moved on my left
and the whole rebel cavalry was driven across
the Harpeth.''
have quoted quite literally from this report,
rs 1t gives more definitely than / could our
position ut different hours of the day Now for
my own testimony: make no claim to knowl-
edge of what other commands did, OF even
the other regiments of our brigade, or the
first battalions of my own regiment, except
by the sounds | heard, which indicated that
they were heavily attacked and were holding
their ground rs of old.
Being only line officer in command of one
company, had all / could attend to in my
own vicinity; and during the fight at our
last position in thick woods sounds alone
indicated what was going on outside
| will now make some extracts from my
diary OF that day, emitting our first skirmish,
at or near Douglass Church, which was only
tn delay and develop the enemys infantry,
and was unimportant:
The I'd Mich. was dismounted, the 1st
and Sd battalions on the right and the I'd
on the left of the Lewisburg Pike. Our
position was III a thick woods. A barricade
of rails was thrown across the road, and the
1st Tenn. III column on the pike behind it.
We were at once attacked by dsmounted
cavalry, while a mounted force charged the
barricade.
''They were met by hot fire from our
Spencers and thrown back in disorder, the
Tennesseeans making a counter-charge with
their accustomed dash, clearing the pike for
some distance. Again and again was this re-
peated with the same result. About this
time the Tennessee regiment was withdrawn,
and soon another attack was made. We on
the right of the pike had not felt heavily the
force of the attack as yet, but now began to
feel the effect of volley firing more on our
right flank, which clearly indicated the pres
ence of infantry. Co. III, on the extreme
right, became somewhat disordered under
this front and flank fire, and Capt Johnston,
commanding the battalion, ordered me to
leave my company in command of Sergeant
and take command of Co H. This brought
me upon the extreme flank, where I could not
well mistake the force now in our front
During a lull in this attack / heard
orders given in the open field beyond our
flank and rear. Sending a man over to in
vestigate, he came hastily back reporting a
heavy line-of battle moving towards Frank
lin, already beyond our flank This report
was quickly sent to the regimental COM
mander, and we were at once ordered to fall
back across McGayock' S Ford, after mounting
our horses
The enemy at once detecting the move
ment, pressed US heavily, inficting some loss
upon the lst and Sd battalions while cross
ing and cutting off the ID entirely from the
ford.
while emerging from the woods we
were in full view and at short range of their
line-Of-battle or at least of their right flank.
They at once improved the opportunity by
giving US blistering oblique volley from
their right Fortunately for US they fired
too high for such short range, only wounding
two or three of Co. II, one of whom died of
his wounds
THE horses of the I'd battalion had been