CHAP. I. strate heavily with his command against the ConDec. 15,1864. federate right, east of the Nolensville pike, orders

which that energetic commander carried out with such tumultuous zeal as to draw Hood's attention almost entirely to that side of the field. Wilson's cavalry and Smith's infantry corps then moved out along the Hardin pike and commenced the grand movement of the day, by wheeling to the left, and advancing against the left flank of Hood's position. Wilson first struck the enemy along Richland Creek, which bounds the city on the west, and drove him rapidly, making numerous captures, until he came upon a detached redoubt, intended as a protection to Hood's left flank, which was carried in splendid style by a portion of Edward Hatch's dismounted troopers; another work and some hundreds of prisoners were immediately after captured by the combined assault of Smith's and Wilson's

men.

But finding that Smith had not gone as far to the right as he had hoped, Thomas directed Schofield to move the Twenty-third Corps to the right of General Smith, by this means enabling the cavalry to act more freely upon Hood's left flank and rear. Schofield's two divisions, admirably commanded by Generals Couch and Cox, marched with great spirit and swiftness to the position assigned them and gained ground rapidly all the afternoon. The Fourth Corps, under General T. J. Wood, which held the center of the Union line, assaulted about one o'clock Hood's advanced position at Montgomery Hill, a gallant feat of arms executed by the brigade of Colonel P. Sidney Post. From this point a rapid advance was made, the whole line

working steadily forward until Hood was driven everywhere from his position, and forced back to a new line having its right and left flank respectively on the Overton and the Brentwood Hills, his left occupying a commanding range of hills on the east of the Franklin pike; his center stretched across from that road to another a mile to the west called the Granny White turnpike; both flanks were refused and strongly intrenched to the east and west and to the south, while the main line fronted northward. The Union lines closed rapidly about him, and in this position both sides waited for the morning.

CHAP. I.

The events of the day had filled the Union army with confidence and enthusiasm, and at early dawn on the morning of the 16th Thomas sent his whole Dec., 1864. line forward. Wood pressed the Confederate skirmishers across the Franklin pike, and swinging a little to the right, advanced due south, driving the enemy before him, until he came upon his new main line of works, constructed during the night on Overton's Hill. Steedman marched out on the Nolensville pike and formed on the left of Wood, the latter general taking command of both corps. Smith connected with Wood's right, his corps facing southward, while Schofield began the morning's work in the position where night had overtaken him, his line running almost due southward and perpendicular to that of Wood. Thomas now rode along the entire line surveying every inch of the field, and at last gave orders that the movement should continue against the Confederate left. His entire line was closely crowding that of Hood, there being only a space of 600 yards between them.

СНАР. І.

Thomas,
Report.

1

At about three o'clock, Post's brigade, which had on the day before so gallantly carried Montgomery Hill, was ordered by General Wood to assault the Dec. 16,1864. Works on the Overton Heights. C. R. Thompson's brigade of colored troops of Steedman's command joined in this desperate enterprise. "Our men," says Thomas, "moved steadily onward up the hill until near the crest, when the reserve of the enemy rose and poured into the assaulting column a most destructive fire, causing the men first to waver and then to fall back, leaving their dead and wounded, black and white indiscriminately mingled, lying amidst the abatis, the gallant Colonel Post among the wounded." This was the only Confederate success of the day; but it was enough to excite the wildest hopes in the always sanguine breast of General Hood. Sitting on his horse and observing the repulse of Post's storming party, he says, "I had matured the movement for the next morning. The enemy's right flank, by this hour, stood in air some six miles from Nashville, and I had determined to withdraw my entire force during the night and attack this exposed flank in rear"; still intent on his reverent imitation of Stonewall Jackson. But even at the moment he was maturing this strategic scheme, his line, he says, "broke at all points," and he "beheld for the first and only time a Confederate army abandon the field in confusion."

Hood, "Advance and Retreat," p. 303.

Ibid.

Immediately after Post's assault had failed, the commands of Smith and Schofield advanced to the

1 Colonel Post was reported tion he had so gallantly won, among the killed; the reports was afterwards Consul-General were afterwards corrected to of the United States at Vienna, "mortally wounded"; but he and is now (1890) a Member of survived to receive the promo- Congress.