War IS Hell

1863

On the afternoon of Friday, January 2, 1863, General Bragg hurled Breckenridge's Division alone, practically, against the whole army of Rosecrans, in a fortified position. The repulse was bloody. On Saturday night, January 3rd, Bragg evacuated Murfreesboro to fall back, some 20 mile, to Tullahoma. Wheeler's cavalry slept on the field of battle the night of the 31st. Next day it operated in the rear of the enemy, on the pikes leading toward Nashville, repeating the destruction of trains. These trains were loaded with officers and men wounded, and bound for the hospitals of Nashville. Captain B. B. McCaa of Co. "D", 8th Confederate, was mortally wounded Jany. 1st in one of these attacks on the trains. The officer was lifted from his saddle by Sergeants Alfred Atwater and A. C. Oxford, and taken to a farmhouse nearby where he died that night. The detail of four men that had been sent to bear him to the house were employed the next morning in making a box for the body and digging a grave. A company of the enemy came up and arrested them. Sergeant Oxford gave the Royal Arch Mason's society "obligation" to the Captain, whereupon the prisoners were released. Pickens County, Ala. contributed no nobler man or more gallant soldier to the Confederacy than Captain B. B. McCaa.

General Bragg desired to delay any possible purpose in the enemy advance promptly from Murfreesboro on him at Tullahoma. With this end in view, on January 7th he ordered Wheeler to raid along the pikes to Nashville in Rosecrans' rear, picking up wagon trains that might be found hauling supplies to the army, and breaking railroad; then to strike for the neighborhood of Clarksville on the Cumberland, some 30 miles below Nashville. The enemy used the Cumberland river largely for transporting men and supplies of all kinds from Louisville, landing them not far from Nashville at a point called Ashland on the North side of the stream, whence they were taken by wagons to Nashville. Wheeler was expected to disable or capture the transports on the river and, if possible, to destroy several acres of army supplies deposited at Ashland. The 8th Confederate, Colonel Wm. B. Wade commanding, acted a most important and conspicuous part in this expedition. The day after General Bragg issued the order to enter upon the raid the work began and on Jany. 8th Captain Richard McCann, of Wheeler's forces, with a detachment destroyed a train of cars and burned the railroad bridge at Mills Creek. Four days later, January 12th, Wheeler drove into Nashville a large foraging party and proceeding on his way, approached the Cumberland near Clarksville. Here he divided his force, sending Colonel Wade with the 8th and one of his three pieces of artillery up the course of the stream to a point near Harpeth Shoals, while he struck the river near by.

About 8 P.M. of the 12th, General Wheeler having disposed of his cavalry, dismounted, and his two guns on the bluff awaited the approach of the steamer Charter and a companion transport. He opened fire upon them; both hauled down their colors and came to shore prisoners. The soldiers aboard and crews were paroled and both boats with their rich cargoes burned to the water's edge. Colonel Wade in position on the bluff near Harpeth Shoals, the morning of January 13th, espied the steamer Trio coming down stream. A shell from the six ponder gun on the bluff through her cabin and a second peremptory order from the Colonel, brought her with colors down to shore, a capture. The load aboard consisted largely of troops wounded in the Murfreesboro campaign now en route to Louisville hospitals. Before the Trio could be unloaded two other steamers turned the bend in the river. The Colonel, seeing them, ordered his men to the bluff, where they concealed themselves effectually. No heed being given to a call to come to shore, a shower of bullets from rifles fell upon the pilot house and deck of the Hastings from the bluff. Surgeon Gaddis was on board with 260 wounded soldiers besides guards. For beds cotton bales were used. The surgeon took command of the boat and in reply to a demand from shore, shouted back that the boat was loaded with wounded and could not stop. Three volleys of musketry delivered caused him to call to the pilot, "Round the steamer to shore". The Parthenia, companion of the Hastings, turned to escape back up stream, but a shot from the six-pounder on the bluff into her side brought her to shore. The Hastings was paroled to carry the wounded, the paroled soldiers and crews of the three steamers to Louisville. Wade allowed the cotton bales to remain on the Hastings, beds for the wounded. His parole of the boat and prisoners and the solemn agreement with Surgeon Gaddis, that the cotton, escaping for the purpose indicated, should be burned on arrival at Louisville, were all alike repudiated by the Commander of the Department. There was an existing stipulation, between Bragg and Rosecrans, in regard to paroles and neither Gaddis nor Wade has authority in the premises. The Hastings having been sent out of reach of the flames, the and the Parthenia were set on fire. Colonel Wade, standing on the forecastle of the Hastings, pistol in hand, heard the report of cannon up the river ; a gunboat shelling the woods. Presently the gunboat Sidell turned the bend, still shelling the woods. In hailing distance, the Colonel shouted: "Pull down your colors, or, by G-d, I'll blow you out of the water!" The response was a broadside from the Sidell upon the bluff, where Wade's gun rested. No one was hurt. The Colonel yelled, "Fire!" The small arms and the little iron piece on the bluff flashed; the Sidell dropped her colors, came to shore and surrendered. While all this was going on, General Wheeler, some miles down the river, was hotly shelled by gunboats from the river against which his two light guns and small arms could make no impression. He sent an urgent message to Colonel Wade to hasten to him. The Colonel did not leave off his work in hand. Captain Burbank, Adjutant of the Brigade, brought a second message which failed to bring Colonel Wade, but when he burned the Sidell and paroled Lieutenant Van Dorn, it's commander and his 21 men, he withdrew his forces and joined Wheeler that night for further desperate and arduous operations then impending.

It was bitter cold and snowing. When Wade's 8th rejoined Wheeler, at least one of his bare-footed troopers was frozen to his stirrups and had to be thawed with warmed blankets by sympathizing comrades before he could dismount.

Having reunited his forces, the next day, the 14th, General Wheeler sent a part of them across the Cumberland by fording, swimming and some captured boats and, after a sharp action, burned all the Federal stores at Ashland. The six days raid, terminating with the 15th of January, was filled with as many hardships and as much physical suffering as ever fell to a cavalry command within the same length of time. In its marching and counter marching, the 8th Confederate forded Harpeth River, ice-cold and pummel deep, not less than six times. The only solace was the surplus rations and some sustaining grog recovered from the burned steamers. Four days later one of Wheeler's detachments burned another transport on the Cumberland. General Bragg, advised by courier daily of the operations of the cavalry, lost no time in applying to the President for the promotion of Wheeler, and before the "horse marines" had ridden back within army lines, the appointment of their commander to the rank of Major General of Cavalry was received. A re-arrangement of the cavalry forces was made, and Colonel Wade was placed in command of a Brigade comprising his own and several other regiments, but still with the rank of Colonel. He never after had a separate command of his regiment. From then on Lieut. Colonel John S. Prather, of Chambers County, Ala., with a few isolated exceptions commanded the regiment with consummate skill and undaunted courage.

After Wheeler's raid into Sequatchee valley, following the battle of Chickamauga and his campaign into East Tennessee in support of Longstreet's operations around Knoxville, in the fall of 1863, Colonel Wade was called before court-martial for acts attending the Sequatchee raid and also for disobedience of orders. His refusal to promptly obey orders while engaged in the capture of the boats on Jany. 13th 1863 was incidentally brought up on this trial, though not embraced in the specifications. He was acquitted on the charges, but the trial and its incidents ever after rankled in his breast and he successfully refused ever after to serve under Wheeler.

As General Bragg remained at Tullahoma, his forces spread out before him for 30 miles, from Shelbyville, where Polk commanded, to Wartrace, where Hardee commanded, the cavalry was hard worked on picket next to the enemy in an attenuated line extending east and west from McMinnville to Columbia and subjected almost daily to attacks from heavy reconnoitering expeditions sent out by the enemy.

About the last of February 1863, while on this outpost duty, the 8th Confederate suffered its first serious reverse. About 80 officers and men, Lieut. Col. Prather commanding, were posted at the little hamlet called Rover, 10 miles in advance of Shelbyville, the nearest supporting force. The remainder of the regiment was either on other roads or on scouting duty. Our videttes were driven in closely followed by a brigade of cavalry consisting of the 4th Regulars, 4th Michigan, 3rd Kentucky and 7th Pennsylvania. They came down the pike in column at a charge with flanking battalions in line on either flank in the open fields. Colonel Prather formed his men in column on the pike between high staked-and-ridered cedar fences on either side. We met the enemy's column with a counter charge and after a glorious but ineffectual, hand-to-hand combat with pistols and sabres, were simply overwhelmed. Captains Moore, Thompson and Miller yielded under sabre strokes and with some twenty five of the men were captured, carried to Eaglesville and were safely guarded that night by a division of infantry, two batteries of artillery and the brigade of cavalry under General Minty that had comprised the whole expedition on our pike. Next day the prisoners, nearly all with sabre-cuts, were escorted to Murfreesboro by a detachment of 4th Michigan, the 8th Confederate's old acquaintance at Blackland, Miss., and its fated opponent on almost every field until the 8th Confederate wiped out the score of Rover by the drubbing given it near Kingston, Ga., in May 1864, when it captured its Major Grant and more of its men than we lost at Rover. The captives at Rover were sent to various northern prisons and were on boats for exchange lying at Fortress Monroe, listening to the roar of guns up the Rappahanock where Lee and Jackson were knocking "Fighting Joe Hooker" out of his arm-chair in the Chancellor house and giving a very black eye to "the finest army on this planet". The prisoners were all back at and much beyond Rover by the middle of May. Not one of them was killed or permanently disabled, though some carry scars of that combat, if they are alive, though most all have "crossed over". His government importuned and threatened General Rosecrans, but could not prevail upon him to advance upon Tullahoma. He needed more cavalry, he cried. He received several thousand more horses equipped, but did not yet advance. That "Devil Forrest" and Wheeler were still raiding his rear and lines of communication even though they did singly fail to capture "Dover" on the Cumberland on the 3rd and 4th of February after a prolonged and sanguinary attack.

The arduous outpost duty continued as the season advanced. Brigadier General Will T. Martin reported May 22nd from Fosterville:

"Enemy have captured my piece of artillery on this pike and a large part of the First Alabama and 8th Confederate. The gun was immediately recaptured by a detachment of the 51st Alabama Cavalry. Major Horace Howland of the 3rd Ohio Cavalry gave this of the occurrence:

"Marching all night to the 21st with a detachment of his own regiment, the entire First Cavalry Brigade, about dawn of the 22nd the force charged through the thin line of Confederates".

The same day General Martin reported that the enemy had retired and he had restored his lines at Middleton. The enemy did not capture a large part of the 8th Confederate. Most of the men were a mile or two in rear of our lines with their horses grazing in the clover fields during the night while their riders stretched themselves for sleep close by. There were a few men, in the camp proper, who were so suddenly aroused that they did not have time to dress or saddle the few horses tethered in camp, but many of them buckled on sabres and pistols, mounted bareback and beat a hasty short retreat until they could be properly aligned and then charged the enemy and drove them pell-mell from the camp, capturing some of them.

Private John C. Duncan of the "Stewart's Creek" armistice, lightly clad in his shirt only, but with pistol and sabre on, came prancing back with bare legs dangling by his horse's side leading a horse with a full dressed and equipped Yankee trooper on his back and presented his capture to his commanding officer with his "morning compliments". The enemy left the field in great disorder and in such haste that they neglected to carry most of the prisoners they had taken in the camp of the 1st Alabama. The 8th Confederate didn't lose a man. General Martin evidently sent off his report without being fully informed. General Rosecrans, having completed his elaborate preparations, early in June, began to concentrate his army to move upon Tullahoma.

About June 22nd General Bragg ordered Wheeler to ride to the rear of this great army in motion, to destroy its transportation and force it to delay progress. Wheeler entered upon this duty with his accustomed energy, fighting heavily at various points, penetrating even to the neighborhood of Nashville. Bragg with great reluctance and upon the urgent advise of Lieutenant General Polk, next in command, resolved to evacuate Tullahoma and retired upon Chattanooga.

He therefore sent orders to Wheeler to return to the protection of his line of retreat. Forrest, in command at Spring Hill, the left flank was given due notice. It should be borne in mind, that phenomenal rainy weather had prevailed in late spring and early summer in all the Southern country, East of the Mississippi, greatly interfering with the movement of the invading army in Tennessee, and with the efficiency of Wheeler's cavalry, provided insufficiently with rain-proof cartridge boxes. The following is an extract from a letter dated July 10th, Trenton, Ga., explaining the part taken by the 8th Confederate regiment in the notable fight at Shelbyville, on Duck River, and other associated incidents:

"Our adventures and trials would fill a volume, but I have not physical strength to play narrator. On June 22nd our Division was relieved by General Whorton and we fell back some 4 miles to our reserve camp, spent the night there and next morning started towards Columbia. We had gone about eight miles when we were recalled to assist General Whorton against the Yankees, who had attacked his lines in force that morning."

In order to understand this situation, it would be well to remember that General Bragg had ordered Wheeler to send Martin's Division to co-operate with Forrest, on the left wing, apprehensive lest the enemy should attempt to flank the Army of Tennessee in that direction, and come in between Columbia and the Tennessee River, upon its rear. It should be borne in mind that the enemy, with Stanley's cavalry, 10,000 strong, and Gordon Granger's Division of mounted infantry, 3,000 strong, had been driving Wheeler upon Shelbyville for five days. We resume the narrative where dropped:

"A run of four miles brought us within hearing of the battle. ** Martin's men came up in time to assist Whorton in repulsing the enemy's advance. ** "and after a round or two night came on and we resumed our course, General Wheeler presuming that it was nothing more than a foraging party of Yankees.

"That night it commenced raining, and continued every day for two long weeks. The object of our expedition (I thought) was to make a raid on Cumberland River; and then fall back below Columbia and recruit and reorganize the whole command, but a great disappointment awaited us. On the 24th we were at Spring Hill, the scene of Van Dorn's victory, but next morning we were retracing our steps under orders to fall back upon Shelbyville. We reached that town about the middle of the day on June 27th.

"We had rested about an hour, after five days constant marching, when our forces in front on the Murfreesboro pike were driven back pell-mell upon Polk's old breastworks in front of the town a few miles. We were ordered out to meet the enemy, but in what condition! Four days incessant rain had rendered our arms useless and destroyed almost all our cartridges. We dismounted and took position in the trenches intended for infantry. The enemy drew a heavy column upon our left wing, composed of the 51st Alabama Partisan Rangers. This Regiment fought and maintained its ground as long as it could fire a gun and until its Major James T [ Dye and some 40 men were captured. The enemy seeing their advantage pushed on rapidly, ] when our entire command fell back rapidly on the pike and began retreating towards Shelbyville. The Yankees now charged our rear, seeing which our Regiment formed line on the right of the pike, but had scarcely done so, when the rear of our column came rushing thro breaking our ranks, with the pursuing enemy close upon its heels, not 50 guns would fire and our stand was ineffectual and our retreat became a rout. For two miles we were pushed at headlong speed thro cedar boughs and over fences by a cloud of Yankees cavalry and mounted infantry. My Company having stood after most of the line was broken, suffered severely in men and horses. The wildest confusion now prevailed. A party of the enemy got between me and town and as I rode forward, they fired several times not ten feet off. I attempted to fire on one fellow. My pistol snapped but scared him a little and I, taking advantage of the moment, dashed through unharmed. I made my way to Shelbyville and there rallied the few remaining men of my company. We again formed line of battle. General Wheeler placed his artillery on the square and opened on the Yankees but it was of no avail. Their heavy columns rushed on, captured three pieces of our artillery and drove our shattered ranks toward Duck River Bridge. Here our most serious disaster occurred. The mass of men and horses all rushed for the bridge and men were trampled under foot and killed. I came near being killed myself. Having an ankle badly sprained and was at one time lifted entirely off the ground by the throng. Many plunged into the stream and were drowned, others were shot while swimming. Generals Wheeler and Martin narrowly escaped both being among the last to swim the river, the latter losing his sword and pistol.

"Ten of my best and bravest boys are among the missing; I am uninformed whether killed, wounded or captured. Altogether, it was the greatest cavalry disaster of the war".

It is claimed that General Wheeler fought at Shelbyville to give General Forrest, supposed to be near, time to cross the bridge over Duck River. Forrest, on the other hand, having approached near enough to see that the enemy were numerous enough to overwhelm both his own and Wheeler's force combined, rode around the town, Northward, and crossed the river over a bridge four miles away. Polk's infantry had that morning marched out of their long encampment at Shelbyville and his wagon train was not more than ten miles away while the fighting prevailed in the town.

The army moved by way of Decherd to Bridgeport, Ala., where it crossed the Tennessee, Wheeler and Forrest guarding the rear and fighting back to the very water's edge. The letter continues:

"Our army crossed the Tennessee on July 4th and 5th inst. Our Division is now camped in Little Wills Valley some 20 miles Southwest of Chattanooga. Both men and horses have suffered terribly on the retreat from hunger and marching. Our wagons are towards Decatur, Ala., and I have not had a change of clothing in nearly three weeks and present as 'seedy' an appearance as you can well imagine. Our army is considerably depressed at the news of the fall of Vicksburg but find some consolation in the news of Lee's victory in Penn. (Our first information was that Lee was victorious at Gettysburg). Our division is so badly cut up that I fear it must be some weeks before we can be of any service to the country. Our cavalry has been shamefully treated and yet has had to do almost all of General Bragg's fighting. We receive refused arms and accoutrements, the poorest rations and have increasing duties to perform".

The 8th Confederate, at the beginning of this campaign, was directed to discard the shot guns of various sizes, make and caliber with which they had been compelled to do much of their fighting for two years, and this left the Regiment armed with pistols and sabres only and was thereafter fought mounted and reserved for the charge mounted. One or two other regiments in Wheeler's Corps operated similarly; the bulk of his troopers were armed with Enfield, muzzle loading, carbines and with a variety of other arms captured from the enemy, and dependent for ammunition on the capture of a supply from the enemy.

Brewer's History of Alabama states that the 8th Confederate in the "Dalton-Atlanta" campaign "fought mostly dismounted". The reverse is true; and the statement would fully apply to the 1st, 3rd and 10th "Confederate" in the same brigade, but the 8th was strictly "light-horse cavalry" and so operated to the end.

General Bragg gathered his army about Chattanooga the cavalry, as usual, holding the front, along the south bank of the Tennessee, the 8th Confederate with headquarters at Guntersville and extending Westward to near Decatur, Ala. Bragg evacuated Chattanooga early in September and the invader moved in. The Confederate Cavalry under Wheeler and Forrest, the former on the left below Chattanooga and the latter on the right above, were very active but no extraordinary instance of encounter took place before the time of the general battle of Chickamauga. A week after Chickamauga, General Bragg ordered Wheeler with some 2700 of his own and Forrest's forces, to cross the Tennessee, capture and destroy the enemy's wagon trains in Sequatchie Valley and ride on upon the line of the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad, destroying the tracks and bridges and burning the depots of army supplies known to be maintained there. A very small portion of the 8th Confederate formed a part of the force engaged in this historic raid, the larger portion of the regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Prather being retained to protect Bragg's left flank from surprise. The Brigade under Colonel William B. Wade, with this exception, took a very active part in the expedition.

Lieut. Colonel Jefferson Falkner had resigned after Bragg's Kentucky Campaign in 1862 and Major John S. Prather promoted, while Captain John T. Wright had been appointed Major. Lieutenant General Longstreet was ordered to East Tennessee about the middle of November. General Wheeler accompanied the expedition, with General Martin second in command. Generals Whorton and Kelley were left with the main army except that one brigade of Kelley's Division commanded by Colonel Wade was detached to go with Wheeler but leaving the 8th Confederate of that brigade with General Kelley. At the time of the rout of Bragg's army at Missionary Ridge Kelley's Division was on observation and scouting up the Tennessee River and about the mouth of the Hiawassie. Bragg fell back to Dalton and about this time Wheeler in person returned and his cavalry was concentrated and again took position in front of Bragg's beaten army, the lines extending along the foot of Taylor's Ridge with headquarters at Tunnel Hill.

Some of the cavalry were sent into Alabama and to other points in North Georgia to secure subsistence for men and horses. The last week in December, General Wheeler took General Kelley with some 1200 men, among them the 8th Confederate, to overtake a wagon train sent by General Grant from Chattanooga to Burnside at Knoxville. The very heavy roads and bad weather checked the pursuit somewhat. By hard riding, the night of December 27th, the train was overtaken at Charleston on the Hiawassie but had crossed the bridge. General Sheridan was in position on the overlooking eminencies to protect the bridge and the train. Colonel Wade was ordered to the attack with his brigade. Numbers, both in infantry and cavalry, were greatly against him. He was shot from his horse and the attack repulsed. Fourteen killed and wounded and 78 missing from his brigade were the casualties. The entire command was thrown into confusion and retreat, Generals Wheeler and Kelley distinguishing themselves cutting their way through the enveloping enemy. It was after the fight that the court-martial sat and heard charges against Colonel Wade heretofore noted. He had not been quite in favor with General Wheeler since the Kentucky campaign of 1862. After the court-martial, leave of absence was allowed him. He returned to Mississippi and never rejoined Wheeler. Having determined never more to serve under Wheeler, Colonel Wade set about the task of having his regiment, the 8th Confederate, withdrawn from Wheeler and placed with him under Forrest, then operating in Mississippi. Four companies of the regiment being from that State it was natural that many of the men and officers of those were so far successful that he actually obtained orders from the General commanding that Department for the 8th Confederate, belonging to forces in another Department, to report to Colonel Wade. This caused such friction as to require the interference of the War Department at Richmond. Some of the men, especially those on furlough or convalescing in hospitals or in their homes, to ignorantly obey the orders so that Wade finally secured about 100 men from the Regiment with which, added to quite a large command, Wade did some brilliant service under General Forrest during the last year of the war.

It is generally conceded that he became a Brigadier General but there seems to be no tangible evidence that he was ever commissioned as such. The Colonel's action had a bad effect on the discipline and morale of a portion of the regiment, but the four Mississippi Companies in large measure abided with their colors and followed the 8th's flag to death or final surrender at Greensboro. Notable soldier as he was, Colonel Wade, survived the casualties of war but was killed in his own apartments, in a hotel at Columbus, Miss. by some soldiers of the United States garrison there, the result of a personal difficulty he had with one of their officers whom he shot and seriously wounded. This occurred shortly after the surrender of General Dick Taylor's forces. Colonel Y. M. C. Humes, a citizen soldier, Chief-of-Artillery of Wheeler's corps, was promoted Brigadier General and took command of Wade's Brigade.

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