in excellent spirits and confidence. He also accounted for his delays of the last few weeks by saying that Forrest had not been able to join him; that as soon as he could come up, which would be in a few days, he should move forward. He moved across to Florence on the north bank of the Tennessee on the 13th; Forrest reported the next day, and Hood brought his entire army across the river.

CHAP. I.

Hood,

"Advance and

Retreat,"

p. 274.

Nov. 20, 1864.

Sherman's intentions were not long a secret to the Confederates, and, his formidable movement to the south being now fully developed, Beauregard ordered Hood, on the 17th of November, to "take the offensive at the earliest practicable moment striking the enemy while thus dispersed, and by these means distract Sherman's advance into Georgia"; and on the same day, telegraphing to Ibid., p. 277. General Howell Cobb, who was reporting in panic and terror the advance of Sherman, Beauregard said, "Victory in Tennessee will relieve Georgia." Three days later Beauregard again charged Hood to push on active offensive immediately,” and on the Ibid., p. 281. 21st, Hood, with his usual alacrity, put his army in motion, feeling sure that he was to gain the victory so much needed and desired. The storms which in Sherman's neighborhood had been no more than refreshing showers, in Middle Tennessee had turned Dispatches the roads to mire; neither Schofield nor Thomas believed that it was possible for the Confederates Schofield to move in such weather, but nevertheless Hood pushed forward with his habitual vigor intent on coming upon Schofield's rear and cutting him off from Columbia; and in this daring plan he almost succeeded. In spite of snow, sleet, and rain he pushed northward, and it was only by an equally

of Nov. 19, from

Thomas and

to each

other.

1864.

CHAP. I. vigorous and energetic march on the night from the 23d to the 24th of November that Schofield reached Columbia first. Forrest's cavalry was on the Mount Pleasant pike almost in sight of the town when Cox's division moved at double-quick, marched across from the Pulaski road, and held back the Confederates until Stanley's head of column arrived and a strong position was taken up by the whole command, covering the town on the south.

Cox, "Franklin

and

Nashville," p. 65.

Disappointed in his first effort to march around Schofield, Hood determined to proceed by the right flank, crossing the river some distance above Columbia, and move upon Schofield's line of communications at Spring Hill. He had not yet given up his hope of renewing in the West the exploits of Stonewall Jackson. "I had beheld," he said, "with admiration the noble deeds and grand results achieved by the immortal Jackson in similar manœuvres." He waited only one day to prepare this movement, and as he had always thought, since the 22d of July, that if he had been present in Hardee's flanking movement he could have destroyed McPherson's army, he determined this time to accomplish a closer imitation of Jackson at Chancellorsville, by riding at the head of his own flanking column. He bridged Nov., 1864. the river during the night of the 28th, three miles above Columbia, and crossing at daybreak he rode at the head of Granbury's brigade of Cleburne's division, giving instructions to remaining corps to follow, and to keep well closed up. He left General S. D. Lee at Columbia with two divisions and most of the artillery to make a heavy demonstration against Schofield and to follow him if he retired.

In anticipation of this movement Stanley had been sent with two divisions of the Fourth Corps to Spring Hill, Cox having been left at Columbia to prevent or delay Hood's crossing there. Colonel P. S. Post's brigade was at the same time sent up the river in observation and soon reported the movement of infantry north of the stream. Fearing that this force, the strength of which was not yet developed, might come in upon the flank near Rutherford's Creek, Nathan Kimball's division halted at that point, while Stanley passed on with G. D. Wagner's division to Spring Hill, where he arrived a little before noon. In the mean time Forrest had been encountered by Wilson near Hurt's Corners, and a brisk engagement took place between them, Forrest with his largely superior force gradually crowding Wilson to the north in such a way as to give the Confederates command of the direct road from Rally Hill to Spring Hill. When Stanley, with his one division, arrived at the latter point there was brisk skirmishing on every side of him for the possession of the road, which increased throughout the afternoon.

Q.

The disposition made of Wagner's division was admirably effective; Emerson Opdycke's and J. Lane's brigades covering the village and protecting the trains, while L. P. Bradley occupied a wooded knoll some three-quarters of a mile east of the pike, which commanded the approaches from that direction. By great good fortune Wagner had not only his own battery of artillery, but Captain Lyman Bridges, the artillery chief of the corps, had come up with six more batteries, not with any idea of fighting a battle, but simply to get them as far as pos

CHAP. I.

sible on the road to Franklin; but the moment he arrived at Spring Hill, scenting the conflict, he placed all his guns in battery on a commanding point west of the road, where they did efficient service.

The first demonstration upon the place came from Cheatham's corps, which Hood accompanied in person, having left Stewart's corps at Rutherford's Creek; Cleburne's division, one of the finest in the Confederate army, under command of a general whose fighting qualities were proverbial, was so hotly received by Bradley's small brigade, and by the utterly disproportionate fire from Bridges' batteries, that it was impossible for the Confederates to believe that the force opposed to them was so small. Bradley's brigade was, however, very roughly handled. Its heroic commander being severely wounded it fell back under charge of Colonel Joseph Conrad towards the road, and there, with Lane's and Opdycke's brigades, made so stout a resistance that evening came on, to Hood's almost frantic disappointment, before the Franklin pike was reached. As he saw himself missing the great stroke upon which he had built such hopes, he assailed his generals with furious reproaches and adjurations. Bringing up Stewart from Rutherford's Creek he threw him to the right of Cheatham, with orders to take the pike at all hazards, although night had already fallen. But it was too late. Stewart's men went into bivouac within a few hundred yards of the road which Wagner's division, by good fighting and admirable judgment on the part of everybody concerned, still held, and with it the salvation of Schofield's army.

CHAP. I.

General Lee had succeeded in retaining General Cox with the Twenty-third Corps all day at Columbia. In the afternoon, Schofield, becoming convinced that Hood with his main army was moving upon his rear, ordered Cox to withdraw as soon as it was dark. He himself took T. H. Ruger's division, and pushed for Spring Hill. The enemy was so close to the road that Schofield had repeatedly to brush his pickets away from the path as he advanced. He reached Spring Hill about seven o'clock, and there learned that Thompson's Station, a few miles further north, was occupied by the enemy. Posting a strong force to the east of the road, to protect his marching column, he hurried on with Ruger's division to Thompson's Station, the enemy retiring as he approached. He then returned to Spring Hill, meeting there the head of Cox's column, which had come up with the greatest celerity from Columbia. The whole force then started for Franklin, and marched all night with its heavy trains and invaluable artillery past the sleeping army of Hood. Several times during the night the trains were delayed by slight obstructions, and it seemed as if they must be abandoned, or a battle be fought to save them; but by mingled good fortune and good management they all got through, the head of the column arriving at Franklin a little before daylight on the 30th, and the rest coming up during the Nov., 1864. forenoon.

Schofield's orders were to cross the Harpeth River, to hold Hood in check there, and retire gradually upon Nashville, for Thomas now felt ready to fight at that place. Smith's detachment of the Army of the Tennessee had at last begun to