CHAPTER VIII. MOVING TOWARDS CHICKAMAUGA. THE TULLAHOMA CAMPAIGN — SHERIDAN'S PART IN ROSECRANS' MOVEMENTS ALWAYS ON TIME AND IN THE RIGHT PLACE INCIDENTS OF HIS LIFE ON THE MARCH AND IN CAMP-ESTIMATED BY HIS MEN-A POPULAR GENERAL-A HARD FIGHTER AND GOOD TACTICIAN. STONE RIVER was named at the time" that great furnace of affliction." Its effect on the country as well as the Army of the Cumberland was immediately inspiriting. However close a call on Rosecrans the cold military critics of later days may regard it, the feeling of the country was that a great and very important victory had been won. It came in opportunely, also, to strengthen the President's emancipation policy, and to inspire the people to a renewal of continued exertions. The dawn of the new year saw the Confederate army under Bragg moving away rapidly to the southeast. Tullahoma, on the Tennessee River, became again the rebel headquarters, while the Union army under Rosecrans moved into Murfreesboro', occupying it as a winter camp. On the 5th of January the headquarters of the Army of the Cumberland were established in this now historic town of Tennessee. It has since acquired another reputation, as the home of the accomplished writer who, under the name of "Egbert Craddock," has of late years made the American public familiar with the people, idioms, and scenes of that region. General Rosecrans received and published to his army the following dispatches: TO MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS: Your dispatch announcing the retreat of the enemy has just reached here-God bless you, and all with you. Please tender to all, and accept for yourself, a nation's gratitude for their skill and endurance. WASHINGTON, January 5th, 1863. A. LINCOLN. TO MAJOR-GEN. ROSECRANS : The field of Murfreesboro' is made historical. You have won the gratitude of your country, and the admiration of the world. All honor to the Army of the Cumberland. H. W. HALLeck. General Rosecrans in his report of the campaign and battle did ample justice, among other mention and recommendation, to the services, skill, and courage of Brigadier-General Sheridan, whose promotion to a major-generalcy was asked and given. Our gallant soldier was but thirty-one years of age when he wore the double stars on his shoulders. How he was regarded by the enemy against whom he fought may be aptly illustrated by the following anecdote : A poor fellow, worn out in the retreat from Murfreesboro', found an old mule which he got astride of. He was without shoes, hat, or coat, and wore only an old gray hunting shirt torn into tatters and a very ragged pair of pants. But he had his pipe in his mouth, and was happy. Bragg and his private secretary, Major Hunter, were coming along the same road. "Who are you?" asked the Confederate general, "Nobody, was the answer. "Where do you come from?" "Nowhere." "Where are you going?" "I don't know." "Where do you belong?" "Don't belong anywhere." "Don't you belong to Bragg's army?" "Bragg's army-Bragg's army?" replied the chap. "Why, he's got no army! One-half of it was shot in Kentucky, and the other half has just been whipped to death by that little whelp Sheridan, at Murfreesboro'." Bragg asked no more questions. The winter camp became a jolly one. There was work to do and plenty of it, in making roads, bridges, constructing earthworks, repairing damages, drilling new recruits, scouting and raiding actively, and in all the multifarious preparations for the expected and longed-for forward movement of the spring. The songs and stories of that winter are abundant and interesting also. A little and pathetic incident is narrated of the Stone River battle-field: While Sheridan's division lay along a hill crest in the famous cedar wood he and they held with such courage, the birds, rabbits, and wild turkeys that swarmed in the region became so frightened at the noise of the furious cannonading as to come out of their warrens and down from their trees and coverts, to creep beneath the soldiers' coats and between their legs, where they lay cowering in fear. It is told of an Irish-American volunteer, one Mike Ryan, then of Company K, Twenty-first Illinois, that while marching on the evening before the battle toward Murfreesboro', a grape shot whizzed past him so close as to cut away his haversack with three days' rations in it. Without falling out or changing countenance, Mike marched on, remarking in a loud stage whisper : "Och, be jabers, if the inimy hasn't flanked me and cut off me supplies. What'll I do now, begorra!" It was a winter prolific of song. A couple of verses will show the quality and illustrate the feelings of our soldiers: "When those we love request a sign For words as yet unspoken, Our health, the man that can Bragg tan, The hero of Stone River." Again, we have a ruder refrain, but equally as catching: “I'll sing you a song to suit the times, Called 'bobbin' around,'' bobbin' around,' As they go bobbin' around. Ole Rosey's down in Tennessee, Bobbin' around, bobbin' around; And settin' all the darkies free As he goes bobbin' 'round. The big Secesh no more will be 'Bobbin' around,' 'bobbin' around,' For Rosey's down in Tennessee, General Rosecrans on the 5th of January, 1863, was in Murfreesboro' with Rousseau's and Negley's divisions of Thomas' corps. The five days preceding were full of great activity and severe fighting, as Stanley's cavalry and brigades from Crittenden's corps followed on the rear of the rebel army, who retreated along the Manchester and Shelbyville pikes. The Confederate cavalry was untiring and very bold in its efforts to defend Bragg's rear and retreat. They even made feints of threatening Nashville. Generals Boyle and Wright, commanding in Kentucky, did their utmost to assist Rosecrans by placing expeditions in the field to attack and pursue Morgan and other Confederate raiders. The general government did not content itself with congratulations only, but hurried to Rosecrans all the forces available. On the 10th of January the returns of the Army of the Cumberland showed a force "present and absent," of 117,837 rank and file, including all arms of the service. This roster shows the effective force to have been 60,916. Some fourteen thousand fresh troops were at this time sent forward from Kentucky, under command of Major-General Gordon Granger. They consisted of twenty regiments of infantry, four of cavalry, and four batteries. The divisions and brigades were commanded by such soldiers as Baird, Crook, Judah, Gilbert, and Carter. Orders were issued for the purchase of horses and equipments wherewith to mount infantry, a movement which soon became of great value to the Union cause. On the Confederate side it was seen that the result of the battle of Stone River was disastrous to their operations in the Central South, and that it threatened alike their positions in the Mississippi Valley and East Tennessee. General Joseph E. Johnston was in chief command of the army and territory of Mississippi under Pemberton, against whom Grant, Sherman, and Banks were operating in movements that culminated at last in the capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, also of Alabama, Georgia, and South and East Tennessee; Kirby Smith holding the latter important military section, with Chattanooga and Northern Georgia. Braxton Bragg was in command of the central section, having Polk and Hardee under him as chief field commanders. At Tullahoma, on the 20th of January, 1863, his effective force was reported at 31,215 infantry and artillery, with 8,615 cavalry, under Morgan, Wharton, Wheeler, and Forrest. This made a total force under Bragg direct, of 39,830 rank and file. The same roster reports as present and absent, 67,117 infantry and 14,350 cavalry- a total of 81,468 rank and file. This is a difference of 41,638 between the nominal and effective forces. The Confederates acknowledged a loss in killed, wounded, and missing, of about fifteen thousand. Their own returns show the loss must have been nearer twenty-five thousand, allowing the balance of the 41,000 |