The National tribune., 1900-12-06
SUPREME SOLDIERSHIP.
Continued from first page.)

been reached. There was almost contin-
uolS diminishing between the rear line
| thus facing the enemy and the advancing
| Confederates, the firing several times dur
ing the day becoming quite nyely.
Franklin had already been the scene of
several considerable conflicts during the
war. Even far back of that it was Il
| fighting town"-a favorite dueling
ground for the old slave-holdiDg chiYalry
Schoteld desired to hold the town long
enough to cross his trains in safety over
| the two frail bridges that spanned the
stream. As Hood was close behind, cha
| grined and eXaSperated over the mis-
chances of the past "a hours, fierce bat
tie was highly probable, though none of
the commanding Generals seemed to real
iZc the fact.
The Harpeth River makes sharp
horseshoe bend around the village of about
800 inhabitants. Across this bend Scho-
fields defensive line was drawn, facing
southwark. 1t was about one mile long,
inclosing the town, both TANKS resting on
the river, and was composed of two divi-
! sions of the Fourth Corps, with one divi-
sion and two brigades of the Twentythird
Corps, Gen. j. ID. Cox commanding the
latter.
Opdycke's Brigade having in the man
ner we have narrated covered the rear of
Schofeid's army during its 12-mile march
from Spring Hill, arrived in the outskirts
of Franklin about 2:30 O'Clock p. III. Here
it found its companion brigades of Wag-
ners Division, Lanes and Conrad's for
merly Bradley'sJ, posted in an exposed po-
sition far in advance of the hastily-cOn-
structed defensive works. Wagner ordered
Opdycke into line with them, but the lat
ter urgently objected. While arguing the
case with Wagner, Opdycke did
not halt his column, but rode up to
IoF., ,..I,
seemed to him available, when he halted
and his men stacked arms. This was n
commanding point near the Carter house.
which turned out to be the key of the po-
sition and of the battle.
Wagner did not demur, but rode off,
leaving Opdycke to his own devices, and
the latter received no further orders from
any one until after the battle had been
fought and the victory gained. That the
brigade was not placed in reserve" or
placed at all with reference to the coming
action is shown by the fact that when it
was halted il faced to the north, or with
its rear toward the advancing foe. Never
theless, reserve or not, when wanted it
was there, and gave an account of itself
with an effect seldom equalled in the an
mails of war.
Thus, at 3 p. m, for the first time since
leaving Columbia, these men had q brief
respite from unremitting duty, and per-
mission to make coffee, il they had any.
With their arms stacked and their little
fires burning, they enjoyed the pleasures
of anticipation, but their felicity was
shOrtlived.
Conrad's and Lanes Brigade remained
in the exposed position Opdyke had es-
capped and at p. m. saw the swarming
hosts of Hood rapidly approaching. Wag-
ner failed to either withdraw or reinforce
| them, and when the overwhelming onset
came they were scattered like chat
though not without brave resistance-and
driven back on the defensive line. This
part of that line was held by new troops
of the Twenty Corps, who had never
faced a rebel charge. They fled in disor-
der when the victorious COnfederates,
closely pursuing Conrad's men, arrived st
the breastworks.
A wide gap was thus opened in our
lines, and the day seemed lost. 1t was
lost, but Opdycke's men regained it.
These veterans Of many battles were
aroused from their frugal cookery by the
| approaching stampede which bid fair to
OverWhelm them. They took in the CRAWL
that of the army instantaneOusy. In the
uprOar and confusion few of them heard
Opdycke's order, but by a common inn
pulse instinctively and spontaneously they
seemed TO recognize that the breastwOrks
over which the enemy were swarming was
the safest place III all the VIDE world Tor
them. Going to the rear certainly meant
drowning or capture; going to the front
might mean deliyerance. They seized their
guns from the stacks; faced about toward
the advancing foe; charged forward 200 or
300 ya rds, many of the retreating soldiers
return ng with them; drove out the enemy
and reoccupied the abandoned trenches,
after 20 minutes of perhaps the cruelest
fighting our war beheld.
The Carter house, just in rear of the
breastworks, was Il salient point, and
around it the contest was fierce. A Union
battery and one section of another, eight
guns in all, stationed there, had been cap