BOONE, IOWA. FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE 14, 1912

CHAPTER XI

We laid around in front of Nashville until something did happen sure enough. I was out on picket duty here some of the coldest nights I ever saw. We had to stay on picket two hours, then go back a short distance and thaw out. Our command was finally stationed on the extreme left. Our company was on a little round hill. We could not see the Yankees in our front on account of the timber and brush but we could see to our right nearly a mile. Now and then some Yankee cavalry would run in behind us and some of our command would get after them and run them back, but they would keep getting in our rear. That position was the only one I was ever in that a fellow could not get behind a tree. Late in the afternoon the Yankees charged our works about half a mile to our right, in full view of our position and some of them broke through our lines. Right then things began to happen. The break in our lines widened our as the Yankees pressed forward and they never stopped but kept right on. There was a big hill just ahead of them and our officers told us to fall back, which we did in a hurry, every man taking care of himself. After the Yankees broke our lines on our right they came right on until they got to the foot of the hill. Then they would go to forming on their colors. While that was going on the cavalry came in our rear and we had to run right through a lane of them. I never saw one of my company after we started back. When I got to the foot of the hill I started up it as fast as I could go. A fellow would be shot near me and fall and roll down the hill and I was thinking all the time that it would be my turn next. I had got to within about twenty steps of the top my left foot stopped a minie ball. It cut a hole through the leather of my shoe and sock and to the bone and stopped. I thought it was Kattis with me and threw down my gun and cartridge box and went on the best I could. Darkness soon overtook me and I finally came to the pike leading to Colombia, when I got on a caisson that came by. The drivers never saw me the whole night. I rode on the caisson till morning and my foot was so painful that I could hardly walk. The Yankees simply whipped us to a frazzle and that’s a fact.

Hood ought to have been hung to lay around Nashville until Thomas got all the reinforcements he wanted. Hood’s army was in no shape to fight this battle but Hood would fight whether he was able to do much or not.

The official returns of the Army of the Tennessee show that when Hood crossed the Tennessee river at Florence, Alabama, he had 26,000 of all arms. He assaulted Scholfield at Franklin, Tenn. Who had 16,000 men. Hood lost 4,500 here and moved on to Nashville with 21,000 men. He had sent Bates’ division of about 1,600 to Murfreesboro, leaving about 21,000 men. Gen. Thomas had inside the works at Nashville about 30.000 and was reinforced to about 60,000. Hood’s affective force did not exceed 20,000 men. Hood lost in these engagements, killed, wounded and missing 4,492, leaving Hood with less than 15,000 men.

Official returns made after Hood retreated to Tupelo, Miss. Showed an effective force of 16,931 men. Hood lost 50 pieces of artillery and had 59 left. Gen. Forrest captured and destroyed sixteen blockhouses and stockades, twenty bridges, four engines, one hundred cars, ten miles of track, captured 1,6oo prisoners, one hundred head of horses, mules and cattle. Hood was relieved of his command Jan. 25, 1865. I get this information from Battles and Sketches by Bloomfield Ridley, pages 440 and 441.

When we retreated to Columbia a lot of us got permission to visit our homes. We started early in the morning. There was about ten in the bunch. I was in bad shape to walk but I hobbled along as best I could. When we got out from our camp we got the direction to Tullahoma and took a straight course, regardless of roads. We did not want to travel the roads as we might come in contact with the Yankee cavalry. We got along all right, stopping with the people at night. Before we got near Tullahoma we got a man to pilot us across the railroad track two or three miles north of town as there was a lot of Yankees there. The man had a horse that I rode as I could not travel as well as the rest of the bunch. It was an awful cold night and the ground was covered with snow and ice. We had traveled two or three miles when we heard a lot of cavalry approaching, so we all hurried to one side of the road. The horse I was riding got loose and started for his home. We could hear him running on the frozen ground for a mile or so. We laid on the ice till the cavalry had passed. We found out afterwards that it was some Rebel cavalry going south.

We crossed the railroad all right and continued on our way until we arrived at the house of a man I knew who lived about ten miles from my home. We stayed the balance of the night with him and after breakfast crossed Duck river and on towards home, crossing the Manchester and Buck Grove road about a mile north of Manchester. We saw in crossing the road a lot of Yankee pickets about a quarter of a mile from where we crossed. I was then within two miles of home. When within a mile of home I met my mother who was then visiting a son, and went on home with her. . The boys who were still with me went on to their homes. I had not seen my mother since Bragg retreated from Tullahoma, or heard from her either. I stopped around home for some time keeping out of sight of the Yankees that frequently passed. I found everything in bad shape. The farm was all run down stock all gone, but the negroes were still at home and worked reasonably well, but they had little to live on. When they would raise a crop the soldiers would take it. I remember that the tableware consisted of tin plates and the tumblers were the lower parts of glass bottles cut in two by drawing a yarn string around them until they were hot and by pouring water on them they would come apart.