POSITION OF LOOMIS’S BATTERY ON ROUSSEAU’S LINE, LOOKING ACROSS DOCTOR’S CREEK.
Loomis’s battery occupied the highest part of the ridge right flank. The attack upon the position held by Loomis’s above H. P. Bottom’s house, at about the center of Rousseau’s battery was made chiefly from the ridge in the middle dis-line. Lytle’s brigade extended from the battery across the tance of the picture on page 54. The Confederates gained the old Mackville pike to the “burnt barn.” Lytle’s brigade was northeast side of that ridge by following down the dry bed assailed from the direction of Bottom’s house, and from the of Doctor’s Creek under the shelter of its west bank.
SMI
ENGAGEMENT OP STARKWEATHER’S BRIGADE ON THE EXTREME UNION LEFT.
all hazards, I placed my command at once in position facing the enemy’s right.” General McCook, in his report on the part taken by Starkweather’s brigade, says that the 21st Wisconsin was stationed “in a corn-field, lying down, awaiting the approach of the enemy, and when he approached with his overwhelming force this new regiment poured into his ranks a most withering fire.”
General J. C. Starkweather, in his official report, says that the brigade, consisting at the time of the 24th Illinois, 1st and 21st Wisconsin, and 79th Pennsylvania, “arrived on the field of battle at about 1:30 p. m., having marched twelve miles.. . Finding the troops already engaged well on the right, center, and left, and thinking the extreme left position most accessible, and, from appearances, one that should be held at
soon interposed, quiet prevailed, and the two armies bivouacked opposite to each other. General Bragg was on the field the entire day, hut returned to his headquarters that evening at Murfreesboro’. He called his corps commanders together and informed them that his advices convinced him that Roseerans, under cover of the day’s attack, had been massing his troops for a move on our left flank. It was then agreed that Hardee should at once move to the extreme left Cleburne’s division of his corps and the reserve (McCown), and that, next morning, Hardee should take command in that quarter and begin the fight.
At daylight on the 31st (Wednesday), Hardee, with Cleburne’s and McCown’s divisions, attacked McCook’s corps of the Federal army. For a while the enemy were disorganized, many of the men being still engaged in cooking their breakfasts, but they very soon got under arms and in position, and resisted the attack with desperation. At this juncture Polk advanced with Withers’s and Cheatham’s divisions, and after hard fighting McCook’s corps was driven back between three and four miles. Our attack had pivoted the Federals on their center, bending back their line, as one halfshuts a knife-blade. At 12 o’clock we had a large part of the field, with many prisoners, cannon, guns, ammunition, wagons, and the dead and wounded of both armies.
Between 2 and 3 o’clock, however, Roseerans massed artillery on the favorable rising ground to which his line had been forced back. On this ground cedar-trees were so thick that his movements had not been perceived. Our line again advanced. Stewart’s, Chalmers’s, Donelson’s, and
zest incidents of his services under General Taylor in Mexico. On the 26th General Wheeler, commanding the cavalry outposts, sent despatches in quick succession to headquarters reporting a general advance of Rosecrans’s army. Soon all was bustle and activity. General Hardee’s corps at Triune was ordered to Murfreesboro’. Camps were at once broken up, and everything was made ready for active service. On the 27th of December our army was moving.
On Sunday, December 28th, Polk and Hardee met at General Bragg’s headquarters to learn the situation and his plans. Roseerans was advancing from Nashville with his whole army. Wheeler with his cavalry was so disposed at the moment as to protect the flanks, and, when pressed, to fall back toward the main army. Hardee’s corps, consisting of the divisions of Breckinridge and Cleburne, with Jackson’s brigade as a reserve, constituted our right wing, with its right resting on the Lebanon Pike and its left on the Nashville road. Polk’s corps, composed of Withers’s and Cheatham’s divisions, was to take post with its right touching Hardee on the Nashville road, and its left resting on the Salem Pike; McCown’s division was to form the reserve and to occupy our center. Such was the position of the Confederate army on the 29th of December.
On Tuesday, December 30th, Roseerans was in our front, a mile and a half away. At 12 o’clock artillery on both sides was engaged. At 3 o’clock the Federal infantry advanced and attacked our lines, but were repulsed by the Louisiana and Alabama brigade, under Colonel Gibson, commanding in the absence of General Daniel Adams. But night 160
arations with the utmost rapidity for the advance to Murfreesboro’, where General Breckinridge was already posted, and General Forrest was operating with a strong, active cavalry force. Our headquarters were advanced to Tullahoma on the 14th of November, and on the 26th to Murfreesboro’. Notwithstanding long marches and fighting, the condition of the troops was very good; and had they been well clad, the Confederate army would have presented a fine appearance.
On November 24th, 1862, the commands of Lieutenant-General Pemberton at Vicksburg, and that of General Bragg in Tennessee, were placed under General Joseph E. Johnston, and his official headquarters were established at Chattanooga. Immediately thereafter General Johnston visited Murfreesboro’, where he passed some days devoted to a thorough inspection of the army. Our forces numbered somewhat over 40,000 men. General Johnston’s visit was followed during the second week in December by that of President Davis and his aide, General Custis Lee. The President asked Bragg if he did not think he could spare a division of his army to reinforce Pemberton. Bragg assented and despatched a division of 8000 men under Stevenson. This step was contrary to the decided opinion previously expressed to Mr. Davis by General Johnston.
So well satisfied was General Bragg at having extricated his army from its perilous position in Kentucky, that he was not affected by the attacks upon him by the press for the failure of the campaign. He was cheerful, and would frequently join the staff about the camp-fire, and relate with
his fist in the Federal colonel’s face, and promptly said: “I will show you who I am, sir. Cease firing at once ! ” Then, cantering down the line again, he shouted authoritatively to the men, “Cease firing ! ” Then, reaching the cover of a small copse, he spurred his horse and was soon back with his own corps, which he immediately ordered to open fire.
The battle of Perryville, a hard-fought fight against many odds, was merely a favorable incident which decided nothing. Our army, however, was elated and did not dream of a retreat, as we had held the field and bivouacked on it. But the commanding general, full of care, summoned his lieutenant-generals to a council in which both advised retreat.
The next day General Smith’s army was called to Harrodsburg, where a junction of the two forces was effected, and where a position was selected to receive Buell’s attack. This, however, not being made, Bragg was enabled to take measures for an immediate retrograde. Forrest was at once despatched by forced marches to take position at Murfreesboro’, and prepare it for occupancy by the retreating Confederates.
The conduct of the retreat was intrusted to Polk. Our army fell back first to Camp Dick Robinson, whence the retreat began in earnest, a brigade of cavalry leading. .	.	.
About the 31st of October, 1862, General Bragg, having made a short visit to Richmond, there obtained the sanction of the Confederate Government for a movement into middle Tennessee. Returning to Knoxville, General Bragg made prep-