Fifteen Months in Dixie; Or, My Personal Experience in Rebel PrisonsDay, W. W. (William Worthy)
History
Fifteen Months in Dixie; Or, My Personal Experience in Rebel Prisons
Day, W. W. (William Worthy)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and prisons
Early in September we commenced that famous retreat from the Tennessee
to the Ohio, and to show the reader how famous it was to those who
participated in it, I will say we averaged twenty-four miles per day
from Stevenson, Ala., to Louisville, Ky. On the 8th of October,
supported Simonson’s battery at the Battle of Perryville, losing 146,
killed and wounded out of 375 men. Our colors showing the marks of
forty-nine rebel bullets, in fact they were torn into shreds. Dec. 31st,
’62 and Jan. 1st and 2nd, ’63, in the Battle of Stone’s River, or
Murfreesboro.
The army of the Cumberland, then under command or Gen. Rosecrans, was
divided into four army corps. The 14th, under Gen. Thomas, was in the
center. The 20th, under Gen. A. McD. McCook, on the right. The 21st,
under Gen. Crittenden, on the left and the Reserve Corps, under Gen.
Gordon Granger, in supporting distance in the rear.
We remained at Murfreesboro until June 23rd, ’63, when the whole army
advanced against Bragg, who was entrenched at Tullahoma, drove him out
of his entrenchments, across the mountains and Tennessee River into
Chattanooga and vicinity. Here commenced a campaign begun in victory and
enthusiasm, and ending at Chickamauga in disaster and gloom, but not in
absolute defeat.
THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.
Rosecrans showed fine strategic ability in maneuvering Bragg out of
Tennessee without a general engagement, but he made a serious and almost
fatal mistake after he had crossed the Tennessee River with his own
army. He should have entrenched at Chattanooga and kept his army well
together. Instead of doing so, he scattered his forces in a mountainous
country. Crittenden’s Corps followed the north bank of the Tennessee to
a point above Chattanooga, there crossed the river flanking Chattanooga
on the east and cutting the railroad south, thus compelling the
evacuation of that place.
McCook crossed two ranges of mountains to Trenton, while Thomas with his
corps still remained at Bridgeport, on the Tennessee, and Granger was
leisurely marching down from Nashville.
In the reorganization of the Army of the Cumberland in Oct. ’62, our
Brigade was called 1st Brig. of 1st Div., 14th Corps. The Brigade was
commanded by Col. Scribner of the 38th Indiana. The Division was
commanded through the Perryville and Murfreesboro campaigns by Gen.
Rousseau, but through the Chickamauga campaign by Gen. Absalom Baird,
now Inspector General of the Army.
I shall not attempt to give an historical or official description of the
Battle of Chickamauga, but a description as seen from the standpoint of
a private soldier.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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