Personal recollections and experiences concerning the Battle of Stone RiverHascall, Milo S.
History
Personal recollections and experiences concerning the Battle of Stone River
Hascall, Milo S.
Stones River, Battle of, Murfreesboro, Tenn., 1862-1863; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
In what I have said in this paper in regard to the Catholic Church, I do
not wish to be understood as having any desire to say anything against
that church, but simply to condemn the idea of making membership in
that, or any other particular church, a necessary concomitant to
advancement, either in a military or civil capacity, under our
government. Farther, in all that I have said nothing has been said in
malice towards any officer or person, but simply that that criticism so
necessary to the establishment of right and justice in regard to the
late war may be freely indulged in, whether it affect the highest
officer, or the lowest private that offered his life in defense of his
country. It will be seen that my estimate of the fitness of Gen.
Rosecrans to command an army was not enhanced by his career during and
preceding the battle of Stone River. When disaster came to the right, he
should have given his attention personally to that, and lent the magic
of his personal presence to rallying the fleeing troops from that
division, in place of going to the extreme left himself--instead of by a
staff officer--for ordering the movement of troops in that direction.
When the whole affair was over, and quiet restored, I made an
application to be transferred to another army on account of want of
confidence in him as the commander of an army in the field. This I
supposed would cause my arrest, and give an opportunity for me to
demonstrate the great cause that existed for my apprehensions, but
instead of doing this, he returned my application endorsed that he could
not spare the services of so useful an officer as myself, and that there
would be no forward movement of the army for six months, and detailed me
to proceed to Indianapolis, Ind., to superintend the work of returning
deserters from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Just before my leaving
Murfreesboro for Indianapolis we saw Bragg's telegraphic account to
Richmond, of the first day's proceedings. It was as follows: "This
morning, under cover of the darkness, we attacked the enemy on his
extreme right, and have routed him from every portion of his line except
upon his extreme left, where he has successfully resisted us." As I left
there was a proposition started in Crittenden's command to raise money
to present Bragg a sword for making the above truthful statement of the
first days operations. While at Indianapolis, I was, at the request of
Gen. Burnside, transferred by the War Department, to the army of the
Ohio and given the command of a division in that army. The next that we
heard of Gen. Rosecrans was at the battle of Chickamauga, and that was
the last we heard of him in a military way, and all can now see how much
cause there was for the apprehensions I entertained. This was not the
first instance that great unfitness achieved high rank in our armies and
it was quite common for great merit to be entirely unrewarded, and
indeed entirely unknown. But time is a great healer, and let us hope
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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