Battle of Franklin

“ As fast as the troops could be marched up from the rear Stewart extended his lines over towards the pike. We could see all their movements so plainly, while they were adjusting their lines, that there was not a particle of doubt in the mind of any man in my vicinity as to what was coming. Moreover the opinion was just as universal that a big blunder was being committed in compelling us to fight with our flank fully exposed in the midst of a wide field, while in plain sight in our rear was a good line of breastworks with its flank protected by the river. ”

“ A fort was promptly constructed, which he called Fort Allen, and which could easily repel any attack the Indians might make, unless they approached with formidable French artillery. There were many indications that the Indians, in large numbers, were hovering around, watching all their movements. But the sagacity of Franklin baffled them. They kept concealed without any attack. The savages were very cautious men; they would seldom engage in a battle, unless they were sure of victory. ”

“ Before 2.30 he received from General Burnside, through his aide-de-camp, Captain Goddard, this despatch:
“Tell General Franklin, with my compliments, that I wish him to make a vigorous attack with his whole force. Our right is hard pressed.”
Under ordinary circumstances this would be regarded as a strong order, but Franklin had gone far enough in his first battle to be convinced that an attack by his “whole force,” the other end of the army “hard pressed,” would be extremely hazardous. ”

“ I went to a gun of the Sixth Ohio battery, posted a short distance east of the cotton-gin, to get over; and as I stepped up into the embrasure, the sight that met my eyes was most horrible even in the dim starlight. The mangled bodies of the dead rebels were piled up as high as the mouth of the embrasure, and the gunners said that repeatedly when the lanyard was pulled the embrasure was filled with men, crowding forward to get in, who were literally blown from the mouth of the cannon. ”

“ Under the stimulus afforded by the sight of the enemy in our front preparing for attack, the men eagerly relieved each other in handling the spades. As soon as a man working showed the least sign of fatigue, a comrade would snatch the spade out of his hands and ply it with desperate energy. Yet in spite of our utmost exertions when the attack came we had only succeeded in throwing up a slight embankment, which was high enough to give good protection against musket balls to the man squatting down in the ditch from which the earth had been thrown ”

“ The divisions of Cleburne, Cheatham, Stewart, Bate, and Brown with their brave soldiers charged up to the enemy’s breastworks, some of them reaching them and others going over them. They had done all that mortal strength and bravery could do, but had failed. Men were shot down on the field of Franklin, and while they lay in a helpless condition were shot again, some of them as many as three or four times. In a few moments General Hood had lost several thousand of his soldiers. More general officers were killed and wounded at Franklin than in any battle of our War between the States. ”

“ I was commanding Company B, Sixty-fourth Ohio regiment, Conrad’s brigade, Wagner’s division, Fourth corps. Wagner’s division was the rear guard on the retreat to Franklin, and about mid-forenoon of November 30, 1864, arrived on top of the Winsted Hills, two miles south of Franklin. Halting there long enough to snatch a hasty breakfast, the division then hurried into battle line to delay the columns of the enemy, in close pursuit, by compelling them to deploy. ”

“ The rebels were all gone and the ditch was filled with our men as far as I could see. If the rebels had succeeded in firing those two cannon they would have widened the breach in our line so much farther to our left that it might have proved fatal, since the two brigades holding our line, from the vicinity of the cotton-gin to the river, had each but a single regiment of reserves. ”

“ If the brigades of Reilly and Strickland could have opened fire under the same conditions they would have done just as well as Casement’s brigade. A critical investigation of our losses will conclusively demonstrate that at Franklin the violation of the military axiom never to post a small body of troops in a way to hamper the action of the main body was directly responsible for the unnecessary loss of more than two thousand of our soldiers. That was the frightful butchers’ bill our army had to pay for a bit of incompetent generalship. ”

“ Heavy guns were brought from Nashville, and mounted en barbette. Why the fort was built none could tell. The chances that it would ever be of use to the cause of the Union were one thousand to one against the proposition, but at the battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864, it paid large interest on the investment. Those big smooth-bore guns shelled the cotton field, south of the village, over which the rebels charged, in a manner which was fearful to 27behold. ”

“ The fog still clings, however, to the rising ground on which Franklin fought at the first battle of Fredericksburg, and we move with due caution, skirmishers well out, not knowing what sort of a reception Stonewall Jackson, whose corps is known to occupy the wooded heights beyond, may have in store for us. But no serious opposition is offered after the affair of the pickets, and gradually we occupy most of the ground previously held by the centre of Franklin’s grand division. The fog lifts at last, and the sight revealed is a picturesque one. ”

“ The next day General Hood arrayed his army in battle order under the expectancy that the enemy would make a stand at Franklin.
After the lucky escape from Spring Hill, our foe utilized to the fullest possible extent every natural advantage in preparing for a defense at Franklin. Earthworks were hurriedly thrown up, and every house and fence was intelligently utilized to retard the momentum of an open attack. ”

“ One of the most important of those points was the statement of Doctor Cliffe, which is confirmed by General Stanley’s official report:
From one o’clock until four in the evening the enemy’s entire force was in sight and forming for attack, yet in view of the strong position we held, and reasoning from the former course of the rebels during this campaign, nothing appeared so improbable as that they would assault. I was so confident [Pg 8] in this belief that I did not leave General Schofield’s headquarters until the firing commenced. ”

“ If a rebel raised his head above the breastwork, down it would instantly go with one or more bullets through it, fired by these rear rank men.
In this close fighting the advantage was all on our side, for our front rank men, standing up close against the perpendicular face of the breastwork on our side, could poke the muzzle of a gun over the headlog and by elevating the breech could send a plunging shot among the rebels who filled the outside ditch and expose for an instant only the hand and a part of the arm that discharged the gun. ”

“ Battle of Guilford court house, in North Carolina, in which 4,400 Americans, principally militia, under Gen. Greene, were defeated by 2,400 British regulars under Cornwallis. Loss of the Americans 400 killed; British loss 532 killed.
1784. Thomas Franklin, an English scholar and divine, died. He was possessed of no inconsiderable share of learning and poetical abilities, and was long a favorite in the literary world; translated Sophocles, Phalaris, Lucian and Voltaire, and is the author of a comedy and two tragedies, which were received with great applause. ”

“ From Franklin next day he wired General Thomas at Nashville that he had come through, but that the least mistake on his part, or the fault of any subordinate, might have proved fatal, and he did not want to get into such a tight place again; that a worse position for an inferior force than the one at Franklin could hardly be found; that he had no doubt Forrest would be in his rear next day, or doing some worse mischief, and that he ought to fall back to Brentwood at once. ”

“ On the 4th, Count Koningsegg ordered the whole Army to be upon its Guard, and every Man in his Post, as if he had received Notice that he should be attacked by the Allies. About Five o’Clock in the Evening, he gave Orders, at the same time that he discovered to them the Design he was going to execute. The Guards were doubled, and Notice was given, that no Person should stir out of the Camp without Leave. The Retreat was beat, as usual, that they might hear it in the Enemy’s Camp; and the Trumpets having flourished as at other times, every one retired. ”

“ The Enemy’s Horse were then on a Plain, where they were, most advantageously posted behind the Cassines, very deep Ditches, and a great many Bushes, from whence they made a terrible and constant Fire upon our Men, which prevented our knowing their Number. The Generals Valpareve and Colmenero were killed in the Beginning of this Attack, as were all the Field Officers; so that only one Lieutenant-Colonel was at the Head of the seven Battalions who began the Attack. ”

“ The brave Regiments of the King and Picardie were among these; every Man made the best Shift he could for himself, and carried the Alarm to the Right. The Marshal de Coigny made the Troops under his Command take Arms, all in a Hurry and Disorder, and was advancing to the Right; but perceiving that the Imperial Army was marching towards him in three Columns, he halted and called a Council of War; and the Imperialists just then moving towards their Left, it was imagined that they would endeavour to cut off the Army’s Retreat towards the Bridge of Guastalla ”

“ The Federal batteries on Stafford Heights were effectively posted to protect their troops against our advance, and Franklin would have been in good defensive position against attack on the next day. It is well known that after driving off attacking forces, if immediate pursuit can be made so that the victors can go along with the retreating forces pell-mell, it is well enough to do so; but the attack should be immediate. To follow success by counter-attack against the enemy in position is problematical. ”

“ You who have seen Coney Island lighted up on a summer's night may form some idea of the scene if you can concentrate in your imagination the lights down there turned into a hundred great shafts, sweeping, dancing, swinging, soaring into space, each light with the sheen of a full moon brought right down within the grasp of a man who turned a cylinder about as he pleased and said to the rays go here and go there. ”

“ Then at last you began to realize what a willywaw is. It is a fierce blast that comes down from these mountains with well defined limits like the ray of a searchlight in the night. One moment you do not feel it and then you shoot into it and it tosses you about, churns up the waters, roars and barks at you and you feel that a demon from the hills is trying to tear you to pieces. Half a dozen times one of these willywaws got started for the fleet and then the sun came out, the clouds broke up and the blast was dissipated. ”

“ His indignation was increased by a visit to Boston in 1746, where he found the people in a state of warlike fervor after the conquest of Louisburg; and on returning home he wrote an eloquent pamphlet, called "Plain Truth," to rouse the colony to a sense of its peril. Despite the half-hearted opposition of the Quakers in the Assembly companies were raised, cannon, by the shrewd policy of Franklin, were got from New York, and the promoter of the movement was even asked to act as colonel of the troops,—an honor which he declined. ”

“ But blessed be God whose providence always takes part with the oppressed. A few short weeks only elapsed when this motley army was led, by an incautious commander, into a fatal ambuscade of the French and Indians—general Braddock, at the head of his 2000 British veterans, and young George Washington at the head of his two hundred "Virginia short rumps." Then was displayed the soundness of Dr. Franklin's judgment, in the wide difference, as to self-possession and hard fighting, between these two kind of troops. ”

“ Nature took a hand in the snapping of the heartstrings and scolded and wept copiously. It was precisely as if an overwrought woman had been keeping a smiling face up to the last moment before the parting with some one close to her heart whom she might never see again and then giving way to hysterical weeping and even lamentations, her face turned away after one look and covered with a veil except for an occasional peep until the loved one was out of sight. ”

“ He smil’d at my Ignorance, & reply’d, “These Savages may indeed be a formidable Enemy to your raw American Militia; but upon the King’s regular & disciplin’d Troops, Sir, it is impossible they should make any Impression.” I was conscious of an Impropriety in my Disputing with a military Man in Matters of his Profession, and said no more—The Enemy however did not take the Advantage of his Army which I apprehended its long Line of March expos’d it to, but let it advance without Interruption till within 9 Miles of the Place ”

“ He was there met with requests from the governors of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, that he would post his troops on the frontiers so as to afford some protection to the inhabitants; but he continued his hasty march through all the country, not thinking himself safe till he arrived at Philadelphia, where the inhabitants could protect him. This whole transaction gave us Americans the first suspicion that our exalted ideas of the prowess of British regulars had not been well founded. ”