Warren County
Local History by Dallas Bogan |
Contributor: |
Dallas Bogan on 29 September 2004 |
Source: |
The following letter was taken from The Western Star, dated June 18, 1908. Ulysses M. Greene, Company K, (?) O.V.I., wrote it and it tells of a tragic episode in the lives of a Civil War family. |
Return to Index to see a list of other articles by Dallas Bogan |
Way up in the mountain fastness of Northern Georgia stands a
double log cabin. It is a typical mountain home, but unlike many of its kind
it bears the stamp of at least a rude refinement. The occupants are a mother
and little daughter. They are jointly writing a letter to the husband and father
who is in the confederate Army then encamped at Murfreesboro, Tenn., and they
hope it will reach its destination about Christmas. Among the childish things
written by the little girl is the following: "We are so lonesome, Mamma
and I, when will you come home to us?" The letter is sent and bears the
date of November 20, 1862. (How I know the exact date will appear later on.)
It is the morning of December 31, '62. The first guns that ushered in the great
Battle of Stone River have awoke the woodland echoes. The Confederates instead
of waiting the attack of the Union forces, took the initiative, massed their
forces on Rosecran's right wing, and at dawn of day furiously assailed McCook's
corps.
Some of the troops are in the act of getting breakfast, the
Artillery horses are in the rear watering at Overall's Creek. Our picket line,
only a short distance in front was driven in and the regiments which formed
some semblance of a line of battle, were swept away by the hot blast of bullets
and storm of shot and shell, disorder and consternation reigned supreme. Our
life, which at that moment was on the move to cross Stone River, was recalled
and sped across the fields into the cedar woods to check the exultant legions
that swarmed like belligerent hornets. The enemy had the advantage of both numbers
and momentum, but the arrival of Woods' division in a measure restored the equilibrium
and confidence as well. Here was fighting. No romance about it, simply give
and take. As fast as the Confederates swept over the battery guns they were
in turn pushed back by the Federals. It was "Greek meet Greek." For
Georgia crosses bayonets with Ohio! Mississippi flashes muskets in the face
of Illinois! What did it all mean? It meant that if our right center was broken
that the battle already out of joint was irretrievably lost and a disorderly
retreat of our broken columns to Nashville if not a worse calamity. The men
who formed the line and faced Bragg's onslaught knew this just as well as did
the commanding general. Kossuth once said that in America "bayonets think."
In the Franco-Prussian War it was not the Needle gun that defeated France but
superior German intelligence. In like manner at Stone River met in battle array
the institution of Slavery and the Northern school house! And however desperate
could the final results be for a moment doubtful?
The fight over the guns of the 6th Ohio battery was short but deadly. Over the
hot smoking cannon men fought with bayonet and gunstock like incarnate devils.
The wheels of the gun carriages were actually blocked with the bodies of the
blue and the gray. It looked like anybody's fight until General Wood who overlooked
the melee from a rock in cedars, yelled "Give em the steel, dam em, Give
em the steel!" The bayonet decided it, and the smoke cleared off and Stone
River was won.
Protruding from the pocket of a dead Confederate who died at the high water
mark of their advance was a new crisp letter. Sam Garrett of the 64th Ohio took
it out and glanced over it. There he read one sentence and put the letter back.
This was the sentence: We are so lonely, Mamma and I, Dear Papa, when will you
come home to us? There stiff and stark with a bullet through his heart lay the
father, and I thought of the little mountain child with her face against the
window pane looking sadly out into the gathering gloom listening for the footsteps
of that father who fell on the bright edge of victory and sleeps today beneath
the sighing Cedars! Verily this bullet had found its billet-in a double sense.
Some of the boys who took a hand in this battle are still with us. George
Hidee of Oregonia is one; Dr. Shackleford of the same
village is another. By the way the doctor lost a leg there. The writer of this
was also wounded there. There may be others.
[The statistics of the battle may be of some interest to the
readers: Confederate forces, 39,400 engaged, killed wounded and prisoners, 13,780-about
38%.]
[Union forces, 41,200 engaged; killed, wounded and prisoners, 14,231-about 35%.]
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This page created 29 September 2004 and last updated
28 September, 2008
© 2004 Arne H Trelvik
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